are you having a laugh? is he having a laugh?
...Wow. The Emmy noms are really shitty. As usual.
However.
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series.
Extras • HBO • BBC and HBO Entertainment
Sir Ian, Sir Ian McKellen as Himself
"How do I act so well? What I do is I ...pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play. ...You're confused. Perfectly simple, case in point. Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson comes to New Zealand, says to me, Sir Ian, I want you to be Gandalf the wizard. And I said to him, you are aware that I am not really a wizard. And he said yes I am aware of that, what I want you to do is to use your acting skills to portray the wizard. For the duration of the film. So I said okay, and then I said to myself, Mmmm, how will I do that? And this is what I did. I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard and then I pretended and acted in that way on the day. And how did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in the script. How did I know where to stand? People told me. If you were to draw a graph of my process, of my method, it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, action, WIZARD, YOU SHALL NOT PASS, cut! Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian. You see? Now you, would be pretending to be John in this play, and, how would you know what to say, well, the words would be in the script. And you would learn the words, you would not have the script on the night. And that goes for everybody, there will be no scripts on the night! You will learn the words! You will speak them, as if you were saying them for the first time. ...Because if you did have the script, it would break the illusion and the whole thing is illusion, d'you see, you are not really John, you are pretending, and that, is acting."
If he doesn't win, there is NO BEAUTY, FREEDOM, TRUTH OR LOVE in this world.
[...And yes, I transcribed that while watching the episode. I have it saved in a DOC so I can go and look at it whenever I'm feeling glum.]
However.
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series.
Extras • HBO • BBC and HBO Entertainment
Sir Ian, Sir Ian McKellen as Himself
"How do I act so well? What I do is I ...pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play. ...You're confused. Perfectly simple, case in point. Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson comes to New Zealand, says to me, Sir Ian, I want you to be Gandalf the wizard. And I said to him, you are aware that I am not really a wizard. And he said yes I am aware of that, what I want you to do is to use your acting skills to portray the wizard. For the duration of the film. So I said okay, and then I said to myself, Mmmm, how will I do that? And this is what I did. I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard and then I pretended and acted in that way on the day. And how did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in the script. How did I know where to stand? People told me. If you were to draw a graph of my process, of my method, it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, action, WIZARD, YOU SHALL NOT PASS, cut! Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian. You see? Now you, would be pretending to be John in this play, and, how would you know what to say, well, the words would be in the script. And you would learn the words, you would not have the script on the night. And that goes for everybody, there will be no scripts on the night! You will learn the words! You will speak them, as if you were saying them for the first time. ...Because if you did have the script, it would break the illusion and the whole thing is illusion, d'you see, you are not really John, you are pretending, and that, is acting."
If he doesn't win, there is NO BEAUTY, FREEDOM, TRUTH OR LOVE in this world.
[...And yes, I transcribed that while watching the episode. I have it saved in a DOC so I can go and look at it whenever I'm feeling glum.]