Ian McKellen says writer told him The Critic role was 'best he's ever written'
McKellen plays an erudite but rather cantankerous London theatre critic in the new melodrama.
Sir Ian McKellen is back on the big screen this week in new melodrama The Critic – which sees him play an erudite but rather cantankerous London theatre critic who embarks on a bitter revenge mission involving blackmail.
The role seems like one that the legendary actor had a great deal of fun with – especially when it comes to delivering some brilliantly catty remarks – and so when RadioTimes.com caught up with him on the red carpet at the film's European premiere in London, we asked him all about his time filming the project.
"Patrick Marber, who wrote it, told me it was a very good part," McKellen said of his first involvement. "He said it was the best part he'd ever written. So I was inclined to want to agree with him.
"And when I started going through it I got so caught up with the plot, which seemed to me a tidge unlikely, a bit melodramatic, but it's set in the melodramatic decade, the 1930s, people behaved in an extreme manner in politics and everywhere else."
He added: "And then I began to see a way into why he behaves as he does. Being a gay man, he's been abused by the laws of the land, and when he needs to take revenge on somebody, he turns into a bully himself. It's a highly realised characterisation [and] great fun to play!"
The supporting cast for the film also includes a number of big names, with meaty roles for the likes of Gemma Arterton, Lesley Manville and Mark Strong, the latter of whom was delighted to act opposite McKellen more than three decades on from a previous collaboration.
"He's a legend," said Strong – who plays a newspaper owner who takes issue with McKellen's character's extremely harsh reviewing style in the film.
"I'd worked with him before in a play, when he did Richard III at the National Theatre in 1990, so 30 years ago. So it was easy... this business is such that it doesn't matter how long has gone by since you last worked with somebody, when you see them again you're family."
He added: "But acting with him... he is so mercurial. You can be looking at him one minute, his face is doing a certain thing, you look away for a second, come back and he's almost a different person. He's really... inspirational, is the word."
Read more:
- Kate Winslet on what question she'd like to have asked Lee Miller
- Jared Harris on Rewakening, Mad Men memories and how independent cinema has changed
The Critic is now showing in UK cinemas.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
