Stephen Fry has long spoken candidly about walking away from Simon Gray's play Cell Mates in 1995, an episode he still regards with regret. After just three performances alongside co-star Rik Mayall, Fry quit the production, leaving only a letter of apology to the director and Mayall before disappearing; he was found later that week having survived a suicide attempt, which eventually led to a bipolar diagnosis years afterwards.

In his letter, later published by Gray, Fry apologised for "any disappointments and inadequacies in the evening" and cited a harsh Financial Times review of his acting. Looking back a decade on, he described the episode as a "clammy horror" that struck despite his having performed for crowds of nearly 80,000 at Wembley. Cell Mates was never revived after the incident, but Fry has since remained highly active on stage and screen, appearing in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, The Morning Show, Red, White & Royal Blue and The Hobbit trilogy, and returned to theatre in 2025 in a gender-swapped role in The Importance of Being Earnest.