Acting legend Ian McKellen has addressed his potential retirement.
He has had a TV, film and theatre career to make any actor envious. The star has performed on West End and Broadway stages, cited Shakespeare hundreds, if not thousands, of times professionally, and appeared in some of the biggest and most popular films and TV shows in modern history. But at 84, will he be retiring any time soon?
Apparently not. McKellen has opened up to Variety about his career and how he plans to keep going for as long as his "knees" will let him.
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On the question of retiring, he said: "Retire to do what?
"I've never been out of work, but I'm aware that any minute now something could happen to me which could prevent me from ever working again."
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McKellen continued: "But while the knees hold up and the memory remains intact, why shouldn't I carry on? I really feel I'm quite good at this acting thing now."
The star revealed his plans to the publication while talking about his new film The Critic, where he stars alongside Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes and Lesley Manville.
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On what attracts him to a project, he added: "Each play or movie stands by itself for me.
"And every time I begin with this terror of just 'Here we go again, making the same mistakes.'"
McKellen is currently appearing in the play Frank and Percy at The Other Palace Theatre in London .
He is performing alongside multi Olivier Award winning actor Roger Allam in the show, which is directed by Sean Mathias.
Tickets are available on The Other Palace website, priced from £25.50.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Jamie is an entertainment journalist and presenter passionate about TV, film and theatre. He’s often found on red carpets interviewing celebrities at star-studded events.
A lover of Marvel and binge-worthy TV, Jamie enjoys writing about superheroes, sci-fi, and blockbusters.
As well as working for Digital Spy, he has bylines with The Stage, The Express, OK! Magazine, The Sun, Entertainment Daily and BroadwayWorld. As a presenter, he’s hosted to thousands at Manchester Arena for Monster Jam and covered events such as the BAFTA TV Awards and Olivier Awards. Coming from a performance background, Jamie has previously appeared in projects such as Bridgerton, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Horrible Histories: Rotten Romans.
