Ian McKellen Says His Fat Suit Saved Him From Further Injuries in Fall From West End Stage

When Ian McKellen fell off a London stage in June, the only thing in between him and even more serious injuries was the fat suit he was wearing for the show.

“That saved my ribs and other joints,” he told Saga magazine this week. “So I’ve had a lucky escape really.”

McKellen, 85, was starring as John Falstaff in a production of Henry IV, Parts One and Two, at the Noël Coward Theater in London. During a June 17 performance, he slipped and fell during a fight scene, and audience members heard the actor cry out before the crowd was evacuated and the show was eventually canceled.

“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 elaborated this week.

Though doctors later said the Lord of the Rings actor would make a full recovery, he eventually had to cancel his remaining performances, including a U.K. tour of the show. David Semark took McKellen’s place.

He added he is still working on recovering and currently wearing a neck and wrist brace. “My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet mended,” McKellen said. “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.”

McKellen went on to say that he’s most upset about disrupting the show. “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.”

At home in London, McKellen is being cared for by his “beloved friends next door.”

“I couldn’t manage without them,” he said, adding that there’s a door connecting their houses. “If they weren’t there I suppose I’d have to employ somebody to do that or go to a [convalescent] home for a spell.”

The friends — “four young friends, one gay couple and one straight couple” — are also regulars at McKellen’s pub, The Grapes. He said, “Not going to its pub quiz on a Monday night is what I miss most right now.”