Ian McKellen Says Fat Suit Saved Him from More Serious Injury After Stage Fall

justjared.com:

Ian McKellen is sharing an update on how he’s doing after his stage fall. More than two months ago, the 85-year-old actor was playing John Falstaff in a production of Henry IV, Parts One and Two, on London’s West End and during the show on June 17, he lost his footing and fell off the stage during a fight scene.

Shortly after the incident, Ian dropped out of the play. In a new interview, Ian looked back at the fall, revealing that by him wearing a fat suit saved him from a more serious injury. Keep reading to find out more…“I was wearing a fat suit for Falstaff, and that saved my ribs and other joints,” Ian told U.K.’s Saga Magazine in an interview published on Tuesday (August 20). Ian went on to say that he’s still hasn’t fully recovered after the fall. “My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet mended,” Ian revealed. “I don’t go out because I get nervous in case someone bangs into me, and I’ve got agonizing pains in my shoulders to do with my whole frame having been jolted.” He then went into detail about how the fall occurred. “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,” Ian explained. “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.” He continued, “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.” In an interview from before the accident, Ian addressed the possibility of returning to the Lord of the Rings franchise to play Gandolf again.