Veteran British actor Sir Ian McKellen is making headlines after revealing that he used President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as his personal source of rage while filming a destruction sequence for Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster, “Avengers: Doomsday.”
The longtime Trump critic shared the story during a recent interview with The Guardian, recalling a scene in which his iconic X-Men character, Magneto, was ordered to unleash devastation on New Jersey. According to McKellen, directors Anthony and Joe Russo wanted him to look angrier as cameras rolled.
Ian McKellen on Magneto destroying New Jersey in ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’
“[The Russo Brothers told me to] make it look as if you hate what you’re destroying. So I stood there and I shouted: ‘Mar-a-Lago!’”
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— Marvel Updates (@marvel_updat3s) June 15, 2026
“They told me to look more furious: make it look as if you hate what you’re destroying,” McKellen said. “So I stood there and I shouted: ‘Mar-a-Lago!’”
The remark wasn’t exactly a spontaneous confession. McKellen had already told a similar story months earlier during an appearance on “The Late Show,” where he described standing in front of a giant effects setup, attempting to channel Magneto’s trademark wrath.
“So I’m standing up, pretending to [destroy New Jersey], and the wind is blowing in my hair, and I’m putting on a fierce look, and I’m trying to be magnetic,” he recalled. “And the director, over the loudspeaker, says, ‘Ian, look more furious.’”
McKellen then demonstrated the moment for the audience, stretching out his arms and slipping into character. After being instructed to think of “the worst thing you could possibly think of,” he bellowed the name of Trump’s Palm Beach resort.
“Will I be allowed back in the country?” the actor joked afterward.
The line drew laughs from host Stephen Colbert, whose anti-Trump commentary has become a staple of his late-night show. Colbert replied, “Will you be allowed back in the country? No guarantees. I don’t think I’m the right person to ask for that.”
The exchange was classic late-night television: a celebrity, a Trump punchline and a friendly audience ready to applaud. Whether moviegoers outside the Hollywood bubble find it equally amusing is another question.
McKellen’s hostility toward Trump is hardly new. During Trump’s first term, the actor repeatedly criticized the administration and accused the White House of failing to adequately support LGBTQ causes. In a 2017 interview, he blasted administration policies and called them “appalling and quite unnecessary and very un-American.”
For years, many of entertainment’s biggest names have treated Trump as both political villain and comedic prop. Yet despite endless celebrity lectures, voters returned Trump to the White House after a campaign focused on inflation, border security and public dissatisfaction with Washington’s political establishment.
That disconnect continues to fuel criticism of Hollywood, where stars often seem convinced that audiences are eager for another round of anti-Trump messaging woven into interviews, award shows and blockbuster publicity tours.
As for “Avengers: Doomsday,” Marvel fans will likely be more interested in seeing Magneto return to the big screen than hearing what political slogan McKellen used to work himself into character. But in an industry where nearly every press junket eventually circles back to Trump, perhaps this latest outburst was inevitable.
