However.
I work in theatre. Theatre and the acting industry have been decimated by the pandemic. Nearly all actors are freelancers and most actors haven't been eligible for either furlough or SEISS freelancer support scheme. A huge percentage of theatre freelancers have had to quit the industry and many will likely never return. There is a very real risk that acting and writing will become careers only for people from wealthy backgrounds. Already people who work in these industries are deeply concerned that we'll experience a "talent gap" in 5-10 years, because so many of the emerging artists who are the TV stars - actors, writers and directors - of tomorrow, have had to leave the industry. And maybe most people don't care about theatre, but theatre is where tomorrow's TV and film actors and writers get their start and get their training.
These are important issues. Entertainment (whether Netflix or National Theatre at Home) has saved millions of people's lives or at least sanities during lockdown. Entertainment is not trivial. Creative freelancers matter. Actors matter. Who wants to live in a world with no theatre, no TV, no film? Or only the same boring generic TV made by and starring the same faces?
Ian McKellan is right to talk about this. But it sticks in my craw that he's framing it as something that's been taken from him and other wealthy celebrities personally. The fact is, the pandemic has created a huge divide within acting just as it has in everything. This has always been a problem, the industry is afraid to take risks which is why you see the same tiny number of faces in everything. The pandemic has only made that worse.
I can tell you for a fact Ian McKellan could have worked all through the pandemic if he'd wanted to. Digital theatre started up practically the second we went into lockdown. TV production continued. There were outdoor stage productions last summer. Look at things like the Talking Heads monologue series on TV, filmed at the height of lockdown. Or the BBC series Staged. I don't believe Ian McKellan wasn't being deluged with offers to act in things like that, and maybe he doesn't want to do them which is fair, but it's his choice to turn those acting offers down. Most actors don't have that choice.
Hell, the second lockdown restrictions were lightened last summer, one of the most influential theatre production companies in the UK immediately started working on a double bill of Hamlet and the Cherry Orchard, which would have been the first major theatre show post-lockdown. They started rehearsals, and the actual production will now open in September. Those productions? Star Ian bloody McKellen! He basically landed the most plum role in theatre, and was actively rehearsing, at a time when 99% of actors were out of work and looking at an uncertain and bleak future.
How can you complain you've been "robbed" of your acting career when you're literally in the middle of playing Hamlet?