--- title: Watch Ian McKellen Recite Taylor Swift Lyrics description: The star gives an Oscar-worthy performance canonical: https://time.com/3960855/ian-mckellen-taylor-swift-bruno-mars/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T16:26:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:15.218Z og:title: Ian McKellen Reciting Taylor Swift Lyrics Is Mandatory Viewing og:description: From "Bad Blood" to Bruno Mars og:url: https://time.com/3960855/ian-mckellen-taylor-swift-bruno-mars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f8d2c02a1454bb/6987eb54cd1bba74bf6f8fb9/462999650-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sir Ian Mckellen during a Q&A for the film 'Mr Holmes' at the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 8, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ian McKellen Reciting Taylor Swift Lyrics Is Mandatory Viewing twitter:description: From "Bad Blood" to Bruno Mars twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f8d2c02a1454bb/6987eb54cd1bba74bf6f8fb9/462999650-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ian McKellen Reciting Taylor Swift Lyrics Is Mandatory Viewing by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 16, 2015 4:26 PM UTC  Sir Ian Mckellen during a Q&A for the film 'Mr Holmes' at the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 8, 2015. Sir Ian Mckellen during a Q&A for the film 'Mr Holmes' at the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 8, 2015.Gisela Schober—Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 16, 2015 4:26 PM UTC Whether it’s [chocolate and peanut butter](http://time.com/3943132/chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe/) or [pizza and pigs in a blanket](http://time.com/money/3926937/pizza-hut-hot-dog-pizza/), there’s nothing like when your two favorite things come together to create something somehow larger than its constituent parts. Add to the list Sir Ian McKellen reciting the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood.” The folks at [Yahoo](https://screen.yahoo.com/sir-ian-mckellen-reads-taylor-171212896.html) have made our dream come true—a dream we didn’t even know that we had—with this video of the esteemed actor and British knight pouring his incomparable talent to imbue Swift’s lyrics with a dark passion, declaring that his “mad love” is now “bad blood.” Chilling, indeed. He topped off that Oscar worthy performance by reciting the lyrics to Marc Ronson’s and Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk,” and makes it clear that he is going to” uptown funk you up. ” For those of who spend our lives on the internet there may be no greater moment. ### Veteran Actors Before They Were Stars  Betty White One of White’s earliest television roles was as a co-host on a live variety show called Hollywood on Television in 1949\. More than 60 years later, White is now in The Guinness World Records as the female entertainer with the longest television career. NBCUniversal/Getty Images  Judi Dench Before having to deal with James Bond’s oft-infuriating antics as the first female to play “M,” Dench spent most of her career gracing the stages of British theater and television. Jimmy Sime—Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Christopher Lloyd The time traveler with the iconic static cling hair landed his first movie gig as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but he spent most of his early career in the spotlight as an ex-hippie cabbie named “Reverend” Jim Ignatowski on the sitcom Taxi. NBC/Getty Images  Tommy Lee Jones The man in black’s first film role was as a Harvard student in Love Story (1970), but he didn’t have to pretend to be an ivy leaguer -- he was one. Jones graduated with a B.A. in English from Harvard and was also an offensive guard on the school’s undefeated 1968 varsity football team. Harvard/Collegiate Images/Getty Images  Robert De Niro De Niro had several roles in minor films in the 60s, before making his mark on Hollywood playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images  Michael Caine It takes decades of acting experience in order to be able to babysit eccentric billionaires with a penchant for wearing black. Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, the British actor would adopt the stage name “Michael Scott” and finally “Michael Caine” in the 1950s when he toured the various theaters in England to start off his career. Popperfoto/Getty Images  Meryl Streep The perennial Oscar contender’s first feature film was Julia (1977), but it was her performance in The Deer Hunter (1978) in the following year that landed Streep her first, of many, Academy Award nominations. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Helen Mirren A mainstay in British theater for much of her career, one of Mirren’s earliest film roles was as Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968). David Farrell—Getty Images  Ian McKellen The wizard in white spent much of his early career on the stage becoming a fixture in British theater, but it wasn’t until the 1990s when he began to garner attention from a wider audience for his roles in films such as Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Popperfoto/Getty Images  Maggie Smith Before she was the head of Gryffindor House, Maggie Smith honed her craft in British theaters like the prestigious Royal National Theatre. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images  Bill Murray The party crashing ghostbuster got his start on television as a cast member on the short-lived ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell in 1975, before joining NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1977. 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