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Ian McKellen, the classically trained actor best known for his roles in the fantasy-adventure movies Last Action Hero and The Da Vinci Code, was recently mistaken for a bum. Which makes sense. Because of how a lot of times he kind of looks like a bum. From the Telegraph UK:
The 70-year-old actor is rehearsing Waiting For Godot in Melbourne, Australia, and was sitting in his tramp costume having a break when a passer-by gave him an Australian dollar.
He said: “During the dress rehearsal of Godot, I crouched by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet (and) seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passer-by said, ‘Need some help, brother?’ and put a dollar in my hat.”
Acting! Desmond? But seriously, this makes sense. I don’t even know why this is a news story. The only thing that is surprising about it is that it hasn’t happened before. Look at him:
I’m just saying, if the town threw a Bum Look-Alike Contest, Ian McKellen would definitely place.
Oh, and shame on the newspaper for RECREATING the magical moment when Ian McKellen was mistaken for a bum. That photo is as annoying as it is staged. We know what bums look like? And we know what putting money in hats looks like? We could definitely have just used a publicity photo and our magical imaginations on that one. A rare miss, Telegraph UK Photo Editor. (Thanks for the tip, Westley.)
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Case in point: Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson comes to me in New Zealand and said 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 how did I know what to say? It was in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me.
Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, HOBO, Sir Ian, Sir Ian…
One does not simply pan-handle their way into Mordor…
A hobo is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He hops a freight train precisely when he means to.
Shit, you mean the guy in the alley behind my office isn’t Ian McKellen? That explains why he keeps asking for money when I try to get him to pose for pictures. But he does say “You shall not pass!” a lot.
Extras does really imitate life.
No hobo.
A round of LOLtinis for my associate, whoa!
LOLS!!!!!!
Just as Lil’ Wayne once said: “Got money out the ass, no hobo but I’m rich.”
This same exact thing happened to a good friend of mine when he was playing a bum in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. If only Telegraph UK had been there!
His scene was later cut.
It’s kind of strange to hear that any scene was simply not good enough for Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
Well this isn’t European Gigolo we are talking about here. That’s quality family entertainment!
I hope he fired the Australian dollar through a dude’s head with his Magneto powers.
I was going to make that joke. You beat me to it.
I’m pretty sure I saw him on the F train last week with his shopping cart lashed to the center pole.
Lash: so great a word, and yet how infrequent do we have need of the nautical term.
I use it all the time. I’m not a sailor but I am dressed as one.
Do you YMCA much?
Allow me to seize this opportunity to evangelize on behalf of my favorite book of the past 10 years. It’s opening line: “I want you at the end of your rope, lashed to the mast of my dreams.” The Sea Came In At Midnight, by Steve Erickson.
Newsweek hates it when gay actors play hobos.
I was so disappointed when I found out that Ian McKellan was gay. Not because there’s anything wrong with being gay, but because it was just another complicating thing about my crush on him.
I don’t care! HE’S SO ROMANTIC.
This is exactly how I felt, which is even weirder because I am a straight man.
I did something similar, I must admit. When he was in my town playing King Lear, I kept mistaking him for a real king and pledging my fealty.
It was worse for me, I ran into Helena Bonham Carter and asked her why she didn’t jump into a lake and she didn’t believe me that I was talking about Hamlet
Bum Fights would be so much more interesting if one of the bums had a mutated genetic code that gave him complete control over metal.
I think I would be more impressed by a bum who had a mutated genetic code that gave him complete control over his bowels.
Bum fights? No commento.
Bum Fights would be so much more interesting if all the bums were actually Hollywood’s hottest stars in costumes but mistaken for real bums.
Tom Cruise would do it, if there’s no gay people around*.
*Sorry Sir Ian!
Man, don’t you hate it when you spend all your money on LOLtinis and then don’t have any left to buy Notsewfast a round of High Fives?
But he’s just a baby!
Yea, sure, whatever. He was a fox in his day. You should remember this vividly, Gabe, as the younger women you courted would have surely had Ian McKellen posters on their walls in the late 50s.
In England they call a good looking bloke a lorry
Oh man, now I want to see Ben Whishaw play young Sir Ian McKellan so badly.
All I can say is, DAMN.
Now that is a fine male specimen [yuck].
Didn’t this happen to Bob Dylan recently? Old, disheveled, talented men being mistaken for hobos are so hot right now. So hot.
Yes it happened to Bob Dylan, and also Al Pacino recently
To add a bit more detail, Bob was in Long Branch, NJ looking for the house in which Springsteen wrote Born to Run for “inspiration.” When the cops came he told them he was Bob Dylan…but they didn’t believe him.
#NewJerseygum
The report I read said that they didn’t know who Bob Dylan was. Two different officers.
“I’m Bob Dylan, I’m a musician.”
“Whatever, Rob Billums, we’re still gonna have to ask you to leave.”
He just wants his kids back.
Easy, Tom Jane.
Awesome, I am now like 1 for 5 on tips.
My favorite part was how he said he kept the coin as a good luck charm. B/c a well-established and respected actor of both film and stage needs the dollar someone gave him on the street by accident to remind him that he is not, indeed, a bum.
To be fair, it was an Australian dollar. Which I understand is called a “lorry” and worth approximately four British pence.
I have seen Last Action Hero about half a dozen times, and I honestly had no idea he was in it. Although granted, I was about 11 at the time, and it was all in one weekend, but I still can’t place him.
Need Money for Mana.
In my tramping days I once flipped a rattler on the Wabash Express with a fellow traveler who turned out to be a real sagebrush philosopher, very chatty. He even claimed to have done a jolt down under with Sir Ian McKellen. I figured him for a bull artist but now I know he was on the up-and-up.
You mean a _jaunt_, or did they share a somewhat-caffeinated soft drink?
All this article really tells me is that Australians are really nice people.