Sir Ian McKellen says he does not “quite get” Hamnet as Oscars approach

Lancashire actor Sir Ian McKellen has said he will not vote for Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, in an interview with The Independent.

The Lord of the Rings star became an Academy member in 1999 after his nomination for Gods and Monsters. A keen Shakespearean, he has played roles including Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Falstaff in Henry IV, and recently went viral for a Shakespearean answer on immigration and the culture wars on Stephen Colbert’s US chat show.

Hamnet is a fictional drama adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about how Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son died in the 1500s, and imagines how the loss might have inspired Hamlet.

“I don’t quite get it,” McKellen said. “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.”

He accepted the film was likely to win several awards at next month’s ceremony, but called parts of the plot “improbable”, comparing it to Shakespeare in Love, which he said had “odd views as to how plays get put on.”

“But then Shakespeare’s perhaps the most famous person who ever lived, so of course there is some interest in what he looked like, what his relationship with his family was.”

“And we can’t know, but the idea Anne Hathaway has never seen a play before? It’s improbable, considering what her husband did for a living. And she doesn’t seem to know what a play is! I think there are a few doubts of probability.”

In the film, Shakespeare’s wife, played by Jessie Buckley, stays in Stratford-upon-Avon raising their children while he goes to London and becomes a successful playwright, and she is shown as unaware of what his work involves.

Hamnet has eight nominations in total, including Best Picture, where it faces competition from films including Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Zhao is nominated for Best Director and shares a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination with O’Farrell.

Irish actor Buckley is the favourite for Best Actress.