Ian McKellen’s former understudy lauds actor’s work ethic: ‘A vanishing breed’

David Weston, Sir Ian McKellen’s former understudy, has opened up about the actor’s work ethics and the toll doing theatre can take physically.

In an essay for The Guardian, he described McKellen’s commitment to the job and how he always showed up despite exhaustion or illness.

“After following him across the world as his understudy in King Lear in 2007, I know his dread of disappointing his audience. No matter how tired he was or how ill he felt, Sir Ian was always there,” Weston writes.

“He is of the old school of actors who pride themselves on never missing a performance. A vanishing breed.”

McKellen, 85, is currently playing John Falstaff in Player Kings, a production of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, at the Noël Coward Theatre.

The Lord of the Rings star slipped and fell from the stage while enacting a fight scene and was taken to hospital.

McKellen updated fans about his condition on Tuesday. “I want to thank everyone for their kind messages and support,” he said via his publicist Clair Dobbs.

“Since the accident, during a performance of Player Kings last night, my injuries have been diagnosed and treated by a series of experts, specialists and nurses working for the National Health Service. To them, of course, I am hugely indebted. They have assured me that my recovery will be complete and speedy and I am looking forward to returning to work.”

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Weston, whose book Covering McKellen: An Understudy’s Tale won the 2012 Theatre Book Prize, went on to describe the specific scene in which McKellen was injured, explaining how it has caused injuries to other actors, including himself.

“There must be something about that scene. Not only has Sir Ian been injured in it, but in 1961 that fine actor Tony Britton was playing Hotspur at the Old Vic in London, and was conveyed to St Thomas’s hospital in full armour having suffered a severe head wound when Prince Hal mistimed a swipe to his head. He bore the scar on his forehead to his dying day,” he wrote.

“My Prince Hal lunged at me, I parried with my dagger, swung round and found myself hurtling off the slippery metal stage on to the ancient stones five feet below.

“I fell on to a rock, still holding my sword tightly in my left hand, and broke my wrist.”

Weston described the physical demands of doing theatre and highlighted how the challenges intensify for ageing actors as they contend with learning lines, struggling with physical movements like kneeling as well as deteriorating vision and hearing.

“The craft becomes increasingly difficult for ageing actors. The lines become more difficult to learn, the dread of drying on stage can affect the greatest of actors, although I’ve never suffered it myself.

“Shakespeare becomes impossible unless you’re playing the king: you spend so much time on your knees and have nothing to grab hold of to help you get up. Your eyesight goes. You find it hard to see steps or the edges of things.

“You become slightly deaf and have difficulty hearing your cues, especially from young actors who don’t project like they did in your youth.”

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In a statement to The Independent, a representative for Player Kings said: “Thank you to our audience and the general public for their well wishes following Ian’s fall during this evening’s performance of Player Kings.

“Following a scan, the brilliant NHS team have assured us that he will make a speedy and full recovery and Ian is in good spirits.

“The production has made the decision to cancel the performance on Tuesday 18 June so Ian can rest. Those affected will be contacted by their point of purchase as soon as possible tomorrow.”

Player Kings is due to move to the Bristol Hippodrome in July and will also be staged in Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle.