Sir Ben Kingsley on The Mandarin: I Don’t Worry About Audience Reaction

While Iron Man 3 villain Sir Ben Kingsley is at least vaguely aware of the negative reactions that his portrayal of Trevor Slattery/The Mandarin has received in some segments of fandom, the Academy Award-winning actor says he doesn’t, and can’t, worry about audience reactions when taking on iconic characters–something he learned from years doing Shakespeare.”I wasn’t worried [about fan reaction],” Kingsley told The Huffington Post in a new interview about his upcoming Marvel One-Shot short film All Hail the King. “I truly wasn’t worried. When I worked a lot in the theater before I became heavily involved in movies, which I love, I was privileged to play a lot of Shakespearian roles that most people in the audience were familiar with and everyone has their preconception of … so, it had to be my Mandarin. It had to be my Trevor.”The veteran actor admitted, “I don’t get too heavily involved with feedback; I express and then I’m done. I paint my portrait and then I put my brushes down and I walk away. But it has filtered through to me in a gentle way that very, very, very few people indeed were upset by that twist. Even avid Marvel fans, they went along with it.”Of course, in the comic book community, that number has seemed large and noisy–but the movie made over a billion dollars, so whether it’s Kingsley who’s being thrown softballs by his people or fans living in an echo chamber is probably anybody’s guess.”I honestly don’t know,” said Kingsley when asked whether we might see a third appearance for the character. “I know they’re keen to seeing how this film goes. They were all there at the screening that they kindly invited me to — all the guys, they love it. I honestly don’t know. Trevor is so unpredictable anyway, I can’t answer for him! He’s mad — he’s probably lying in a pool of blood and Guinness somewhere.”All Hail the King will be on the Thor: The Dark World Blu-ray, available next week.