Empire UK

128 TV

Hopkins and

McKellen: it’s like

Heat with tank tops.

KNIGHT

FEVER

SIRS IAN McKELLEN

AND ANTHONY HOPKINS

TOGETHER AT LAST...

WORDSNICK DE SEMLYEN

HE DRESSER

based on Ronald

Harwood’s playabout

a troupe of thespians

putting on King Lear

during the Blitz is a

true event. The BBC

film sees Anthony Hopkins return to the

stage (albeit in televised form) after a

20-year hiatus. And it pits for the first

time ever Hopkins (as tyrannical actor

Sir) against fellow titan Ian McKellen

(as lonely personal dresser Norman). To

mark the occasionEmpirespoke to the

duo about theatre life Gary Oldman’s

impressions and salty food pastes...

You both studied at the National

Theatre in the 1960s but never met...

Anthony Hopkins:That’s right. Fifty

years that’s how long we go back.

Ian McKellen:We may have overlapped

by a day or two. Although we’ve bumped

into each other a few times over the

years we were more or less strangers

before The Dresser. Even so I’ve always

been very impressed by the idea of

Anthony Hopkins. I first saw him on

stage in 1961 or 1962. I was working in

Coventry in the civil theatre and he was

in Leicester. I went to see a friend in a

play there She Stoops To Conquer and

there he was in the cast. I thought “Ooh

hecan act.”

Hopkins:We met briefly at a pub

afterwards two young actors. Since

then I’ve seen many of his performances.

Coriolanus at the National The Critic

The Real Inspector Hound The Duchess

Of Malfi Hamlet in 1970 as Iago one

Saturday night in 1989. Ian’s always

amused that I remember the dates.

McKellen:I’m considering writing

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

a memoir but I fi nd it harder to dredge

that stuff up. Though in California not

many people know what he’s talking

about when he mentions the Old Vic

or Laurence Olivier!

Anthony you once said “I’m not good

at going on stage night after night

and on wet Wednesday afternoons.”

Is that why you quit the theatre?

Hopkins: I enjoy looking back at those

days not being in them because the ’60s

was not my favourite decade. It’s a kind

of dark nostalgia recalling the loneliness

of that life. The canteen on Waterloo

Road with stale coff ee and jolly dressers

who’d say “Hello! Would you like me to

open a bottle of champagne?” “No how

about an open razor?” My silly jokes!

McKellen: I’m not like that. I like the

challenge of a matinée. And having sat in

the audience myself on a wet Wednesday

afternoon I want the actors to be on fi ne

form. I even miss cleaning my own wig

— that’s a lost art.

Hopkins: It was instant recall being back

in the theatre for The Dresser. The smell

of Leichner greasepaint sticks 5 and 9...

I remember sticking on awful beards

hoping they wouldn’t fall off on stage.

But looking back I’m glad I did it all.

The only role you’ve both gone for

was Tom Cruise’s boss Swanbeck

in Mission: Impossible 2...

Hopkins: I didn’t know that!

McKellen: I was off ered it. But

they ’d only show me the scenes

I was in. On those grounds

alone I turned it down.

Had I done it it would have

meant I couldn’t do X-Men

or The Lord Of The Rings.

Hopkins: That was a good

move on Ian’s part. I was

only on Mission: Impossible

for a few days. I remember

we had to do a lot of retakes

because things were out of

focus. So I stayed in Australia

for fi ve more days and got a bit

more cash. Tom was nice to

work with but I had no idea

what it was about. Still don’t.

McKellen: Never saw it.

Do you covet any of each

other’s roles?

McKellen: I’d like to have had a crack at

Pravda the play about a newspaperman

based on Rupert Murdoch. But Anthony

could not have been bettered. He can

keep the cannibal. I’m not interested.

Hopkins: Gandalf is a great role but that

beard looked like a hassle. I loved Ian’s