Sir Ian McKellen has talked about his frustration with acting on a green screen during the production of the Hobbit films earlier this year.
With little over three weeks before the release of the highly anticipated Hobbit franchise, the actor, who returns to his Lord Of The Rings character of Gandalf, talks about breaking down on set and being pushed to the limits of his technical ability.
"In order to shoot the dwarves and a large Gandalf, we couldn't be in the same set" the actor explains to Contactmusic. 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.
"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" McKellen added.
Irish actors Aidan Turner and James Nesbitt will play key roles of dwarves Kili and Bofur in the trilogy of films, which will be released over two years.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released in Ireland on December 14th.
