Movie star cried on set not knowing his mic was on - 'This is not why I became an actor'

Ian McKellen has previously opened up about breaking down in tears on the set of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

The term ‘screen legend’ is thrown around like a Frisbee amongst movie fans, but if anybody has earned that title, well and truly, it’s Ian McKellen. The 84-year-old English actor is known for a wealth of beloved roles, including Magneto in the innovative X-Men franchise and Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. So perfect for that last part, in fact, he reprised it in The Hobbit prequel trilogy. Fans were smitten to see him back donning the cloak and strolling with his staff, but by the end of the first installment’s production, Ian would perhaps rather have been cast into the fires of Mount Doom than not take a breather…

Ian McKellen cried during a breakdown on The Hobbit movie set

The actor who played the iconic wizard was on the set of the 2012 blockbuster The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey, shooting green screen sequences, when he was suddenly brought to tears.

“In order to shoot the dwarves and a large Gandalf, we couldn’t be in the same set,” he relayed of his difficult experience in a conversation with Contact Music.

“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 grueling task reduced him to an outpouring of tears: “And 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.”

It’s a testament to Ian’s grand experience and dedication as an actor that he turned in pitch-perfect performances in a further two installments after that, helping solidify the trilogy’s legacy and do service to J.R.R. Tolkien’s much-loved 1937 novel.

Ian McKellen still looks back fondly on The Lord Of The Rings

Despite being brought to tears working on The Hobbit, Ian previously spoke to Time Out in 2018 about how much he enjoyed working on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy beforehand.

“I was miserable,” he said of filming The Hobbit. “It may be my impression, but I don’t remember a green screen on The Lord of the Rings. If Gandalf was on top of a mountain, I’d be there on the mountain.”

He discussed that the green screen technology was being worked on while he was shooting, and that during The Lord Of The Rings he was in real locations. “I was away acting on a mountain,” he said. “I tend not to remember the bad times, but I don’t think there were any. I think I enjoyed every single moment of making those films.”

Fans enjoyed watching every single moment of those films too, no doubt about it.

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