X2: X-MEN UNITED | Blog | Magneto's Lair | 8 October 2002

Magneto's Lair

Ian McKellen

8 October 2002

I arrived in Vancouver 14 weeks ago — only my second visit to British Columbia. The first was for an AIDS fund-raiser last century when I had a couple of days looking round. Odd how little I remembered accurately, except the water surrounding the city and the gentleness of the people who live here. Many of them are immigrants from the east coast of Canada which they disparage in the way Los Angelenos are rude about New York. Which needn't concern Brits who are as welcome here as we are in Toronto, although I don't know about Montreal and Quebec.


Prisoner #0001


Ian McKellen/Daniel Harris
Los Angeles, February 2002


Ian McKellen/Michael Dougherty
Los Angeles, February 2002


The last time I was in Canada was to shoot X-Men in and around Toronto, in 1999 immediately before my year's service with Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien. Now I'm back with Bryan Singer and his writer David Hayter who ended up with the screen credit for having written the first movie but who has been nowhere to be seen since we started filming X-Men2. Instead every day diligently attentive on set, we have the writers Michael Dougherty (25) and Daniel Harris (22) — and very nice too. Very friendly to the old boys like Patrick Stewart and me. This is their first big writing assignment and once more Singer is encouraging new talent as he has done on all his movies. It must be pretty overwhelming to them so I don't add to their worries by giving advice, except about their posture, which makes them look as if they are having a dreadful time, cowed and out of alignment. "Stand up straight boys!" is my cry. "Enjoy yourselves while it lasts!"
That's my own attitude to working in the movies, never to take it for granted. I think all the neurosis in Hollywood feeds off an insecurity about job prospects. To feel safe, everyone looks for approval, for status, for wealth but very few can have these desirables consistently throughout a career. A better way for me is just to enjoy it and keep roots in other places that I hope will always be there to work in. When this job is over in November, I am planning something for the theatre and so X-Men2 is my goodbye to the movies for a spell.

I love the jokes on set. — Ian McKellen, October 2002

DVD Release date 25 November 2003

X-MEN (2000)

X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003)

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006)

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

Ian McKellen's Home Page

Acting Shakespeare Ian McKellen DVD