Sir Ian McKellen calls out ICE in moving Shakespeare monologue
Sir Ian McKellen (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage via Getty Images)
Sir Ian McKellen had audiences captivated with a stirring monologue from Sir Thomas Moore during a TV interview this week that resonated with protests currently happening against ICE in the US.
During this appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on 5 February, Colbert asked McKellen about his 1960s turn as Thomas Moore, a character that made McKellen the only living actor to originate a role written by William Shakespeare.
McKellen performed a monologue from the play after setting the scene. “It’s all happening 400 years ago, and in London there’s a riot happening, there’s a mob out in the streets,” he explained.
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“They’re complaining about the presence of strangers in London, by which they mean the recent immigrants who have arrived there.”
The rioters continue shouting and complaining that the immigrants should “be sent back to their home, wherever they came from” when the authorities send out a lawyer, Thomas Moore, to subdue the riot, with “an appeal to their humanity”, McKellen notes.
The monologue, which calls out the rioters’ “mountainish inhumanity”, was received with tremendous applause from the audience.
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