Ian McKellen Performs Pro-Immigrant Monologue by Shakespeare

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Una publicación compartida por The Late Show (@colbertlateshow)

William Shakespeare’s writing captures the struggles of life, love, and power in a way that has rendered his work timeless. But as Sir Ian McKellen has brought to light, the themes the bard touched on centuries ago are just as topical as ever. During an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the 86-year-old British actor looked back and performed a 400-year-old Shakespearean monologue pleading against the dehumanization of immigrants.

Talking about the unrest around the immigration crackdown in the U.S., McKellen recalled a powerful scene from the play Sir Thomas More, to which Shakespeare contributed. Written in the late 16th century, it wasn’t performed on stage until 1964 with McKellen in the title role. “The play was never performed during Shakespeare’s lifetime because it was thought to be a bit seditious,” the actor explained. The opportunity then turned him into one of the rare living people to have originated (that is, performed for the first time) a Shakespearean role.

Drawing a parallel between the text and the current situation, McKellen said, “It’s all happening 400 years ago. In London, there’s a riot happening. There’s a mob out in the streets and they’re complaining about the presence of strangers in London, by which they mean immigrants who’ve arrived there. And they’re shouting and complaining and saying that the immigrants should be sent back home, wherever they came from. And the authorities send out this young lawyer, Thomas More, to put down the riot, which he does in two ways. One, by saying… ‘You can’t riot like this. It’s against the law. So, shut up, be quiet.’ And also, being by Shakespeare, with an appeal to their humanity.”

“It’s a speech you probably don’t know, but you ought to because it’s a wonderful speech,” McKellen added. Prodded by Colbert to recite it, he showed some hesitation about doing live theater on an apparent whim. Then, the actor got up from his seat and got in character, looking down the barrel of the camera as he performed the soliloquy.

“Why, you must needs be strangers: Would you be pleased / To find a nation of such barbarous temper, / That, breaking out in hideous violence, / Would not afford you an abode on earth,” McKellan soulfully recited, making the host hold back tears at the end. “Were not all appropriate to your comforts, / But chartered unto them, what would you think / To be thus used? this is the strangers case; And this your mountainish inhumanity.”

You can watch McKellen’s performance below.