Sir Ian McKellen: ‘military roles are my revenge on the warmongers’

Sir Ian McKellen says some of his most famous roles have been inspired by wanting to get revenge on people who “start wars, perpetuate them and glory in them”.

The actor, who is about to appear in the West End with Sir Patrick Stewart in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, said he had “probably played even more military men” than his co-star.

He told ES Magazine: “Gandalf is a soldier, Magneto is a soldier, Richard III, Coriolanus, Macbeth. And I think the reason is because I want my revenge on them all.

"The people who start wars, perpetuate them and glory in them. ‘God save our gracious Queen, send her victorious?’ I’m sorry. What does that mean?

“If that’s what masculinity is then I don’t want any part of it at all. I think gay men are more masculine than straight men. Because, guess what? They love other men!”

Sir Patrick became a supporter of the charity Combat Stress after appearing on family history show Who Do You Think You Are? and discovering that his Second World War veteran father — who he describes as an “angry, disappointed and at times violent man” — suffered from post- traumatic stress disorder.

He said the discovery helped make sense of a “chaotic” childhood, adding: “It released me from so much anger.”

The two men play a pair of writers whose late-night drinking session takes a sinister turn in No Man’s Land, which opens at Wyndham’s Theatre next month after a UK tour and a run in New York, and follows their success sharing a stage in Waiting For Godot.

The actors, who both grew up in the North, said they disagreed with the Brexit vote.

Sir Ian added: “Everything that’s good about being British is related to Europe.” Sir Patrick is considering applying for US citizenship in order to have his say on its politics.

He said: “There are fundamental things still to be done for the equality of race in the United States. It is still essentially a racist country.”