LORD OF THE RINGS - MCKELLEN FEARED KING LEAR WOULD TURN HIM MAD

MCKELLEN FEARED KING LEAR WOULD TURN HIM MAD

LORD OF THE RINGS star SIR IAN MCKELLEN fought against playing tragic SHAKESPEARE character KING LEAR onstage - because he feared the role would make him mad. The 68-year-old thespian has received rave reviews for his latest Royal Shakespeare Company role, but admits he worried the maddening part would be too much for him. He says, "It was one of those parts that I didn't want to play... I'd seen, at close quarters, two Lears and what it cost them (actors). You have to go full pelt at it, 100 per cent, with every part of your make-up, at certain points of the evening. "I worried for the health, if not the sanity, of the two actors that I was very close to... and I began to think, 'Was it really worth (it),' to tell a story that is well known and which other actors have succeeded in."