Sir Ian McKellen, popularly known for playing Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto in the X-Men films, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001) and The Hobbit (2012) franchises, had a bitter experience working with CGI when he reprised his role in the Martin Freeman-led trilogy.
McKellen, 84, almost decided to hang his gray cloak when he couldn’t bear it any further. Having his roots in theater, the actor was not comfortable working with green screens.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed at a time when filmmakers used actual props and shooting locations, which was an experience that pushed the limits of actors to give out their best performance, noted McKellen.
Peter Jackson’s decision to film The Hobbit trilogy with digital technologies didn’t go down well with an actor of his caliber until something interesting happened that saved the $5.8 billion franchise.
Read More: Sir Ian McKellen Reportedly Returning as Magneto in MCU Thanks to Elizabeth Olsen
The Hobbit Experience Hurt Sir Ian McKellen
Actors like Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, and Andy Serkis reprised their roles from The Lord of the Rings. Having a veteran actor like Sir Ian McKellen come back for another outing was a massive win for the studios.
McKellen has had some experience with CGI from his X-Men days, but he was mostly fond of visiting the actual locations that had actual people working alongside him. He said –
“In order to shoot the dwarves and a large Gandalf, we couldn’t be in the same set. All I had for company was 13 photographs of the dwarves on top of stands with little lights – whoever’s talking flashes up. Pretending you’re with 13 other people when you’re on your own… it stretches your technical ability to the absolute limits.”
The publication also reported that he threw temper tantrums as the experience got to his nerves and Peter Jackson had to step in ultimately.
Peter Jackson Comforted Sir Ian McKellen
Jackson had some comments in the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which highlighted that he knew he put Sir Ian McKellen through a hard time.
“He truly had such a miserable time on the first day or two of the shoot. We felt sorry for him being dumped in green screen land,” said Jackson.
The director eventually had to swoop in to comfort McKellen who ended up bursting into tears.
“I cried, actually. I cried. Then I said out loud, ‘This is not why I became an actor.’ Unfortunately, the microphone was on and the whole studio heard.”
The success of the franchise led Amazon Studios to develop a prequel set a thousand years back from the events of these films. The series, titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, was released last year on Amazon Prime Video.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey can be streamed on Max.
Source: Contact Music
