Sir Ian McKellen shares Hobbit frustrations

With the first instalment to The Hobbit trilogy fast approaching, Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that he burst into tears of frustration on the set of the eagerly anticipated film.

The veteran actor who reprises his role of wizard Gandalf in the Peter Jackson directed film tells ContactMusic that he became upset while filming a sequence on green screen with only visual aids to act against "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.

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 first in the trilogy; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on December 14 in IMAX and conventional cinemas featuring the stellar cast of Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elijah Wood, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Lee Pace, Billy Connolly, Ian Holm, James Nesbitt, Barry Humphries, Graham McTavish and Stephen Fry.

Ian McKellen Photos

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY OPENS IN IMAM AND CINEMAS ON DECEMBER 14