Ian McKellen performs pro-immigrant Shakespeare monologue on Colbert
Ian McKellen performed a 400-year-old pro-immigrant Shakespeare monologue on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, wielding 16th-century words to protest ICE. The English actor, 86, told Colbert there is ‘‘nothing I enjoy more than acting... not so much in the movies, but in the theater.’’ He’ll appear as Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday this December, a role he originated in 2000’s X-Men, and expects to don Gandalf’s grey robes again for The Hunt for Gollum, currently due out in 2027.
McKellen performed a speech from Sir Thomas More, a play whose authorship is debated but to which Shakespeare is widely thought to have contributed. The monologue has More responding to riots as people reject a wave of immigrants arriving in London — a passage the actor framed as resonant with contemporary enforcement agents in the streets of Minneapolis.
When the lights go down, Colbert’s audience completely locks in, and McKellen delivers.
United States, Minneapolis