Sir Ian McKellen questions if ‘Jewface’ row leaves him unable to play ‘straight parts’

Sir Ian McKellen has offered his thoughts on the debate over whether Jewish characters are best played by performers who are Jewish themselves by asking: “Does that mean I can’t play straight parts?”

The Lords of the Rings star, who is himself gay, was asked by BBC presenter Amol Rajan for his thoughts on the debate that has spiralled as a result of the decision to cast Dame Helen Mirren as Israeli leader Golda Meir.

In the revealing BBC2 interview with the 82 year-old  Shakespearean actor, Rajan raised the argument around Mirren’s casting as an iconic Jewish figure, asking whether they meant gay people should play gay characters.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Sir Ian – who played the role of fictional Jewish comic book character Magneto in the X-Men films – responded:” Well, there’s two things… Is the argument that a gentile cannot play a Jew? And is the argument therefore that a Jew cannot play a gentile?

“And is the argument that a straight man cannot play a gay part? And if so, does that mean I can’t play straight parts and I’m not allowed to explore the fascinating subject of heterosexuality in Macbeth? Surely not.

“We’re acting. We’re pretending.”

But the Queen actor, who is not himself Jewish, then added: “Now, are we capable of understanding what it is to be Jewish? 

“Are we going to convince a Jewish audience that we are Jewish? Well perhaps we don’t need to, because we are just acting.”

In January the latest “Jewface” row erupted after Lipman led a backlash against the casting of Dame Helen as the former Israeli Prime Minister.

Dame Maureen said she wished Jewish actresses had been considered.

The musical Falsettos had sparked an earlier “Jewface” row in August 2019 after complaints about the lack of Jewish cast members.

The play followed a dysfunctional Jewish family as they come to terms with the Aids crisis.

More than 20 Jewish actors and playwrights, including Miriam Margolyes and Maureen Lipman, signed an open letter which said the producers demonstrated “a startling lack of cultural sensitivity and at worst, overt appropriation and erasure of a culture and religion increasingly facing a crisis”.

The letter used the term “Jewface” to describe the casting of non-Jewish actors to play Jewish roles and said that “Jews are omitted from this important and necessary conversation.”

Last October the comedian Sarah Silverman spoke out over the Hollywood “Jewface” row saying there is a “long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being.”