\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/04\/16\/0e89b87d-05b8-45ed-8a66-88bdeeb13f0e_fa1cec31.jpg?itok=HhHTTXu2&v=1776309202\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel met like their characters in The Christophers<\/em> do: with a knock on the door.<\/p>\n Coel, taking a break from writing her upcoming BBC-HBO series First Day on Earth<\/em> in Ghana, turned up at McKellen\u2019s house in London to go over the script with him and screenwriter Ed Solomon.<\/p>\n \u201cI walked into your house,\u201d Coel says in an interview with her and McKellen. \u201cI knew who you were. You were like, \u2018Hello! What are you? What are you then?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou looked interesting and beautiful,\u201d McKellen says, smiling. \u201cAnd you are.\u201d<\/p>\n On-screen chemistry can be elusive, especially when two characters are intended to be diametric opposites.<\/p>\n In The Christophers<\/em> \u2013 which was screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival earlier this month \u2013 McKellen stars as the artist Julian Sklar, a David Hockney-like artist who has not painted in years and now spends most of his days grousing in his dishevelled townhouse while filming personalised videos that trade on his celebrity.<\/p>\nCoel, the creative force behind I May Destroy You<\/em><\/span>, plays Lori Butler, an art restorer hired as Julian\u2019s assistant with the tacit task, while she is there, of forging additional paintings of \u201cthe Christophers\u201d, Julian\u2019s most famous and highly lucrative series.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n