Renowned British actor, Ian McKellen, spoke on a range of topics during an animated question and answer session whilst on a visit to Cuba

“I find your country, this country, very gay friendly,” the celebrated actor and activist, Ian McKellen, told a packed room of Cubans and Brits during a talk hosted by the British Embassy in Havana.

Responding to a question on the LGBT movement, he noted in the case of Cuba “I wouldn’t presume to advise anybody in Cuba what to do,” and recalled Fidel’s “conciliatory remarks about the revolutionary past for gay people.”

McKellen was on holiday to the island and five days in, he was eager to share some of his thoughts.

Before enthusiastically responding to questions from the audience, he thrilled the mostly young fans by beginning with an outburst of his notorious “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” (as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings).

Photos courtesy of Yander Zamora YANDER ZAMORA

Over the course of an hour, McKellen had his audience hanging on his every word.

He began by speaking of where he was born, in a “northwest corner of the British Isles,” stating, “I have the temperament of an islander. I like begin surrounded by water. I feel safe somehow.”

His metaphorical use of the “island” ran through a discussion of both the phenomenon of emigration from New Zealand, where he spent time filming, and the UK’s current debate on membership of the European Union, while also alluding to the situation of Cuba itself: “But as you know, islands are dangerous places, there is always the mainland,” before specifying, “You’ve got the States, New Zealand’s got Australia and in the UK we have Europe.”

He continued, “You would think after all these years we would have learnt to live in peace with our neighbours. After all the violence, the deaths and the sacrifices, that we would just become part of the world.”

Eloquent as he is, McKellen made a bit of a Freudian slip, stating “In the UK at the moment the biggest political issue is a referendum in the summer to decide whether the UK will remain a part of the Soviet…” which had the audience roaring with laughter!

The veteran actor and activist made clear his position against the anti-Europe and anti-immigrant sentiment reigning in the UK: “I love Europe. I love difference. I love things that are strange, foreign.”

He later decried the fact that thousands of Syrians and other refugees attempting to enter the UK were help in camps. This theme would return as the big finale of his talk.

He spoke of the joy of travelling, of visiting “Places that can teach you something you would never learn at home on the island.”

While he stressed “All I hope is that as many of you as want to will travel around the world as I am able to do at the moment, because if I hadn’t been able to travel, if I’d stayed stuck on my island, I wouldn’t have discovered this one,” he also pointedly noted that discovering all the wonderful things across the world only made one realise that “the very best things are back home, on your island.”

ON THE OSCARS

Responding to a question regarding recent comments on the Oscars, McKellen stated, “There is injustice in the world wherever you look for it and I know that as a gay man.”

He argued, “The day we look to the Oscars to lead social change, well we can’t wait that long!” noting that “it’s not been very long really that the Oscars have understood that there are some women around…They ignore blacks, they ignore openly gay people and they probably ignore disabled people because most of the voters for the Oscars are over 60 years old and white. And most of them don’t even work any longer in the film industry. They’re not a reliable group of people to put things right.”

ON ACTING

When asked about his film work, McKellen noted that he was “really a theatre, a stage actor,” jokingly adding, “You can tell can’t you? I like nothing better than an audience.”

He explained that film had frightened him, and spoke of the difficulty of acting to a camera rather than a human being. However, he said film was “the great art form of the 20th century,” and recalled a line from Gods and Monsters, a film he said he was very proud of: “Making movies is the most wonderful thing in the world. Working with friends, entertaining people.”

McKellen admitted he knew very little about Cuban theatre and had a “total ignorance” of Cuban cinema, promising to study it on returning home, while adding, “I didn’t even know what you were all going to look like!”

The veteran actor also recalled the importance of his training, in which the trade union played a key role. He explained that thanks to the union, actors were obliged to work in regional theatres for at least a year before they could hit the London stages, which was a real learning curve.

Of course, he stressed, these were the days when every town had its own theatre funded by the local authority and central government.

As the interpreter struggled to get her words out he asked, “You know, a trades union. You have trade unions here don’t you?” and enthusiastically raised his thumb as a sign of support as the audience said yes.

He noted that today he still finds working as “comrades together” in a company the most satisfying way of doing theatre.

He admitted that the popularity of Lord of the Rings “all came as a bit of a surprise to me,” having not even read the books, flippantly adding, “I travel on Gandalf’s back as Gandalf travels on whatever that bird’s called…oh dear…”

ON SHAKESPEARE

“Most of these people here know Shakespeare through translation. Which is a little bit like knowing Van Gogh without all the colours,” McKellen said in response to a question from a British man who said he struggled to understand Shakespearean language. “Don’t read Shakespeare, go and be part of an audience…just listen to the words,” he advised.

To conclude, McKellen said he had “a little present” for those gathered.

He recalled that 2016 marks 400 years since the Bard’s death and stressed “Most of his plays go on being very relevant to our lives today.”

Before thrilling the audience by enacting, on the spot, a moving speech by Shakespeare from Sir Thomas Moore, he highlighted the relevance of the text, written in the mid-16th century.

The text speaks of a riot in central London where, “Guess what, all those years ago, they’re complaining about the foreigners, they’re complaining about the immigrants in London,” whom they refer to as “strangers”. In going out to placate the crowd, Thomas Moore asks them, “Imagine if you were a stranger, where would you go?”

The performance, only serving to confirm his brilliance as a true Shakespearean actor, was the perfect gift to all those who had packed into the Havana venue to catch a glimpse of him.