Famke Janssen Presents to Sir Ian McKellen

to present the Master of the Craft Award to Ian McKellan is one of his co-stars from X-Men The Last Stand. She also kept us glued to our TVs on Nip Tuck. Not literally. Please welcome the captivating Famke Janssen. Richard III, X2, the two Towers, five decades, two Oscar nominations, over 35 films, 40 international awards. There are a lot of impressive numbers associated with the career of Ian McKellan. But they really don't tell the whole story. For here is an actor who's never done anything by the numbers. As a boy growing up in the industrial North of England, the imagination-driven worlds of movies and theater must have seemed impossibly far away.

But Ian McKellan persevered to go explore and eventually conquer those worlds. After graduating from Cambridge University and serving an apprenticeship with regional theater companies, Ian soon established himself as one of the leading stage actors of his generation in plays like Amadeus, Richard II, and Edward II. But it's on film where the world truly fell in love with Ian McKellan. Whether he's taking us back to old Hollywood as director James Wale in Gods and Monsters, terrorizing us in Apt Pupil, or giving a fresh twist to Shakespeare with Richard III, Ian imbues his characters with gravity, grit, mischief, and humanity. He is riveting.

With his more recent roles as Magneto in the X-Men movies and Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ian's won over a whole new generation of fans. Going to Comic-Con with this man is like visiting Graceland with Elvis. It gives me great pleasure to present the Master of the Craft Award to the incomparable Ian McKellan. Oh, how lovely. Thank you very much to to Famke for those uh kind kind remarks. And uh Jean Grey lives, doesn't she? Yes. We can say that much about the next movie. Oh, uh well, the end of a of a of a lovely evening, although there's a party to come, isn't there, gather. But uh so you don't want much from me, but it's an opportunity, isn't it?

Just to say a couple of things uh in gratitude. Because um I am a foreigner here and although I've been coming to work in in in your country for uh many years, I never fail to be struck by the welcome uh that you you give to outsiders who are potentially, of course, taking your jobs from you. And I think that's extremely gracious and and friendly. And uh whatever wrap Hollywood gets outside from the from the press who ought to know better. The the people working here uh against the most difficult odds, uh making movies uh is is one of the most difficult things you can apply your life to doing.

But when you bring it off, my goodness, you deserve all the awards and and all the praise and all the money that you get because I know better than most that it is not easy. And in the middle of all that to welcome people from outside uh into the bosom of your family uh as you've done tonight with me, uh is is a wonderful thing and thank you. And uh with regard to to to age, I'm being master of craft. Uh well, I I'm old, but I I'm I'm no master. I I didn't go to drama school. I've no idea how to act. I really don't know how it is done, uh except uh if you apply yourself to it, somehow it can be done because all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.

Uh and and acting is a part of what it is to be a human being. It's what separates us out from the animals that we can disguise our true feelings, uh and maybe delve into uh truer feelings uh and and bring those through at the same time. It's a complicated business, but how it's done, I really don't know. Uh and I've just always had a simple rule, "Don't be in a play, don't be in a movie that you wouldn't want to see." Make sure the director is prepared to help you uh act. Uh and uh before you're worrying about the size of the fee or the billing, make sure that you're going to work with good people uh in in the cast.

If you've got all that right as we have done in X-Men uh over the years, as we did in Lord of the Rings, as I did resoundingly with Gods and Monsters, you can't go wrong. It's nothing to do with me, it's nothing to do with the craft, it's to do with the people you work with. Bye bye.