drama, alongside his partner in film, Sir Patrick Stewart, who accompanied McKellan in many
Shakespearean films. The famous actor who starred as Magneto in X-Men, and took a twist as
the magician, Gandalf, in the Lord Of The Rings, was nominated for many awards, and won the
Golden Globe as the Best Supporting Actor for the 1996 film, Rasputin.
Although McKellan excels in his field of work, when he was interviewed on Inside the
Actor's Studio, the actor stated that he had never quite accepted or devised a particular
method. All McKellan possesses are tiny pieces and snip-its of multiple methods.
The technique consists of a simple base line. To create the illusion that you are the
character, you must first imagine what it would be like to be the character. Take Gandalf for
example. When Peter Jackson asked McKellan to play the role of Gandalf, the Golden Globe
winner responded, "You do realize, that I am not actually a wizard?" McKellan had difficulty, but
he eventually conjured up his impression of a wizard, which he then began to impersonate. Step
two of the base line to McKellan's technique is to pretend that you are that character. "How do
you know what to say? It's written in the script. How do you know where to stand? Someone
tells you," McKellan told a student in an acting class. "But you must memorize your lines.
Memorize them as fast as possible. With a script on the stage, anyone can break the illusion."
After ten years of professional acting, McKellan came to a realization. "What you have to
do is to be open to anything. What I mean by that, is that I have to be open to making a fool of
myself." According to McKellan, when you achieve the ability to ignore such mistakes, a truth
about your character, or even a truth about yourself, may be uncovered. That truth will provide
you with a path to follow that will lead to success as an actor.
McKellan stated that good acting should be like a sonata. The pianist performing this piece
of music is so talented, so talented that the audience is unsure whether the pianist is putting the
music into the piano, or taking the music out of the instrument. The actor must be the pianist in
that circumstance. Even the less important actors must concentrate hard, for they must be able
to transfer the concrete images and metaphors to their mind, which then transfers to the body.
Every single element, down to each word, must be equally good to pull together the
performance. Otherwise, the illusion will run thin, and will be nothing but a fragile sheet of glass
that may shatter at any moment. For example, pantomime is fine, in theater, when the actors
are talented enough to convince the audience that they are of the opposite gender. When actors
perform cross-gender, or play the role of someone with a contrastive age, the window pane that
is the illusion can be shattered. In order to develop skill, you have to focus on repertory
theater, a very good place to start as an amateur actor. According to McKellan, any good actor
must be able to focus on acting, and live off of their own work to achieve skill. In addition, every
actor must know what they're good at, and be able to follow that path,
And that is how McKellan achieved success.
I will apply this to my acting during the play, which will benefit me by helping me connect to my character. I've learned that in order to truly understand your character, you must get into the right mentality, and imagine what it would be like as that character. I will base my instincts on what I think is right, as McKellan instructed when he was directing a Shakespearean play. What I think is right, and no one else, because as McKellan says, "The person playing the character knows the part best," although, of course, I still have to take instructions. Overall, McKellan has taught me that I must truly learn my character in order to discover a truth about them that will lead me to success.