Even Ian McKellen Doesn’t Quite Get Oscar Frontrunner Hamnet
Ian McKellen isn’t sold on Oscar favorite Hamnet, saying Chloe Zhao’s Paul Mescal-led drama didn’t click for him despite his Shakespeare pedigree.
Sir Ian McKellen watched Chloe Zhao's new film Hamnet and, in classic McKellen fashion, did not mince words. As the awards chatter heats up, he is not entirely sold on what the movie is selling about Shakespeare.
McKellen is not convinced by Hamnet's angle
The stage legend and screen icon, a six-time Laurence Olivier Award winner with a Tony to boot, said the film's central idea did not land for him.
'I don't quite get it.'
He added that digging for the exact spark of Shakespeare's genius is not his thing, and even if you try, it is not as simple as pointing to the home front.
'I'm not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare's imagination came from, but it certainly didn't just come from family life.'
For context, Hamnet tracks a pivotal chapter in the Bard's life: the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet. The film adapts Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel and leans into the idea that this loss helped shape Hamlet. McKellen, who has spent a lifetime inside Shakespeare's plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company and beyond, clearly sees that thesis as too neat.
The Oscar buzz, and a pointed comparison
With Hamnet building serious momentum in the awards race, McKellen floated a comparison that will raise some eyebrows among theater folks and film voters alike.
'As Hamnet races towards the finishing line, as far as Oscars are concerned, it's likely to repeat the success of Shakespeare in Love, which had odd views as to how plays get put on.'
He also noted that the public's endless fascination with Shakespeare the man is understandable, even if the real answers about his private life will always sit just out of reach.
What rubbed him the wrong way
McKellen called certain story beats 'improbable,' singling out the film's suggestion that Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, had never seen a play before. That leap, in particular, did not fly with him.
Hamnet, in brief
- Director: Chloe Zhao
- Star: Paul Mescal
- Based on: Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel
- Premise: Shakespeare grapples with the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet, a grief that the story ties to the creation of Hamlet
Where McKellen stands now
McKellen's career runs the gamut from King Lear on Broadway to Magneto in X-Men and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, and he is set to suit up again as Magneto in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Whether Hamnet becomes an Oscar juggernaut or not, consider this a rare, candid dash of cold water from someone who knows Shakespeare inside and out—and is not afraid to say when a grand theory feels a bit too tidy.