Originally devised for the stage, the arrival of COVID instead led to this Hamlet being filmed for the screen – a medium that offered different advantages. “I think the older Hamlet is less of a performance; it’s more internal,” explains McKellen. “With the camera close, you can be much more intimate. And that’s what I hoped to do: make the spirit of Hamlet credible. Even thought he wasn’t quite in the right body.”
And while the character is often played as a younger prince, McKellen’s breadth of lived experience offers a different perspective on Shakespeare’s tale of murder, betrayal, and morbidity. “The other thing that I share with Hamlet is an obsession with death,” the actor chuckles. “Young people in a healthy state of mind are not all that interested in death; it’s something that happens to other people. When you get to my age, it’s something that happens to your friends and yourself. Being closer to death than I was when I first played Hamlet, I think, was an advantage.” Get ready for a Hamlet like no other.