Bret McKenzie reveals how Ian McKellen made him break character on The Hobbit

New Zealand musician, actor and comedian Bret McKenzie has recalled how Sir Ian McKellen had him in fits of giggles while shooting Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films.

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.

Appearing on the Good Vibrations podcast, he recalled how lengthy periods between shoots would encourage naughty behaviour from the cast.

One technically tricky scene that required actors playing the dwarves to be in a separate room, in order to be able to “shrink” them later using CGI, meant that Weaving, McKellen and McKenzie were left standing around for some time.

“We’re sitting there, we start making up ‘Lord of the Rings: The Musical’ to pass the time, singing these songs about elves and Gandalf – we were just having an absolute ball,” he said.

“Suddenly they were like, ‘action!’ So we’re trying to do this very solemn scene with a straight face. And then Ian McKellen starts humming [the songs we’d made up] without moving his mouth.”

Listen to the podcast in full:

He continued: “That’s the most fun thing, when you’re not allowed to laugh and you start laughing – so we’re all in hysterics trying to hide these giggles. And Peter Jackson calls cut and goes: ‘Can the elves please stop laughing?’ It was so funny.”

He said of working with McKellen: “He’s a lovely, fun guy [and] he’s got such a sparkle, it’s amazing to watch his acting because his face is just magic on-screen, it’s unbelievable.”

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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.

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

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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.

“We’ve been working on a little bit of writing, trying to come up with new ideas,” McKenzie said. “If we did a tour, it’s always fun to have some new stuff, it makes it alive for us.”

McKenzie also works as a composer and musical director on various films. In 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet”, which featured in the 2011 film The Muppets.

He is currently on a headline solo tour that includes two dates at Bush Hall in London on 20 and 22 October.

The full episode of Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations with Bret McKenzie is available on all major streaming platforms. McKenzie’s album Freak Out City is out now.