Watch Tom Hanks Ad-Lib in Character as Falstaff During Medical Emergency That Stopped LA Play (Video)
The actor filled time during production of “Henry IV” at Shakespeare Center in Los Angeles
Ross A. Lincoln | June 16, 2018 @ 11:25 AM
Last Updated: June 16, 2018 @ 12:39 PM
When an audience member had a medical emergency Wednesday night during a performance of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” in Los Angeles, Tom Hanks saved the show by entertaining the crowd with an in-character ad lib session while medics tended to the patient.
According to the OC Register, the performance was halted for nearly half an hour after the audience member fell unconscious during the second act. Crew members with medical training attempted first aid until paramedics arrived. It was then that Hanks, who plays the plus-size Falstaff in the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles production, came back out on stage to keep the crowd from leaving.
“Come back here!” Hanks told the crowd as he re-appeared on stage. “God has decided this play needed a second intermission.”
“But the scurvy rogues that stood up from their seats, tore apart their tickets” gave “an insult to all actors and to Shakespeare himself,” Hanks shouted. “Get back here! Or find this sword, and many a dagger, placed deeply in your carrots. No intermission brew for you!” Hanks added.
The crowd, by the way, loved the improvised routine.
The Oscar winner kept going for almost five minutes, roasting audience members, including one he said stole his costume, offering to use his sword to cut people’s hair, and even bringing audience members up on stage.
The play resumed after the fallen audience member was taken to a nearby hospital, but per the OC Register, the unidentified patient was fine.
The performance, held at the Japanese Garden on the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration campus, runs Tuesday through Sunday at 8 p.m. until July 1.
Watch the whole clip above.
Oscars 2018: 8 Biggest Snubs and Surprises, From Tom Hanks to Denzel Washington (Photos)
Every year at the Academy Awards, there are inevitably certain nominees that raise eyebrows in surprise and glaring omissions that furrow those eyebrows in anger. 2018 was no different. Here are some of this year's snubs and surprises.
SURPRISE: Denzel Washington for "Roman J. Israel, Esq.": Washington's portrayal of a lawyer caught in a moral quagmire left critics lukewarm and didn't make much of an impact at the box office, yet it has earned the beloved actor his ninth Oscar nomination and sixth in the Best Actor category.
SNUB: Tom Hanks for "The Post": Many awards prognosticators expected that the Best Actor slot taken by Denzel would have gone to Tom Hanks for his portrayal of Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. Instead, Jason Robards' performance in "All The President's Men" remains the only Ben Bradlee to get an Oscar nod.
SURPRISE: Lesley Manville for "Phantom Thread": Daniel Day Lewis got much of the press for "Phantom Thread," but Manville has earned some attention for her performance as Reynolds Woodcock's devoted sister and business partner, who spends the whole film putting up with Reynolds obsessive nonsense.
SNUB: Holly Hunter for "The Big Sick": Kumail Nanjiani's true-story dramedy earned a screenplay nomination, but Hunter, who was considered an early contender for Best Supporting Actress last summer for her performance as Kumail's tough but loving future mother-in-law, ended up sliding out of the final list.
SURPRISE: Paul Thomas Anderson for "Phantom Thread": It feels weird to call it a surprise that an acclaimed filmmaker like Anderson got a nomination for Best Director, but in such a competitive field, not many awards analysts expected him to sneak in and take a nod for his work immersing audiences in Reynolds Woodcock's meticulous world. That's especially considering he managed to beat out...
SNUB: Steven Spielberg for "The Post": With its paean to journalism and not-so-subtle tweak at Donald Trump, it was expected that Academy voters would go ga-ga over "The Post." Instead, it's getting the "Selma" treatment, earning a Best Picture nomination but only getting one other nom for Meryl Streep while Spielberg misses out on an eighth Oscar nomination.
SURPRISE: "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" for Best Documentary Feature: PBS will get a surprise nomination for their powerful recounting about how a small, family-owned bank in New York's Chinatown became the only bank prosecuted by the feds in the wake of the 2008 recession.
SNUB: "City of Ghosts" for Best Documentary Feature: Docs about the ongoing Syria crisis have been fertile ground for award winning docs like "Last Men In Aleppo" and last year's Best Short Doc winner, "The White Helmets." But the Academy didn't go for this horrifying but moving tale about Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a team of citizen journalists reporting the abuses of ISIS at the risk of their own lives.
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Who got robbed at the Oscars this year?
Every year at the Academy Awards, there are inevitably certain nominees that raise eyebrows in surprise and glaring omissions that furrow those eyebrows in anger. 2018 was no different. Here are some of this year's snubs and surprises.
