Ian McKellen is royally honest.
The 85-year-old did not hold back with his opinion about the royal family, even when he met Queen Elizabeth II in 2008.
The Lord of the Rings star spoke to the Times of London on Friday and claimed that their meeting was not his thing.
McKellen said: “On the few occasions I met her, she was quite rude.”
“When I received a medal for acting, she said, ‘You’ve been doing this for an awful long time.’ I said, ‘Well, not as long as you,'” he told the outlet. “I got a regal smile for that, but then she said, ‘Does anyone even go to the theater anymore?’ That’s a damn rude thing to give someone a medal for acting. It meant, ‘Does anyone even care about you, because I don’t. Now go!”
The Times pointed out that McKellen reenacted his encounter with the late monarch, pretending to shake the interviewer’s hand but then pushing the reporter away “with considerable force” at the last moment.
“That was her handshake and it meant, ‘Go! Go!'” he joked.
McKellen also believed that the Queen was “quite crazy” towards the end of her life. Her Royal Highness died in 2022 at the age of 96.
Queen Elizabeth II was not the only family member that the actor from “The Good Liar” had strong opinions about.
McKellen said King Charles III is “definitely on Harry’s side,” despite the Duke of Sussex’s estranged relationship with his father and brother, Prince William.
“Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison. They can’t do anything normal,” he said. “Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to?”
“Hats off to anyone who manages to keep their sanity in this world. As the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) managed to do, even though he too was deeply eccentric and, I suspect, deeply unhappy,” McKellen exclaimed. “The same goes for the current king. He survives somehow, but he is clearly damaged.”
Prince Harry, 39, left the royal family with his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and their two children Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, and settled in Montecito, California in 2023.
“As for Harry, he’s probably not smart enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself,” McKellen continued. “Although he had his pick of all the beautiful women in the world. I hope he got the right one.”
The English actor’s latest interview comes a month after he explained that wearing a fat suit protected him after he fell off the stage during a West End performance in June.
McKellen told Saga Magazine that he has not wanted to leave his house since the incident, in which he fractured a vertebra and broke his wrist.
“My shattered vertebra and broken wrist haven’t healed yet,” revealed the “X2” star. “I don’t like going out because I’m afraid someone might bump into me, and I have excruciating pain in my shoulders because my body was shaken so badly. But the fat suit I wore for Falstaff saved my ribs and other joints, so I’m lucky.”
Although McKellen “got away lucky,” he needed time to recover from the trauma of his accident.
“I relived that fall countless times. It was horrible,” he recalled. “I thought it was the end of something. It was very disturbing. The end didn’t mean my death, but it felt like the end of my participation in the play.”
McKellen has always reminded himself that despite his injuries, he is not too old to act.
“It was just a damn accident,” McKellen said. “I didn’t lose consciousness, I wasn’t dizzy, but I couldn’t get back on stage and they went on without me.”
The Critic star was playing John Falstaff in Player Kings, a production of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts One and Two, at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, when he fell during a fight scene.
McKellen tripped over a newspaper and then caught his foot on a chair, causing him to fall into the front row. He “screamed in pain” and “called for help” as he fell off the stage.
McKellen spent three days in hospital following the fall and was forced to leave the show early. He is currently recovering in a neck brace.
The former “Mr. Holmes” star also confirmed that his role will continue to be played by his understudy David Semark.
“Just two weeks after my onstage accident, I want to reassure my many well-wishers that the injuries (to my wrist and neck) are on the mend,” McKellen shared on July 2 via X (formerly Twitter). “My doctors promise a full recovery – but only if I stay home from work for the next few weeks.”
“Any actor will say that it feels somehow humiliating to miss a performance, even if it is not their fault. None of us ever want to disappoint our audience. But Robert Icke’s masterful direction remains unchanged. His production is consistently captivating and his actors, led by Toheeb Jimho and Richard Coyle as Prince Hal and his father, remain at their best. See for yourself!”