Doctor’s orders.
Ian McKellen backed out of the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of his new movie, “The Christophers,” on Sunday because his “medical advisers” told him he shouldn’t fly.
“Better safe than sorry,” the “Lord of the Rings” star, 86, said in a pre-taped introduction, per Variety.
“If you enjoy it, will you tell your friends?” McKellen asked the audience via video at the Princess of Wales Theatre. “That’s partly what festivals are about, isn’t it?”
McKellen didn’t go into any more detail about his health, and it’s unclear if his current medical concerns are connected to the scary stage fall he took in June 2024 during a performance of “Player Kings” at the Noël Coward Theatre in London.
The incident left the “X-Men” star hospitalized for three days, and he later admitted that he was afraid to leave his home following the startling experience.
“My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet healed,” he told Saga Magazine in August 2024. “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.”
“It was just a bloody accident,” McKellen added at the time. “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 Post has reached out to McKellen’s rep for comment.
“The Christophers” stars McKellen as a famous painter named Julian Sklar whose estranged children (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) hire an art forger (Michaela Coel) to steal and finish some of his paintings in the hopes of securing a better inheritance.
Although McKellen was not in attendance for the premiere or the post-screening Q&A session in Toronto, his co-stars still gushed about having the opportunity to work alongside the “Gods and Monsters” Oscar nominee for the Steven Soderbergh-directed flick.
“He’s just a total babe,” Coel, 37, said.
“I love cuddling him and playing with his fingers and kissing him – like, every morning, we’d just go, ‘Muah, good morning, baby,’” she continued. “I want to squeeze him. And he’s got really soft hands. Ian is just a babe.”
As for Gunning, she said that she picked up a lot from watching McKellen perform in person.
“Oh, God, so many things,” the “Baby Reindeer” actress, 39, said. “He doesn’t take things seriously, but then he completely does, as well.”
“There’s that mix of taking the work so seriously, but then he also has fun, throws it away,” she added. “He’s not serious, but he takes the work seriously.”
Coel, meanwhile, learned certain things from her “The Christophers” co-star as well.
“I learned from him to question,” she shared. “I treat every script like it’s Shakespeare. And Ian’s done enough Shakespeare to know, ‘Well, this ain’t Shakespeare.’”
“So he points out everything, and then the script is better for it,” she concluded.
