What To Know
- Liev Schreiber was hospitalized in New York City after experiencing a major headache.
- The cause of his recent health scare remains unknown, though Schreiber has previously suffered from transient global amnesia.
- Despite the incident, Schreiber has not publicly addressed his hospitalization on social media.
Liev Schreiber has reportedly been hospitalized due to a concerning health incident.
TMZ reported on Monday, November 17, that the actor had contacted his doctor after suffering a major headache the previous day. Per his doctor’s advice, Schreiber took himself to a New York City hospital, where he was held overnight as tests were conducted to determine the cause of his illness.
Though the cause of Schreiber’s health scare is unknown, sources told the outlet that he has full use of his limbs and that his speech and ability to walk have not been impacted.
A rep for Schreiber said in a statement to multiple outlets, “Out of an abundance of caution, Liev went into the hospital for testing and as of this afternoon, he has been cleared to return to work.”
Schreiber has not shared anything about his health scare via social media. On Monday, however, he reposted a video about his new Audible series, Creditors, via his Instagram Story. “At a secluded seaside hotel, Adi [Justice Smith], a struggling painter, finds his creative spark reignited by Gustav [Schreiber], a magnetic stranger,” the post’s caption reads. “Their connection is instant and consuming, but what begins as a chance encounter twists into something far darker when Gustav becomes intrigued by Adi’s wife, the dazzling Tekla (Maggie Siff).”
Schreiber has been candid about his health struggles in the past. During an April 2024 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Schreiber said he recalled experiencing “the worst nightmare that an actor could possibly ever experience,” which caused him to drop out of a performance of Doubt: A Parable on Broadway after the show had started.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for National Board of Review
“I was in my dressing room and I had a terrible headache, like, a really bad headache. I thought it was maybe a fast food headache, but it felt a little stronger than that,” he explained. “I’m walking down the stairs and I’m thinking, ‘This is not normal. I don’t feel OK.’”
Schreiber said he knew “something was really wrong” when he forgot his costar Amy Ryan‘s name, as well as forgot to wish her good luck, backstage. “I get over to stage left where I make my entrance from, and I see the play in the corner,” he added. “And there’s a light on it, and I don’t recognize it at all.”
Despite flagging his condition to the show’s stage manager, Schreiber went on stage and did “the first six or seven lines of the play automatically.” But things took a turn for the worse when he suddenly forgot the rest of his lines.
“It all vanishes. The play is gone from my head. I’m looking out into a dark audience. I know I’m in a play, but I don’t know what play I’m in. I look down at my clothes and I realize I’m a priest, which is helpful but not giving me any lines,” the Ray Donovan alum shared. “I come off stage. They all are very worried about me, I can see. They rush me to my dressing room. The next thing I remember is hearing my understudy doing the lines from the play and thinking, ‘It sounds really good. I wish I knew what it was.’”
Schreiber said he thought he was having a stroke after seeing his doctor and his wife Taylor Neisen’s “terrified” expressions. An MRI later revealed that the actor was “perfectly fine,” but he was diagnosed with transient global amnesia (TGA) by a neurologist. “Apparently, it’s brought on by migraines and rigorous coitus,” he jokingly explained.
According to the Mayo Clinic, TGA is “an episode of confusion that comes on suddenly in a person who is otherwise alert,” and is not caused by “a more common neurological condition, such as epilepsy or stroke.”
On Late Night, Schreiber said he woke up the next day and remembered the entire play once again.