– For some of his scenes acting against the dwarves, Ian McKellen was isolated in a green-screen set — the “slave set” adjacent to the main set; he wore an earpiece that allowed him to hear the other actors filming their parts. The veteran actor had such a difficult time performing before the Slave Motion Control cameras — which would allow his Gandalf character to seem much taller than the dwarves — he actually broke down in tears of frustration during a shoot, and considered giving up acting all together because of this experience. Director Peter Jackson ended up praising him for his performance, and the actor eventually got the hang of working within the confines of this new filming technology.

[Photo via Popular Mechanics]