{"id":206354,"date":"2025-10-17T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T10:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206354\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T10:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T10:53:11","slug":"bret-mckenzie-reveals-how-ian-mckellen-made-him-break-character-on-the-hobbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206354\/","title":{"rendered":"Bret McKenzie reveals how Ian McKellen made him break character on The Hobbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New Zealand musician, actor and comedian Bret McKenzie<\/a> has recalled how Sir Ian McKellen<\/a> had him in fits of giggles while shooting Peter Jackson<\/a>\u2019s The Hobbit<\/a> films. <\/p>\n

McKenzie, 49, appeared as an elf in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises opposite McKellen as the wizard Gandalf and Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the master of the Elvish sanctuary Rivendell. <\/p>\n

Appearing on the Good Vibrations<\/a> podcast, he recalled how lengthy periods between shoots would encourage naughty behaviour from the cast. <\/p>\n

One technically tricky scene that required actors playing the dwarves to be in a separate room, in order to be able to \u201cshrink\u201d them later using CGI, meant that Weaving, McKellen and McKenzie were left standing around for some time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sitting there, we start making up \u2018Lord of the Rings: The Musical\u2019 to pass the time, singing these songs about elves and Gandalf \u2013 we were just having an absolute ball,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly they were like, \u2018action!\u2019 So we\u2019re trying to do this very solemn scene with a straight face. And then Ian McKellen starts humming [the songs we\u2019d made up] without moving his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast in full:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThat\u2019s the most fun thing, when you\u2019re not allowed to laugh and you start laughing \u2013 so we\u2019re all in hysterics trying to hide these giggles. And Peter Jackson calls cut and goes: \u2018Can the elves please stop laughing?\u2019 It was so funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said of working with McKellen: \u201cHe\u2019s a lovely, fun guy [and] he\u2019s got such a sparkle, it\u2019s amazing to watch his acting because his face is just magic on-screen, it\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"L-R:<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

L-R: Hugo Weaving, Bret McKenzie and Ian McKellen in \u2018The Hobbit\u2019 (AFP\/Getty Images\/Warner Bros)<\/p>\n

In the same interview, McKenzie opened up about the making of his new album, Freak Out City, which came out in August via Sub Pop records, along with some of the wilder stories from his early touring days. <\/p>\n

He also spoke about the prospect of a Flight of the Conchords reunion<\/a>, to celebrate the hit musical comedy duo he formed in 1998 with Jemaine Clement. <\/p>\n

\"Roisin<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations with Bret McKenzie (The Independent\/Press)<\/p>\n

After beginning as a live comedy act, the pair were given a self-titled radio series and then an HBO show of the same name, which ran between 2007 to 2009. They won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2008, for their EP The Distant Future. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on a little bit of writing, trying to come up with new ideas,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cIf we did a tour, it\u2019s always fun to have some new stuff, it makes it alive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie also works as a composer and musical director on various films. In 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for \u201cMan or Muppet\u201d, which featured in the 2011 film The Muppets. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He is currently on a headline solo tour that includes two dates at Bush Hall in London on 20 and 22 October. <\/p>\n

The full episode of Roisin O\u2019Connor\u2019s Good Vibrations with Bret McKenzie is available on all major streaming platforms<\/a>. McKenzie\u2019s album Freak Out City is out now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-206354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}