On Friday MSNBC Live host Thomas Roberts was duped by a famous English actor pretending to be Sir Ian McKellan, another English actor famous for his role as the villain Magneto in X-Men.
Roberts was supposed to interview McKellan about the Friday Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states, but ended up on the phone with actor Derek Jacobi. Both McKellan and Jacobi are gay.
Jacobi let Roberts in on the joke after a lengthy phone interview.
"So last question," Roberts asks his guest. "When do you return as Magneto in X-Men?"
"I don't play Magneto in X-Men," Jacobi said.
"Oh," Roberts said. Then, after a lengthy pause, "Wait, where’s Ian?"
The awkwardness continued after Jacobi’s switcheroo. When Sir Ian joined Jacobi on the call, Roberts mistakenly assumed the two men were engaged.
"Well, my last question was—as we were talking about politics and what this means—when you're returning to play Magneto in X-Men and then your fiancé let me know that I was speaking to the wrong Sir Ian."
"He’s not my fiancé, but that he were," McKellan said, playing the gaffe off with characteristic humor.
Roberts summed up the interview after the call concluded.
"Well I was brilliantly confused there."
McKellan does not plan to reprise his role as Magneto on X-Men.