The Ian McKellen Oscar Mystery – The Overdue Actor May Have Another Shot

I’ve been blogging about the Oscars so long I often forget that most people out there don’t really know as much about the Academy’s recent history as I do. Part of knowing that history is, in effect, shutting down. Bit by bit, year by year, loss by loss, one learns – or tries to learn – to stop caring. Or as my site’s tagline used to say, “The trick is not minding.”  One of the most curious things about Oscar season is how the cult of personality can sometimes overtake an Oscar season so that the win comes not from the most deserving but from the most likable at the moment – the Mr. Right Now instead of the Mr. Right. This year, there are many Mr. Rights, and Ian McKellen is among them. The trick will be for one of those Mr. Rights to also become a Mr. Right Now.

McKellen has been up for two Oscars – just two. I will say that his performance of Richard III is maybe the best thing I’ve ever seen an actor do – but most certainly the best thing I’ve ever seen an actor do doing Shakespeare. It was mind blowing. He did not, however, receive a nomination for it.

McKellen was the favorite to win for Gods and Monsters in 1998. Things were very different back then for out gay actors in Hollywood – or even gay subject matter at the Oscars – a barrier that would slowly break down in the coming decade. To date, no publicly out gay actor has won in Best Actor. But back then? Things were far more oppressive than they are now. Even still, Ian McKellen’s performance was extraordinary and everybody knew it. He was headed straight for a Best Actor win, having collected:

Los Angeles Film Critics
Kansas City Film Critics
The National Board of Review

He was up against two really strong performances – Nick Nolte in Affliction and Edward Norton in American History X, which split the New York and National Society Film Critics, not to mention Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. It was such a weird year, though, because it was also the year Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan. Maybe that is how Roberto Benigni managed to swoop in and take the top prizes at SAG and at the Oscars for Life is Beautiful. It wasn’t that his performance was winning – it was that people liked seeing him win. They liked watching him climb all over the audience and make them laugh and cry with his gratitude. When something like that happens, you can’t predict it and you can’t control it.

It makes sense, though, because the other four performances were staggering and dramatic and unforgettable. The one that wasn’t like the others beat them all.

Many of us back then – despite our admiration for Nolte, Norton, and Hanks – were hoping Ian McKellen would win for Gods and Monsters not just for the performance alone but because there was something about it that felt revolutionary at the time. It was a groundbreaking work of cinema that came out of nowhere and really did, in its own subversive yet accessible way, break down barriers in the way we view gay characters in mainstream film.

Cut to – The Lord of the Rings juggernaut that seized the Oscar race for three consecutive years. Ian McKellen was once again brought powerfully into the collective consciousness with his performance as Gandalf. Surely this would at last be an easy win for a long overdue actor whose entire life had been devoted to the craft. He did win the SAG, a miracle unto itself, but when it came to the Oscars he lost to a performance that should have been a lead – Jim Broadbent in Iris. That’s a neat trick, getting a lead performance in the supporting category. It makes it incredibly hard to compete against.

Now McKellen is back with Mr. Holmes. While at first the Best Actor race seemed to be too crowded to even consider him in the running. Though he’s being predicted at various sites, he’s been considered a long shot. But the recent spate of public appearances to help promote the DVD release of Mr. Holmes seems to have uncorked something in the McKellen campaign — he suddenly has serious Oscar buzz and the potential to take the “gold watch” slot, as it’s been deemed.

Mr. Holmes reteams McKellen with Gods and Monsters director Bill Condon. He plays Sherlock Holmes in his last years as he bonds with a single mother and her child way out in the countryside. He solves one last mystery, this time involving a woman, her glove and long lost love. As usual the actor delivers one his best performances quietly, focusing purely on craft and internal combustion as opposed to outward bluster.

Perhaps most convincing of all is that McKellen is very much a force: not only an icon of the modern gay rights movement, he’s adapted quickly and gracefully to social media. In some ways, he has never been more popular than he is right now, beloved by all.

So where does that leave us with Best Actor? Given his recent appearances I personally am much more willing to take him seriously as a potential contender. It’s still a competitive year and there are still only five slots to fill. He’ll have to knock someone out of the top five:

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Johnny Depp, Black Mass
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Matt Damon, The Martian

And slip past those hovering on the fringe:
Michael Caine, Youth
Will Smith, Concussion
Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies
Steve Carell, The Big Short

That’s a tough crunch right there but it’s not as impossible as I used to think it was. It feels even probable at the moment because of McKellen’s overall appeal in the industry and mostly that he’s only been nominated once for lead actor. He’s way, way overdue.

Just a few of the appearances McKellen has been making of late to help promote the DVD release of Mr. Holmes:

– Governors Awards
– Sunday Brunch in his honor hosted by British Consul General, Kathy Bates & Laura Linney in the garden at the home of the Consul General
– Monday, a packed to the rafters BAFTA/LA q&a
– Tuesday, American Cinematheque tribute highlighted with a conversation between Guillermo Del Toro and McKellen, plus a screening of Mr. Holmes
– Wednesday, dinner in his honor hosted by Patrick Stewart and Elijah Wood at Chateau Marmont
– Thursday, a unique “Women I’ve Filmed With”, one-man show at the Fine Arts Theater

Either way, McKellen remains a vital part of the acting community who is doing his best work and by all accounts appears to be in the prime of his life.