Ian McKellen says his fat suit „saved” him after falling off stage during a London show in June, although he remains in „excruciating pain” as he recovers from his injuries.
The 85-year-old actor, two months into the Blair King’s season – as Shakespeare’s Falstaff – fell from the stage into the front row of the audience at London’s Noel Coward Theatre. He then left the show.
„My shattered vertebrae and broken wrist still haven’t healed,” McKellen said. Saga magazineIn a new interview on Tuesday. „I avoid going out because I’m nervous that someone might bump into me, and I deal with excruciating pains in my shoulders from the tremors my body takes. But the fat suit I wore as Falstaff saved my ribs and other joints, so I consider myself lucky.
The Lord of the Rings actor said, „I don’t know how many times I relived that fall. It was horrible.
Falling during a fight scene, he said, „I got my leg caught in a chair, and I tried to move it, and I started sliding on some newspapers scattered on the stage like I was on a skateboard.”
Fell into the lap of „someone in the front row” and started screaming.
„It was very sad. The end [didn’t mean] my death It was my participation in the play.
McKellen says she doesn’t feel guilty about the accident, but continues to reassure herself that she’s „not too old to act, it was a bloody accident”.
„I didn’t lose consciousness, I didn’t faint, but I couldn’t go back,” he told Saga, adding that he was in a neck brace and his right arm was split open.
Days after the injury, McClellan expressed his desire to return to production and thanked the „specialists, specialists and nurses” who treated him at the hospital.
A spokesman for the Noel Coward Theater said at the time that he was expected to make a „speedy and full recovery”, although he later left the show and was replaced by David Semark.
„Totalny pionier w sieci. Specjalista od piwa niezależny. Ewangelista popkultury. Miłośnik muzyki. Nieprzepraszający przedsiębiorca”.