{"id":479974,"date":"2026-06-16T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/479974\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T11:06:08","slug":"sir-ian-mckellen-imagined-destroying-trumps-mar-a-lago-for-avengers-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/479974\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Ian McKellen imagined destroying Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago for Avengers scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">In 2024, McKellen said Trump needs to work on his public speaking skills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The Lord of the Rings legend told The Times: \u201cI haven\u2019t seen him live but he\u2019s one of the worst public speakers there has ever been. Whether he\u2019s reading a script or not, it\u2019s so patent what he is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Sir Ian McKellen, known for being outspoken yet shy, has criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s public speaking skills. Photo \/ Getty Images\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Sir Ian McKellen, known for being outspoken yet shy, has criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s public speaking skills. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">But McKellen has not always been comfortable with public appearances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Joe Stephenson, who directed the 2017 documentary McKellen: Playing the Part, exclusively told Band Showbiz: \u201cHe\u2019s a very gentle and quite a shy person, really.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhich is quite a strange thing \u2013 a juxtaposition, really, with how outspoken he is about things and how brave he is and how much of a strong performer he is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHe is actually quite a shy individual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe thing that surprises me about him is that he\u2019s not as certain about himself as I thought he was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI had an idea of just age being a thing, like when you get to a certain age, you must be certain about yourself, and you must really know everything. He doesn\u2019t \u2013 then I just think maybe nobody really does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Stephenson said McKellen approaches many of his public appearances like a stage performance, meaning he doesn\u2019t allow others to get too close to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">He said: \u201cI think if it was somebody he didn\u2019t know asking the questions, that barrier would be up, and I don\u2019t think it would be really possible to penetrate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2024, McKellen said Trump needs to work on his public speaking skills. The Lord of the Rings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[70355,7137,430,2178,7028,156,638,2082,57505,88187,241476,241475,111,139,69,1439,8485,19096],"class_list":["post-479974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-destroying","tag-avengers","tag-celebrities","tag-donald","tag-doomsday","tag-entertainment","tag-estate","tag-for","tag-ian","tag-imagined","tag-maralago","tag-mckellen","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-scene","tag-sir","tag-trumps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}