American actor Anna Kendrick and several others had to be rescued from an elevator at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Sunday evening, after it became stuck between floors.
Kendrick documented the ordeal in a video posted to social media.
“Ah, the classic ‘I’m behind schedule at this film festival because I had to be rescued from an elevator’ excuse,” she wrote on Twitter.
Kendrick was in the city to promote her new film Alice, Darling at TIFF.
She posted several clips of herself and the others stuck in the elevator car, joking that they should “ration” the snacks and gum they had until they were rescued.
“This is why I should take the stairs next time,” someone else can be heard saying in the video.
The video also appears to show rescue crews removing the hatch of the elevator, and lowering down a ladder.
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Those stuck, including Kendrick, then had to climb the ladder to safety.
“It’s a good thing I’m not wearing a short skirt today,” Kendrick quips as she climbs the ladder. “The Lord said to me, choose the long skirt, Anna.”
“I’m in love with every single one of you — thanks guys!” she said as she climbs out the other side with help from a few Toronto firefighters.
Kendrick also snapped a few photos with the first responders which she shared in the video.
Steve Darling, division commander Toronto Fire services, told Global News that crews received a report of a stuck elevator just before 9 p.m. on Sunday.
He said it took them only four minutes to reach Kendrick and the other stuck elevator passengers.
“The crews arrived, and on the other side of the elevator door — once they got it open — they found Anna Kendrick and they were kind of star struck to be honest,” he said.
Darling said seven people were in the elevator.
“They were all talking and laughing and having a good time, and she was keeping them entertained,” he said. “She’s very witty and she’s quite funny, so the hat goes off to her for being so amusing and calm in what could be otherwise, you know, sort of a stressful situation.”
He said he wasn’t sure if they were all with Kendrick, but said they were “all friends by the end of it all.”
Darling said he is “very proud” that the crew was able to safely extract Kendrick and the others.
“We run a lot of these calls, we’re a vertical city, where it’s probably the third largest in North America with the third highest number of high rises,” he said.
He said Toronto fire crews are train very hard to do these types of elevator extractions.
“We’ve responded this year to date to like 2,000 elevator related calls, and of that 1,700 Of those, we’ve had to make an extraction,” he said. “So you never know who’s gonna be on the other side and we treat them all the same. But, you know, when when she popped out, it was it was kind of exciting.”
Darling said it’s “hard to determine” why the elevator became stuck.
“It could be any number of things, (the) door could have been a jar slightly could have been overloaded,” he said. “It’s hard to really say but they weren’t in any danger to be sure, but the crews went in and they shut the power off and they were sure they were safely extracted from the elevator.”
— with files from Global News’ Brittany Rosen
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