Watch Ian McKellen Go the Full Gandalf for a Group of Schoolkids
Sir Ian McKellen may have just pulled off his greatest act of wizardry — getting school children excited about their exams! On Friday, the Lord of the Rings actor visited the Chew Valley School in Somerset, U.K., where he re-created Gandalf’s greatest scene for a group of ecstatic British kids above. “In your preparation for your examinations,” McKellen advised, “if you don’t do your revision properly, you know what will happen? You shall not pass!”
In case your memory needs jogging, here’s the iconic scene from 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring. (Skip to 3:10 for Gandalf’s big line.)
McKellen wasn’t just visiting Chew Valley to make kids laugh. He was there to fight something much more insidious than a Balrog: bullying and homophobia in schools. A founding member of the gay rights advocacy group Stonewall, the actor came to Chew Valley to praise their Equalities Team, the school’s acclaimed anti-bullying program. “It is a day that they and I will never forget,” head teacher Mark Mallett wrote on the school’s website. “Sir Ian was a gracious guest at the school and an impassioned evangelist for tolerance and equality.”
Photo credit: AP Photo/Warner Bros., James Fisher
