Sir Ian McKellen has emphasised the importance of proper funding for the arts to help secure the industry’s future.
The 86-year-old stars in the upcoming film The Christophers, about two siblings who hire a forger to complete their father’s unfinished work in a bid to secure a substantial inheritance after his death.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film explores how great art can endure beyond a person’s lifetime.
Speaking about the importance of supporting artists financially he uses the late Oscar winning director John Schlesinger as an example.
“I’ll tell you one simple thing that rather puzzles me. I remember working with John Schlesinger (the British director who won an Oscar for the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy), and in his latter years he didn’t make films,” he told the Press Association.
“He set up films. He had ideas for films. He wrote films.
“He encouraged other people to write them. He raised the funds, or didn’t.
“That man should have just been given a pension by the government to make whatever films he wanted, and if we’d done that, there would have been six more John Schlesinger films that never got made.
He added: “Of course, great artists in the past have always had patronage – Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, everybody.
“But we’ve forgotten how to subsidise the arts in a way.
“Even in my youth, we used to go to the theatre, and I would think that would be the easiest way to encourage that art to go on being made.”
Set in London, The Christophers also stars Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and Gavin & Stacey co-creator James Corden who play the siblings, while the forger is portrayed by actress Michaela Coel, best known for creating and starring in the hit sitcom Chewing Gum as well as the Emmy award-winning drama series I May Destroy You.
In the film, Sir Ian’s character Julian Sklar was once a star of London’s 1960s and 70s pop art explosion, but he has not painted in decades and has been broke for years.
Commenting on his own long-lasting career, Sir Ian said: “Well, there’s a distinction between what I do and what Julian does. He’s an artist.
“Everything comes from inside him, and it’s his stroke on the brush on the canvas that makes his art.”
He modestly added: “My art is second-hand. Somebody writes my words, and they tell me sometimes where to stand to deliver them, and give me directions as to how I should speak them.
“I’m there to interpret other people’s art and deliver it.
“You can go on as an actor until the day you die, as long as you get insurance and your voice and knees show up.
“If I were a writer, I would have to come up with new material to write, but other people do the writing.”
The Christophers is in UK and Irish cinemas on Friday May 15.
