Contact Music, 12 July 2013
By Jack de Aguilar

The star accidentally harms one of his colleagues.

Oh Kenneth Branagh, you get so deep into your roles, you’ve forgotten what’s real and what’s acting! The 52-year-old actor managed to injure one of the cast of 'Macbeth' in a choreographed fight scene, by hitting him with a real sword. Notice we said hitting and not stabbing, lawyers.

' “There is enormous concentration,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on the perilous nature of the battle scenes. “It is impossible to say that it is without danger. Metal clashes, sparks literally fly.” In a statement, the Manchester International Festival (MIF) said: "An actor was hurt during one of the fight scenes in a performance of 'Macbeth' on Wednesday night. MIF has qualified medics on site during each performance and the actor was assessed and told he was fine to continue on with the evening's performance. The actor was taken to hospital afterwards as a precaution."

Though the MIF confirmed the news that someone was injured, a spokeswoman for the Festival said that they are unable to confirm the rumour that the actor was injured with Sir Kenneth’s sword. The Telegraph reported that he was in fact hit with the sword.

In other Branagh related news, the Northern Irish actor has his eye on the job of artistic director of the Old Vic. "I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say Kenneth Branagh, artistic director," he told BBC Radio 4's Front Row two years ago. The position is set to become available when Kevin Spacey vacates it in 2015.