Lancashire actor and Lord of thr Rings star Sir Ian Mckellen has admitted in an interview with The Independent that he won’t be voting for Chloé Zhao’s hit Hamnet to win Best Picture.
The actor, who became a member of the Academy in 1999 after receiving a nomination for Gods and Monsters and recently went viral after delivering a a momentous Shakespearian response to the current culture wars over immigration on Stephen Colbert’s US chat show, is a Shakespeare enthusiast who has played characters ranging from Hamlet and King Lear to Macbeth and Henry IV’s John Falstaff.
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But he is not a big fan of Hamnet, the fictional drama based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the death of the Bard’s 11-year-old son in the 1500s. The film imagines how the tragedy might have inspired Hamlet
“I don’t quite get it,” the thesp said. “I’m not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare’s imagination came from, but it certainly didn’t just come from family life.”
He conceded the film would likely win several Oscars when the Academy Awards take place next month, but described details of the plot as “improbable,” comparing it to another quirky Shakespeare=themed success, Shakespeare in Love, which had “odd views as to how plays get put on.”
“But then Shakespeare’s perhaps the most famous person who ever lived, so of course there is some interest in what he looked like, what his relationship with his family was.
“And we can’t know, but the idea Anne Hathaway has never seen a play before? It’s improbable, considering what her husband did for a living. And she doesn’t seem to know what a play is! I think there are a few doubts of probability.”
In the film, Shakespeare’s wife (Jessie Buckley) remains at home in Stratford-upon-Avon, looking after their children while he travels to London and becomes a successful playwright. The film depicts Hathaway as being clueless about his profession.
The film is nominated for Best Picture, and will be up against Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, among others.
Irish actress Buckley is the favourite to win Best Actress, and Hamnet has received eight nominations in total, including Best Director for Zhao and Best Adapted Screenplay for Zhao and O’Farrell.
