Ian McKellen loved Gandalf, but not for things to end this way.
I felt so sad that I thought it was time to give up acting.
During the filming of The Lord of the Rings, they used huge camera tricks and played with perspectives and sets to create the impression that Gandalf was much bigger than Frodo.
In other words, Ian shared the set with his co-stars, looked them in the eyes, and acted alongside them, but things were very different in The Hobbit.
To make Gandalf look much bigger than the 13 dwarves, they couldn’t film together. They were in one place and he was in another, surrounded by a green screen.
His company consisted of 13 photographs of his co-stars attached to stands, each with a little light that came on when it was someone’s turn to “speak”. He had to remember where to look, time his pauses, and imagine the emotions of people who weren’t there.
“Pretending you’re with 13 other people when you’re alone pushes your technical ability to its absolute limit”, he later said.
One day, he couldn’t take it anymore. Thinking no one could hear him, he said out loud: “This isn’t what I became an actor for”.
The microphone was on, and the whole studio heard him.
“I cried, actually. I cried”, he admitted.
The production team and his co-stars noticed how sad he was and decided to surprise him. To relive happier times, they decorated his entire trailer with props from The Lord of the Rings films and called that day Gandalf Appreciation Day. The gesture worked, but it left open the debate about how CGI has its limitations, especially when that human touch is needed.