Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel Forge An Odd Friendship in The Christophers

The Christophers couldn’t be more different from the two other tentpole productions Ian McKellen is shooting on either side of the intimate little Steven Soderbergh caper. McKellen and co-star Michaela Coel shot The Christophers in February 2025, just a few months before he reprised his role as Magneto in the mega-blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday. And he’s set to don the grey robes of Gandalf once again in The Hunt for Gollum.

Both are huge ensemble productions in which McKellen, more often than not, would be acting against a green screen instead of a fellow actor. But The Christophers, in which McKellen stars as a reclusive artist who forges an unlikely friendship with Coel’s artist who’s been hired by his estranged children to forge his unfinished paintings, allowed McKellen a return to a kind of intimate, tactile style of performing that he’s honed for years on the stage.

“We were filming in London, so we were in our own beds at night,” McKellen recalls to Inverse, of the production of The Christophers. “That's not often the case. Middle-earth, you're not in your own bed.”

But The Christophers was more than just a refreshing pit stop between blockbuster productions for McKellen. Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, the wry character comedy sees the acting legend stretch his dramatic and comedic chops in a way that he hasn’t been able to in many years. McKellen doesn’t see the performance as a big stretch, telling Inverse, “I've obviously got some connections: I'm his age. I've his interest in the past and the rapidly shrinking future. I'm gay... He lives on his own, which I do. I'm selfish. I could relate to his selfishness because if you're on your own, you're of course, you're selfish.”

But that selfish streak is what makes the relationship between McKellen’s Julian Sklar and Coel’s Lori Butler really sing. They banter, they test each other, and test boundaries, and ultimately, form a deep, close connection.

“They fall in love really, I think,” McKellen says.

Inverse spoke with McKellen and Coel about shooting The Christophers on-location, the secret to a good script, and tries to get McKellen to spill about Doomsday (“I don’t think I’m at liberty to say,” was his response).

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sir Ian, Soderbergh and Ed Solomon have said that they wrote The Christophers with you in mind. When you took on the role, did you see the parallels between you and Julian Sklar? Did you draw anything from your own life or experience?

Ian McKellen: If it had been all about cowboys, I wouldn't really have had much connection with it. But the script was so strong and it was full of fun and jokes. And if I'm proud of anything in my professional life, it's that I now understand comedy, which I didn't when I was 18. And I know how to be funny. You know how to be funny.

Michaela Coel: Me?

McKellen: You know how to be funny. You have to be real.

Coel: Yes. The stakes have to be high.

McKellen: That's how you're funny.

So in the film, your dynamic is so important to the story. Did you do anything to establish your chemistry before filming or did you want to grow it organically as Julian and Lori were closer?

Coel: Well, I don't know if what we did before shooting was about finding our chemistry. In fact, I don't think it had anything to do with it at all. We gathered at his house for about five days before shooting. There were no rehearsals, no prep, but Ian was very keen to unpack the script because that's a part of his process. And actually it became part of my process, just questioning the script, trying to understand the character, figuring out what could be changed, what could be cut. A lot of it was Ian would say, "Well, why am I saying that?" And then Ed, a very humble collaborative writer, would sometimes say, "Let's scrap it." So that process allowed us to be in the same space for five days. And naturally, without us thinking about it, we organically just became familiar and discovered we liked each other. And then, we had our first day. And I do remember thinking, "Oh, this is fun." I remember seeing a little smile on your face like, "Oh yeah. Oh, this is... Yeah."

McKellen: I agree. But not having known each other before was useful because right at the beginning of this story, as far as I'm concerned, we haven't met before.

Coel: Yes.

McKellen: And so, when you're confronted with this person, my goodness, and he's immediately engaged by showing off as he is. He's showing off because he wants to make an impression on this very attractive person.

Coel: It's quite interesting, isn't it? Because of how we actually met, stepping into his house five days before the shoot to do a film about a woman who steps into an artist's house and she knows who he is. He has no idea who she is. And so, there's an awareness because even sometimes you would say, "Is this script any good?"

McKellen: I don't remember that.

Coel: Yes. On the balcony in between, I'd say, "It's good, don't worry." He was like, "Is it any good?" It is. Because we just made it even better.

McKellen: I couldn't understand the story. And I thought, if you don't understand the story and it's always twist and turns, what's the point? And I comforted myself by saying, "Well, the point is not the story. The point is the people." And as far as story's concerned, the changing in the relationship as it goes along, they fall in love really, I think.

Well, that is enough. And in the end, when you watch it, when this twist and turns are absolutely clear, for me, my heart missed a beat when we finally meet Christopher, so unexpected that he should be in the film. He seems so much a figure of the past, and there he is, an awfully ordinary looking chap getting on with his life and suddenly reminded of something that made him very unhappy and you felt sorry for him. And imagine what he must have been like 20 years ago.

It breaks your heart.

McKellen: Did you feel something when you met him?

I did. I felt just this... ache.

McKellen: That's right. That's right.

Coel: Credit to Ed Solomon for his writing. Yes. Yeah.

So this movie is very much a two-hander, a chamber piece of sorts. Michaela, I thought you were excellent in Mother Mary, which is a chamber piece of a kind too. Is that kind of film appealing to you recently?

Coel: Well, it's not so much that it's appealing to me. I'm appealing to whoever's making them. And I understand. I like this type of filmmaking and I think it's because it really feels like... It does feel like theater because both films were in one location and it's about the relationship between two people. It feels like theater and I much prefer that for me than other types that are not so reliant on this string and from one person to another, yes.

And Sir Ian, coming from the stage, was this chamber piece type of film very refreshing for you being in between big productions of blockbusters like Avengers and soon Lord of the Rings again?

McKellen: Well, yes. Critics have said that this would make a very good play and it would. And I suppose it's roughly in one set as it were. It's in one place and it spreads out in the past experience and the characters as is revealed. I just think I'm very lucky to be asked to be in anything. And if it involves extremely talented people who've done wonderful work in the past, Steven Soderbergh, why wouldn't I want to be allowed into his world? And for him to be the ring master, it's fine with me. If he provides the hoops, I'll do my best to jump through them. And then, you hope that everybody else is going to be congenial in the mildest form of the relationship. And when it's full of admiration and love, well, what more could you ask for?

The Christophers is now playing in limited theaters.