Actor Christopher Plummer hates what fellow British thespian Sir Ian Mckellen did with The Lord Of The Rings wizard Gandalf The Grey onscreen – because he played the part better than The Sound of Music star would have. Plummer still has regrets about turning the role down, but admits McKellen found a warmth in the character he wouldn’t have.
The veteran says, “I thought maybe three or four years (shooting the films) in New Zealand… I thought, ‘There are other countries I’d like to visit before I croak (die)’… But it was a marvellous part. I loved The Lord of the Rings; I grew up on it, actually. It’s a great, great, great book and it became a great film.
“And then Ian… was absolutely marvellous in it and he couldn’t have been warmer, which I might not have brought to it (character); I might have been a little cold and imperious.”
And Plummer jokes he’ll forever despise his peer for being good: “I hate the son of a b**ch.”
Christopher Plummer: ‘I hate what Sir Ian McKellen did to Gandalf’
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