Ian McKellen is Looking For His ‘Inner Pussy’ Ahead of Cats Role

What does a legendary, trained actor like Sir Ian McKellen do to prepare any given role? It's all about research and immersion, as he discussed on a recent episode of The Graham NortonShow.

After Norton mentioned McKellen's upcoming work on the film Cats, where he'll star alongside Judi Dench and Idris Elba among others, the Lord of the Rings actor slipped into the musical intro for his character, Gus the Theatre Cat.

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"You might well ask, 'How does one prepare for being a cat?'" he postulated to the host while sitting on a couch alongside Michael Buble and Carey Mulligan. "At the moment I'm looking for the inner pussy," he explained, "at the moment I'm not doing very well at it."

McKellen even admitted trying a more literal approach and subsisting on a diet of cat food on the weekends. "I've always thought that tinned cat food smelled as if it might be rather tasty," he admitted. "It isn't." Watch, below.