-Our next guest is an Emmy-nominated
and Golden Globe-winning actor you know from shows like
"Deadwood" and "American Gods."
He stars in "John Wick: Chapter 4,"
which is in theaters and IMAX March 24th.
Let's take a look.
-Where will it end?
Huh?
-With him dead.
-Oh.
And then?
Hmm?
Have you learned nothing?
They will replace him before the body's cold.
Hercules had his hydra.
You have the table, except you'll run out of bullets
before they run out of heads.
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Ian McShane!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome back, Ian. -Thank you.
B.A. just informed me my bag has finally arrived.
-Oh, congratulations. -That's why I'm dressed --
But it's a lovely day for ducks, isn't it?
-It is a lovely day. -Yeah.
-You know what? It's so exciting.
First of all, you look fit as a fiddle.
-Thank you. -And last time you were here
for "John Wick," you know, you were saying,
"This is the third one. I hope they make a fourth one.
And I hope they give me some action sequences myself."
-They did, but they -- they cut them out, apparently,
because they were [bleep] No, really, they were --
I started learning this ancient form
of martial arts called McThai.
It's a Scottish form of -- -Okay.
-Well, no, you wear a kilt, naked, and you run at them,
and it terrifies them. [ Laughter ]
-It's called McThai?
-Well, I ran at Donnie Yen, and he ran the other way.
-Wow. And they cut it all out?
-Because I said -- "Ach, away wit' you now!
I'm comin' for you now!" [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, that might not quite fit in "John Wick."
-No, I don't think it'd fit, really.
-Yeah, yeah. -I saw it last week
at the London premiere, and it's fantastic, actually.
I don't say that. I'm pretty tough on myself
in other movies, but it really is spectacular.
Chad and Keanu have outdone themselves,
I mean, with the story, and three hours,
it feels like an hour and a half of smash, bang, wallop action,
combined with some masterful nods to great movies of history,
other action movies.
And all the newcomers like Donnie,
like Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgard,
they're all fantastic. -It's really exciting.
You know, this is, well, you know, a movie
that kind of came out of nowhere...
-Yeah. -...when it came out in 2014.
And, you know, one of the things I love about it is,
your character keeps being a bigger part of the story,
which is really fun, being a fan of yours.
Are you surprised at what a phenomenon
it's become in almost a decade?
-You're always surprised, I think.
You know, it was a very tight indie movie
which we made at the end of 2013.
It had some other great actors in it --
Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist.
And it turned out -- I remember, I was filming a year later,
doing a movie down in Atlanta, and it opened.
And, you know, you --
I went into the early show down in some cinema there.
You know when you see a movie,
the first 10 seconds if you're in good hands or not.
-Uh-huh. -And you know at the open,
I thought, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we're in good hands."
And then two years later, he called,
"Do you want to make another one?"
And then, "Do you want to make another one?"
And here we are now, the fourth one.
And I think Chad has really outdone --
I mean it's really --
I was sitting there, and I took my kids and grandkids --
my grandkids, who are of the age now
they can watch things like "Deadwood."
[Bleep] -- you couldn't even say those words on television.
I mean you say them now on this show.
-I -- we do say them. -It's appalling.
I think it's appalling behavior. -My -- I think I let --
[ Laughter ]
-What will the children --
-Well, I learned it from watching you.
-I know you did. That's what I mean.
-Okay? But I'll tell you this.
I'll let my kids watch "Deadwood" when they're like 28.
[ Laughter ]
But your grandkids, I mean, they must love --
-They loved it. Oh, they had an absolute ball.
Yeah, and they got to meet Keanu afterwards.
-Uh-huh. -I think the youngest one,
Raphael, pitched him a number five.
-Uh-huh. -I said, "Well, give Keanu
a chance to recover. I mean, he's already --
He's only killed 5,394 people in this movie.
[ Laughter ]
Big population to go through.
-Now, you -- This is obviously --
You've had this long, fantastic, colorful career.
But I didn't realize you were here in New York City,
doing some theater work late '60s.
-The summer of love. -You were here summer of love.
-Summer of love. -How was it?
Was New York City everything they said it was?
-Well, we came a little after the sum--
The autumn of love, we were. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] -We came in October.
But I remember, yeah, oh, it was fantastic.
It was a play called "The Promise,"
and we'd done it in London,
Ian McKellen and I. -Wow.
-And Judi Dench did the original.
And then we came to New York 'cause Judy was doing "Cabaret,"
the musical in London, so Eileen Atkins.
And I think America still harbored the suspicions
about Russians, because we had a great rehearsal period, open.
And, you know, it's weird when you've had a smash hit
in London, and then audiences,
I think with 36 people in the first matinee.
And then most of them were Puerto Rican students
learning English. -Oh, wow.
[ Laughter ] No, I'm serious.
They were learning -- 'cause you can hear them
talking on with you, going -- I go, "Can you hear something?"
McKellen, he goes, "Can you hear something?"
I said, "Yeah, they're learning English with us.
'Cause they think we speak English
better than Americans do." [ Laughter ]
But it was -- But I remember seeing "Hair"
at the Public Theater. -Uh-huh.
-First out. I used to go down to
the Electric Circus and down in the Village.
Half price with no shoes.
-If you didn't have shoes, it was half price?
-That's it. If you didn't have shoes.
-Well that's -- that's -- that's the autumn of love for you.
-I did have shoes. [ Laughter ]
-Now, I've always appreciated this about you,
because you're one of my favorite actors
to watch on-screen. But I also know that you find it
very boring when actors talk about their technique.
-[ Mock snores ] [ Laughter ]
Unbelievable.
-And you don't like being asked about it, either.
-I certainly don't. -Yeah.
-But if you insist, I find that my latest part --
[ Laughter ]
I -- [ Laughter ]
-You don't like talking about motivation
or any of those things. -Well, the first thing I said,
it was like, Billy Wilder was asked, and Billy Wilder said,
"The check." [ Laughter ]
And, you know, for a guy who's a genius like that, I thought,
"That's a fair enough answer. I'll stick with that one."
-Yeah, that's not bad. Well, let me tell you,
they're getting everything they pay for
every time they put you on screen.
Now, I know you have a passion. We've talked about in the past.
I've been lucky enough to know you for a bit now.
You're a football fan, to this day.
You're a Man United fan. And your dad actually played.
-My dad played for them in the '50s, yeah, Manchester United.
So I've -- You know, I was --
I've been watching the club for like,
God, 60-odd years, you know?
-And did you have a moment there when you were young,
where you thought, "Maybe I'll follow in his footsteps"?
-Oh, no. I never thought I'd play.
No, I mean, I think, you know, my dad wasn't one of those,
like, "You will play football."
I mean, you can't unless you're -- yeah, I was fine.
I was good. I was a good little player
when I played at junior level, whatever, till 11.
Broke my leg and then sort of lost interest after that.
I mean, I love the game now, though.
I love the game. I mean, again, acting,
there wasn't like -- acting didn't take place over --
over -- over football. You know what I mean?
[ Laughter ] I was in football,
but I broke my leg, and I decided to become an actor.
I mean, how [bleep] stupid is that?
-They were probably -- -I was just in a school play,
and the guy at school said,
"You know, you're not bad at this, you know?"
And I found myself very comfortable being on the stage.
That's all. And he said,
"I think you should apply for RADA."
And my mom and dad were both terrific people.
And my dad -- "Absolutely." So I went off.
I went at 17 for a RADA audition with my mom,
and I got in, and that was it.
Then I went when I was --
Yeah, when I was just 18, and left when I was 19.
I did a movie. That was --
So here we are later, still doing it.
-And were you -- were they the kind of parents,
did they like seeing you onstage?
Did they like seeing -- -No. My mother --
My mother was always worried about
what people would say about, you know --
-Interesting. -Well, my -- my dad,
he was a footballer. My mother really didn't like
the publicity that surrounded my dad,
you know, 'cause people criticize you.
-Yeah. -It's their perfect right.
If you choose to be in public, it's like, you know,
everybody can say, "Why don't you quietly go away?"
if they don't like you. Everyone --
No, they have, the perfect right, whatever.
But it's like she couldn't stand that.
Me, it's just water off a duck's back.
As an actor or a football player,
it's what you do for a living. But my dad was lovely.
He just smiled and said, "Oh, have a good time, son."
[ Laughter ] "Have a good time."
-Well, I hope you've had a good time.
It's certainly been a lot of fun watching it.
-Not bad. -And it is just wonderful
having you here with us. Thank you so much, Ian.
-Nice to see you, Seth. Thank you.
-"John Wick: Chapter 4," theaters and IMAX, March 24th.
We'll be right back with Ms. Pat.