Sir Ian McKellen performed a searing pro-immigrant monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More in protest of the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Wednesday (4 February), the screen legend appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss his upcoming returns as Gandalf and Magneto in new instalments of The Lord of the Rings and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as his stage role in The Ark.

The interview then became a platform for McKellen to condemn the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement and the actions of ICE, tactics that have sparked nationwide protests after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

Drawing parallels to the Elizabethan play Sir Thomas More, McKellen said: “It’s all happening 400 years ago. In London, there’s a riot happening, there’s a mob out in the streets, and they’re complaining about the presence of ‘strangers’ in London, by which they mean the recent immigrants that arrived there.