SIR IAN ROILED BY ROYAL
Queen ‘quite rude’
Sir Ian McKellen is royally honest.
McKellen, 85, didn’t hold back regarding his opinions on the royal family, including when he met Queen Elizabeth II in 2008.
The “Lord of the Rings” star (inset) told the Times of London on Friday that “on the few occasions I met her she was quite rude.”
“When I received a medal for acting, she said, ‘You’ve been doing this for an awfully long time.’ I said, ‘Well, not as long as you,’ ” he said. “I got a royal smile for that, but then she said, ‘Does anyone still actually go to the theater?’ That’s bloody rude when you’re giving someone a medal for acting. It meant, ‘Does anyone care a f--k about you because I don’t. Now off you go!’ ”
McKellen acted out his encounter with the late monarch, pretending to shake the interviewer’s hand but shoving the reporter away with “some force” at the last minute.
“That was her handshake and it meant, ‘Go! Go!’ ” he quipped.
‘Clearly damaged’
McKellen also believed that the queen was “quite mad” toward the end of her life. She passed away at age 96 in 2022.
He also shared that he is “most definitely on Harry’s side” amid the Duke of Sussex’s estranged relationship with his father, King Charles, and brother, Prince William.
“Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison. They can’t do anything normal,” he said. “Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to?
“Hats off to anyone who manages to stay sane in that world. Like the Duke of Edinburgh [Prince Philip] managed to do, although even he was deeply, deeply eccentric and I suspect, deeply unhappy,” McKellen added. “Same with the present king. He sort of survives, but he is clearly damaged.”
Prince Harry, 39, left the royal family with his wife, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, and their two kids, Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, and settled in Montecito, Calif., in 2023.
“As for Harry, he’s probably not bright enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself,” McKellen said.
“Mind you, he had the pick of all the pretty women in the world. I hope he’s got the right one.”
The interview comes a month after he revealed that wearing a fat suit protected him when he fell off the stage during a West End performance in June.
McKellen told Saga Magazine that since spending three days in the hospital, he hasn’t wanted to leave his house.
“My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet healed,” he said.
“I avoid going out because I’m nervous someone might bump into me, and I’ve been dealing with agonizing pain in my shoulders due to the jolt my body took. But the fat suit I wore for Falstaff saved my ribs and other joints, so I consider myself lucky.”
He was portraying John Falstaff in “Player Kings,” a production of William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Parts One and Two,” at the Noel Coward Theatre when he fell.
Despite McKellen’s “lucky escape,” he had to take time to recover from the trauma of his accident.
“I’ve relived that fall countless times. It was horrible,” he recalled. “I thought it was the end of something. It was very upsetting. The end didn’t mean my death, but it felt like the end of my participation in the play.”