Sir Ian McKellen has shared a candid and gently humorous reflection on ageing, mortality and continuing to work at 86, admitting that recent health scares have changed how he views life, though not his desire to keep going.
In an interview with The Times, the veteran actor spoke openly about his outlook following a serious fall in June 2024, when he tumbled off the stage during a London theatre performance and was hospitalised with a fractured wrist and a chipped vertebra.
Looking back on the experience, McKellen said: “I have accepted that I’m not immortal. Yet I still function.”
The The Lord of the Rings star explained that his thoughts about mortality now come as much from watching others as from his own physical changes.
“Really the inevitability of mortality comes not just from what you are feeling about yourself, but the simple fact that your friends die — all the time,” he said.
“When you are young, death is astonishing, a fascinating thing, but it’s a feature of getting older. Death becomes ever present.”
After spending three days in hospital, McKellen did not return to his role in the stage production Player Kings and later revealed he had been dealing with what he described as “agonising pain”.
On medical advice, he also skipped the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of his upcoming film The Christophers, explaining in a pre-recorded message that it was “better safe than sorry”.
Now, however, McKellen is back at work in a different way.
He is currently appearing in An Ark at New York City’s The Shed, an experimental production that uses virtual reality technology.
Although he and his fellow actors are not physically present in the room, audiences see them through VR headsets.
McKellen said the format felt like a sensible step after his accident.
“I thought that was the safest way of getting back to work,” he told The Times, joking that filming allows for pauses that live theatre does not. “You can’t stop live theatre.”
Even so, he has since returned to the stage on a limited basis and said the experience reassured him.
He noted with relief that he still enjoys performing, does not find it unsettling, and can remember his lines. “Considering my age, all is well,” he said.
Reflecting on the deaths of close friends, McKellen said he has found some comfort in how people approach the end of life.
“Regrets? I’ve had a few,” he admitted.
“It’s never satisfactory when someone dies, but I take comfort that when the people I’ve been close to are dying, they seem ready, even welcoming of it.”
Despite his reflections, McKellen made it clear he is not slowing down. “I feel that I’ve still got more to do,” he said.
His upcoming projects include The Christophers, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, which arrives in cinemas on 10 April, as well as Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, where he stars opposite Johnny Depp, due in November.
He is also set to reprise his role as Magneto in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release in December.
For McKellen, acknowledging mortality has not dimmed his enthusiasm, if anything, it seems to have sharpened his appreciation for still being able to do what he loves.
