Sir Ian McKellen has shared his very frank views on the British royal family, including Prince Harry.
The Lord of the Rings actor offered his thoughts just a few months after taking a tumble off a theater stage in London in June.
“I’m most definitely on Harry’s side,” he told Michael Odell in an interview for U.K. newspaper, The Times. “Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison. They can’t do anything normal. Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to?”
Prince Harry on February 28, 2024, in London, England, and (inset) Sir Ian McKellen on September 2, 2024, in London, England. McKellen has spoken about Prince Harry in a new interview.
McKellen added that he doesn’t think Prince Harry was clever enough to handle royal duties or even being in the spotlight.
“Hats off to anyone who manages to stay sane in that world,” he said. “Like the [late] Duke of Edinburgh managed to do, although even he was deeply, deeply eccentric and I suspect deeply unhappy.
“Same with the present king. He sort of survives, but he is clearly damaged.
“As for Harry, he’s probably not bright enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself. Mind you, he had the pick of all the pretty women in the world. I hope he’s got the right one,” referring to the prince’s marriage to former actress Meghan Markle.
Elsewhere in The Times interview McKellen described how he thought he might die when he fell off the stage, fracturing his vertebrae and wrist during a performance of his West End show, Player Kings.
The actor was rushed to the hospital after falling while playing the role of John Falstaff in a condensed version of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts I and II.
“As I began gliding, I thought, this is the end. I didn’t know what it was the end of — certainly that night’s performance — but as I progressed I was ready to accept that I might be about to die,” he told the newspaper.
McKellen previously credited the fat suit he wore during the performance for helping to break his fall.
“But I was wearing a fat suit for Falstaff and that saved my ribs and other joints. So I’ve had a lucky escape really,” he told Saga Magazine in August. “I thought it [the fall] was the end of something. It was very upsetting… I have to keep assuring myself that I’m not too old to act and it was just a b***** accident.”
The actor added: “I feel such shame. I was hoping to be able to rejoin the play on the tour, but I couldn’t.”
