Sir Ian McKellen has been forced to pull out of an international premiere for his latest film, The Christophers, after orders from a doctor. Instead of attending the premiere, the actor made a pre-recorded appearance for the Toronto Film Festival, where his latest dark comedy movie was being screened. The actor, 86, revealed that his "medical advisers" had suggested he not fly. Although Ian didn't disclose what the health scare preventing him from flying was, he added that it was "better safe than sorry" for him to miss the premiere.
Ian's latest film
Ian Mckellen appears in the new dark comedy, The Christophers, alongside Michaela Coel, James Corden and Baby Reindeer's Jessica Gunning. The film follows the estranged children of a dying artist (played by Ian McKellen) who hire a skilled forger (Michaela Coel) to complete their father's unfinished paintings from the past, the "Christopher series," with the aim of selling them to secure an inheritance.
Ian's fall
The actor's health scare comes a year after his horror fall in London's West End. The Lord of the Rings actor was two months into a season of Player Kings, where he portrayed Shakespeare’s Falstaff. During one performance, he fell from the stage into the first row of the audience at London’s Noël Coward theatre. The actor sustained minor injuries and was forced to pull out of the show.
"My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet healed," Ian told Saga magazine in an interview last year. "I avoid going out because I'm nervous someone might bump into me, and I’ve been dealing with agonising pains 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."
At the time, HELLO! exclusively reported that an audience member, who had watched the actor's fall happen, said that the actor was in 'severe agony' after the accident. "As soon as he fell, there was a moment of: 'Oh, my God, what's happened?' everyone had seen it and started murmuring in the audience." She added: "Then within about five seconds, we just heard this horrible sound of him, shouting out in what was clearly agony, he was obviously in pain. It was horrible.