Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen’s extended interview with Stephen Colbert on February 4, 2026, was a masterclass in using celebrity for advocacy.
While discussing his returns as Gandalf and Magneto, the 86-year-old icon and legendary gay activist spent much of the segment weaving his personal journey into a broader “appeal for humanity.”
The emotional centerpiece of the night was McKellen performing a 400-year-old monologue from the play Sir Thomas More – a historic text famous for containing the only surviving sample of William Shakespeare’s actual handwriting.
McKellen performed the speech in direct response to the 2026 ICE protests in Minneapolis.
Standing up with the gravitas of a stage veteran, he delivered More’s plea to a rioting mob to show mercy to “wretched strangers” (immigrants).
Critics and fans noted the intersectional power of the moment—an openly gay man who spent decades fighting for legal rights in the UK using a centuries-old text to defend the rights of marginalized people in the U.S. today.
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