PREVIEW

Ian McKellen keeps 'reliving' his 'horrible' stage fall. In June, the British icon fell off the stage at London's Noël Coward Theatre while performing in a production of Player Kings, which combines Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. McKellen, 85, later withdrew from the U.K. tour of the production, in which he played Falstaff due to the wrist and neck injuries he suffered in the fall. He was replaced by his understudy David Semark. The X-Men star told Saga Magazine in a new interview: ”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.” McKellen then remembered calling for help after landing "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 Lord of the Rings actor admitted he felt "such shame" about pulling out of the play. ”I don't feel guilty, but the accident has let down the whole production. I feel such shame. I was hoping to be able to rejoin the play on the tour, but I couldn’t." "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.” The star then revealed that he had been wearing a fat suit at the time of the incident which "saved (his) ribs and other joints”.
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