Ian McKellen avoids going out after ‘horrible’ stage fall: ‘I’ve been dealing with agonizing pain’

nypost.com:

Ian McKellen is recounting a scary incident.The 85-year-old revealed that wearing a fat suit protected him after he fell off stage during a West End performance in June.

McKellen told Saga Magazine that he hasn’t wanted to leave his home since the incident, where he chipped a vertebra and fractured his wrist due to the medical repercussions.“My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet healed,” said the English actor. “I avoid going out because I’m nervous someone might bump into me, and I’ve been dealing with agonizing pain in my shoulders due to the jolt my body took.

But the fat suit I wore for Falstaff saved my ribs and other joints, so I consider myself lucky.”Despite McKellen’s “lucky escape,” he is still recovering from the trauma of his accident.“I’ve relived that fall countless times.

It was horrible,” McKellen continued. “I thought it was the end of something. It was very upsetting. The end didn’t mean my death, but it felt like the end of my participation in the play.”These days, the “Lord of the Rings” star has to keep telling himself that he’s not too old to act.“It was just a bloody accident,” McKellen recalled. “I didn’t lose consciousness, I hadn’t been dizzy, but I’ve not been able to return to the stage, and they’ve continued without me.”The “Critic” star was portraying John Falstaff in “Player Kings,” a production of William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Parts One and Two,” at the Noel Coward Theatre in London when he fell during a battle scene.