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13 superstitions and their originsThe Scottish playActors can be a superstitious group — and nowhere is that more apparent than around Shakespeare's play Macbeth (seen above, Ian McKellen (L) and Dame Judi Dench in a 1976 production of the play). The superstition holds that saying "Macbeth" in a theatre (outside of actually performing the play itself) will bring misfortune on the production — instead, actors will simply call it "The Scottish Play". Productions of Macbeth are said to have been magnets for disaster from its very first performance — when legend has it the lead actor was killed when a real dagger was used instead of a stage prop.
The other best-known actorly superstition is that wishing someone "good luck" before they go on stage will actually bring them the opposite — so instead actors tell each other to "break a leg", on the grounds that wishing them bad fortune will presumably also bring about the opposite. The exact origins of this superstition are unclear, but it's thought to have originated in the 1920s.