A behind-the-scenes image of Ian McKellen in character as Gandalf in The Hobbit: There and Back Again was revealed.

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What's hilarious about the picture is that McKellen is seen working on a MacBook wearing his long snowy beard and arcane garb.

In a behind-the-scenes interview the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the actor spoke about how he came very close to quitting acting while shooting the second film in the trilogy in New Zealand.

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Director Peter Jackson's visual effects demanded that the actor work in isolation for long stretches, leaving him feeling "pretty miserable." McKellen's struggle actually made him reconsider his profession. 

"Has the time come for me to stop acting altogether if I can't cope with these difficulties?" he recalled asking himself.

The loneliness seems to have really gotten to the 74-year-old actor, who had to be filmed seperately so that character was a towering figure and the other relatively shorter characters could be edited into the frame.

"It was so distressing and off-putting and difficult that I thought 'I don't want to make this film if this is what I'm going to have to do'," McKellen added. "It's not what I do for a living. I act with other people, I don't act on my own."

The Hobbit: There and Back Again will hit theaters on Dec. 18.