Sir Ian McKellen: Fat suit saved me from worse injuries after West End fall

Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that a fat suit “saved” his “ribs and other joints” during a fall from a stage in the West End but said he was “nervous” to leave his house after the accident.

The veteran screen and stage actor, 85, lost his footing during a Player Kings fight scene in June when the production was at the Noel Coward Theatre and has since been suffering from wrist and neck injuries.

Speaking to Saga magazine, he said: “I’ve relived that fall I don’t know how many times. It was horrible.

“It was in the battle scene. My foot got caught in a chair, and trying to shake it off I started to slide on some newspaper that was scattered over the stage, like I was on a skateboard.

“The more I tried to get rid of it, the faster I proceeded down a step, onto the forestage, and then on to the lap of someone in the front row.

“I started screaming, ‘Help me!’ and then ‘I’m sorry! I don’t do this!’. Extraordinary things. I thought it was the end of something. It was very upsetting.”

The actor said the fall left him with great pains in his shoulder. / Credit: PA

“The end”, he clarifies, did not mean “my death. It was my participation in the play. I have to keep assuring myself that I’m not too old to act and it was just a bloody accident.

“I didn’t lose consciousness, I hadn’t been dizzy, but I’ve not been able to go back and they still played without me.

“I don’t feel guilty, but the accident has let down the whole production,” he said.

“I feel such shame. I was hoping to be able to rejoin the play on the tour, but I couldn’t”, he added.

Speaking about his injuries he said: “My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet mended.

“I don’t go out because I get nervous in case someone bangs into me, and I’ve got agonising pains in my shoulders to do with my whole frame having been jolted.

“But I was wearing a fat suit for Falstaff and that saved my ribs and other joints.”

Sir Ian played John Falstaff in the play, a production adapted by Robert Icke from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, parts one and two.

The Lord Of The Rings actor said he is being looked after by his neighbours and joked that what he is missing the most at the moment is the pub quiz at The Grapes, the pub he part-owns in east London.

Sir Ian’s understudy, David Semark, stepped in to finish the run in the West End and continued to play the role during the national tour.

Sir Ian was unable to return due to his injuries and told Saga magazine that “there are suggestions we’ll do (the play) again, but we’ll see”.

The actor, who has played a number of Shakespearean characters including Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus and King Lear, is best known as Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy The Lord Of The Rings.