When you hear Sir Ian say “Run, you fools!”, you’re actually hearing JRR Tolkien channeled through the actor’s vocal cords.
Years go by and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy that Peter Jackson created 23 years ago, in addition to continuing to be exemplary in many aspects, continues to make our hair stand on end at many moments. Much of this is to blame for the combination of the epic inherent in JRR Tolkien’s work, the director’s excellent hand in embracing spectacularity and, of course, a very dedicated cast brimming with established stars and, at that time, emerging ones.
The lord of imitations
Today we are going to leave Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen and company aside to focus on one of the veterans of the show and the peculiar way in which he prepared his character. This is none other than Sir Ian McKellen, who gave life to the unforgettable Istari Gandalf the Gray —later Gandalf the White—modulating his voice and accent based on those of a person closely linked to Middle Earth.
As revealed by Peter Jackson himself in the extras of the domestic edition of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ -via Businessinsider-, “Ian based his portrayal of Gandalf on Tolkien. He was imitating Tolkien”. The director delivered a good number of audio and video material from the South African author which McKellen used, along with his nightly readings of the trilogy, to shape his performance.
This is how he explained his transformation:
“I was looking at myself in the mirror like Gandalf, adjusting the slope of my shoulders. And feeling my voice deepen, becoming huskier and a little more precise than perhaps my own.”
And so, inspired by the voice of someone he never met—not like Christopher Lee, who did meet the writer, whom he admired—Ian McKellen breathed life into Tolkien’s text and warmed our hearts singing pearls like “I won’t say don’t cry, because not all tears are bitter.”
In Espinof:
