“How do I act so well?”

A very wise teacher once told me that the most complicated acting problems usually boil down to very basic technical issues. And usually those are knowing your:

• lines
• cues
• and blocking

All of which Sir Ian McKellan goes over beautifully:

Sir Ian McKellen: How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I’m portraying in the film or play.
Andy: …Yeah.
Sir Ian McKellen: You’re confused.
Andy: No, I —
Sir Ian McKellen: Don’t be; it’s simple. Case in point:Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson comes from New Zealand, says to me “Sir Ian, I want you to be Gandalf the Wizard.” And I said to him, “You are aware that I am not really a wizard.” And he said, “Yes I’m aware of that. What I want you to do is to use your acting skills to portray the wizard, for the duration of the film.” So I said okay, and then I said to myself, “Mmmm. How do I do that?” And this is what I did. I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard, and then, I pretended and acted in that way on the day.
Andy: Yeah.
Sir Ian McKellen: And how did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me. If we were to draw a graph of my process, of my method, it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, action; WIZARD! YOU SHALL NOT PASS! Cut!; Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.

Many things that are funny are humorous because they are just true.