Ian McKellen interview: Player Kings (The Telegraph)

The actor on the lasting impact of his mother’s early death – and his ‘ridiculous’ decision to play Shakespeare’s hardest role at 84

When Gregory Doran asked Ian McKellen to play Falstaff for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2014 production of Henry IV, he refused. “I told Greg the role was too difficult,” McKellen says, “and I wasn’t sure whether putting on a fat suit would make me feel fat enough on the inside”.