Sir Ian McKellen plays Gandalf one more time for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

SIR Ian McKellen, in a question-and-answer session, on playing Gandalf for the sixth and final time in the The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

NEALA Johnson goes one-on-one with Sir Ian McKellen, who dons the grey hat to play Gandalf for the sixth and final time in the The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

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Playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings was a huge moment even in the context of your long career. Has returning for The Hobbit trilogy felt just as big and important?

I don’t think anything can beat The Fellowship of the Ring, which was the first of the three films in which Gandalf organises that fellowship — he’s central to it all, it’s on his head if it doesn’t work. In The Hobbit he facilitates, that’s true, but it’s not his idea, it’s the dwarfs’. But what I like about The Hobbit films as opposed to the short novel is, at those points at which Gandalf leaves the dwarfs to get on with it, we find out where he goes. So the sense is that this story will impact on other things in Middle-earth, linking it to The Lord of the Rings where things get really desperate ... We’re not there yet, but Gandalf can sniff it in the air.

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Well staffed ... Gandalf faces new adversaries in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Picture: Roadshow Warner films

Where does Gandalf go in the final film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies?

There are troubling things afoot. It leads not just Gandalf but his colleague Radagast (played by Sylvester McCoy) to work out what is happening. You’re seeing a wizard at work: he’s a bit of a detective, bit of a commander, bit of an organiser, bit of a thinker, bit of a politician. So it’s in that spirit that I go to Dol Guldur. Some terrible things happen there, which I shouldn’t talk about.

What will you miss about Gandalf?

I won’t miss him. He’ll be around. Wherever I go, Gandalf’s with me because people want to say hello to him, as it were. No, no, Gandalf won’t be going. (Long pause) What will I not miss about him? Well ...

Battle mode ... Gandalf wields both a sword and his staff in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. Picture: Roadshow Warner films

We’ve learnt a lot about him over the course of six films. What side of Gandalf would you have liked to have shown us but couldn’t?

I’d like to see Gandalf off duty more: coping with life, sleeping under the hedge ... What does he eat? Peter (Jackson) rather agreed with me, but there’s only so much room in these films. I wanted to know why he wears that hat. I thought it was a magic hat that he kept everything in: his toothbrush, his pyjamas, his books. ‘Don’t be so silly, Ian,’ was the response (laughs).

How have you enjoyed bouncing off Martin Freeman as Bilbo?

An absolute treat. Some people think, ‘When I become an actor I want to be like Martin Freeman’. I feel a bit like that.

The fellowship endures ... Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom at the world premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle OF The Five Armies in London. Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

The stories of “The Fellowship” bonding on The Lord of the Rings are legendary. Has there been a similar spirit with the actors making The Hobbit?

No, I think that reflected the age of the actors concerned. Some of them were in their first big jobs; all of them knew this was perhaps the most important film they’d ever make in their career. They were in New Zealand for 18 months non-stop and getting a lot of attention. So for them, it wasn’t any old job. Well, now, if you talk to some of the dwarfs on The Hobbit, this is a job, it’s not fun and games. So it’s not that there isn’t bonding — everyone gets on terribly well — but I don’t think there’ll be any tattoos.

When you signed on to The Lord of the Rings, was it just another job for you?

No, but I hadn’t realised what a wonderful job it would be. I was a bit nervous about living in NZ, so far away from home — you couldn’t be further away, really, from England. And one couldn’t know what impact the films would have.

These films are Hobbit-forming (ouch) ... Left to right: Orlando Bloom, director Peter Jackson, Evangeline Lilly, Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen at the premiere. Picture: Joel Ryan/Invision/AP

At 75, you’re still taking a lot of risks. Your sitcom Vicious, with Derek Jacobi, was naughty but hilarious.

That’s not what my friends tell me. One friend said, ‘You’ve set back British television 50 years’ (laughs). Well, each to his own. I’ve never really liked playing a part I knew I’d already played. One of the real problems of coming back to do Gandalf was, I’d done it. How could I do something new? I couldn’t. I wasn’t required to. I had to do more of the same. Variety suits me. Other people — supremely successful and talented movie stars — discover what they can do and go on doing it and getting better and better. But on the whole they’re playing the same tune many different ways. I’d rather try out a few different instruments.

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES IS SCREENING NOW

Originally published as Sir Ian McKellen plays Gandalf one more time for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies