Sir Ian McKellen reveals inspiration behind his Gandalf portrayal in ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Sir Ian McKellen has revealed who inspired his portrayal of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, McKellen was asked about a previous interview where he said he based Gandalf’s voice and mannerisms on LOTR writer J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

Confirming his previous statement, he said: “We found a recording of Tolkien reading a bit of The Hobbit. It was very useful to hear the smoky voice — very English, rather professorial. Well, he was a university teacher!”

He continued: “It was encouraging to me because he was not acting it particularly well, but the idea of it being heard out loud appealed to him, because that’s what he was doing. It’s not that big of an extension from the audio to making a movie, and of course he sold the Lord of the Rings film rights. So unlike some of his family, he was very happy to think of them as films, although he never saw our version, of course.”

Regarding Gandalf’s fame after the trilogy, he said: “I was just doing my job and suddenly everybody knew about it. That level of attention was unusual and I’m very lucky. I’m a rather shy person, but I can go into a room of strangers these days and there’s bound to be at least one person who wants to have a word with Gandalf.”

Following the LOTR trilogy, The Critic star McKellen reprised his role as Gandalf in The Hobbit trilogy. Author Tolkien however never got to watch the film adaptations as he passed away in 1973.