Actors Who Suffered Damage To Their Bodies During Filming
Actors have a pretty good gig, most of the time. They get to travel the world, see all kinds of places, meet all kinds of people, and live a lifestyle that most would give anything to experience even for a few days. But it's not all sunshine and roses, and sometimes a day at the office means some serious bodily injuries for actors.
Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead)
Daryl Dixon might be the biggest badass in the apocalypse, but according to what Norman Reedus told People's Choice, that's not really him at all. "I mean, I'm kind of a wimp," he said when asked just how well he'd fare in a real zombie apocalypse. His self-proclaimed difficulties in the bravado department aren't reflected in his dedication to making it look good on screen, though, and Reedus has managed to accrue an impressive list of injuries while filming "The Walking Dead." He's gotten a few black eyes, and some of them came from his trademark crossbow. "I was running through a corridor with my crossbow, and I hit it on the door frame, and it hit me in the face and gave me a black eye. Twice."
That was in Season 5, the same season he sliced his arm open. He told The Wrap that his favorite scene was one where the survivors barricade a barn door to keep the walkers out, though it's the same scene that he sliced open his arm so badly that his co-stars said they saw blood start pouring out of it. (It was caught on camera, but didn't make it into the show).
He's also gotten injured off-set, when he sliced his hand open on a vending machine. "Why am I always getting hurt? I get hurt all the time. I feel like I should have like football pads on at all times, even when I'm just walking around," he told Entertainment Weekly.
Kristin Chenoweth (The Good Wife)
Some shows seem to lend themselves to endangering their cast and crew more than others, and "The Good Wife" isn't likely to be on anyone's list of potentially deadly shows. But in 2012, Kristin Chenoweth suffered a host of injuries that forced her to leave the show and concentrate on her recovery and physical therapy after a piece of the overhead lighting rig fell on her in what People described as a freak accident.
Her list of injuries is nothing short of terrifying, and when she was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in New York City, they found she had a 5-inch skull fracture. Over the next few years she found that more and more medical issues with her ribs, hips, and neck started to develop. She said that immediately after the accident, she had difficulties putting sentences together, and that she has continued troubles with multitasking. She was still feeling the effects from the incident in 2016, telling People, "I'm getting along so good, but for example, about three weeks ago I found out I have three cracked teeth from the accident. It's an ongoing recovery and it's not going to be fast."
When she appeared at the Toast To Survivors Luncheon for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she said her mother had flown out to help her during her recovery. "I said, 'Why me, why me, why me, why me?' and she said, 'Why not you? You're human like everyone else. Things happen.'"
Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ)
When Jim Caviezel auditioned for "The Passion of the Christ," he thought he was up for a part in a surfing movie (per Fox News). While he says that he had no doubt he was going to accept Mel Gibson's offer to play Jesus in the film, no one would blame him if he had turned it down, knowing now what kind of injuries he was going to sustain during filming.
The role required being on the receiving end of some understandably brutal beatings and torture scenes, and along the way, Caviezel came down with a lung infection and pneumonia, developed a skin infection and headaches from the makeup, fought off hypothermia, and dislocated his shoulder. However, all of those injuries were just a warmup for what happened while they were filming the Sermon on the Mount. "We were preparing to shoot the Sermon on the Mount and three seconds before, I was hit by lightning. I knew it was going to happen," said Caviezel of the terrifying ordeal. "People started screaming and they said I had fire on both sides of my head and a light around me. ... It was a sickening feeling."
The BBC reported that the lightning strike not only hit Caviezel, it also jumped to assistant director Jan Michelini. It was the second time Michelini had been struck by lightning during filming, and neither were seriously hurt.
Hugh Jackman (X-Men series)
There's absolutely no one that could play Wolverine like Hugh Jackman, and not many people would be willing to take the damage he has, either. When asked by Entertainment Weekly about how long it took him to get used to wearing Wolverine's famous claws, the answer was a roundabout admission that he never really did. The claws were very real, and Jackman called them "killing machines." "I'm a bit of a klutz," he said, when asked if it was true that he had given himself scars from the claws. "I used to have to practice so that I wouldn't hit people, and the one thing I of course neglected to practice was the follow-through, so I quite often ... I've got a number of scars on my thighs, and it's really not cool." Not just a danger to himself, he also stabbed Mystique's stunt double, and was a bit taken aback when she was thrilled about her badge of honor.
Kevin Rushton, the stuntman who went head-to-head with Wolverine in a cage fight for his first big on-screen performance, talked with The Hollywood Reporter about just how real those fight scenes ended up being. Jackman didn't have a stuntman himself, and Rushton said that by the time they were done filming, their hands were swollen to "the size of balloons."
Jackman doesn't just hurt himself in front of cameras, either. In 2010, he was live in front of 6,000 people when a zip line stunt went wrong. Instead of flying gracefully onto the stage on "Oprah," The Telegraph reported that he forgot to brake and crashed into a light rig. After being hoisted down and bandaged up, he came back and joked that one of the other guests, U2's Bono, was supposed to have done the stunt, but "they couldn't afford the insurance."
Rose Leslie (The Good Fight)
Rose Leslie is perhaps best known for her role as Ygritte in "Game of Thrones," and while it seems logical that there had to have been at least a few injuries — or at least some bruises — during her time on set, it wasn't during the fantasy epic that she got hurt. Leslie told E! (via Refinery 29) that she had completely escaped being hurt at all during "Game of Thrones," and instead, she broke her toe filming "The Good Fight," a spinoff of "The Good Wife."
"This was purely down to me. This was my kind of like ignorance, in thinking that I could turn and pivot on a little dime," she said of the incident. "Of course, when I attempted it on camera, I then completely whacked it into a table."
She went on to add that at least if she'd fallen in "Game of Thrones," she would have had an excuse. Instead, this gave her a lesson in irony.
Lucy Lawless (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno)
In 1996, Lucy Lawless was on top of the world — and climbing to the top of the television ratings, too, with "Xena: Warrior Princess." By the second season, however, the cast and crew were put to the test when they were sent scrambling to figure out a way to work around an injury so bad that Lawless wasn't just unable to fight, she needed to learn how to walk again.
While filming a skit for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," she fell off her horse and fractured her pelvis in several places. When she spoke with the Los Angeles Times in the March following the accident, she was already up, walking, kicking, and ready to get back in the saddle. While she credited a tough upbringing with teaching her how to fight and how not to cry, she also said that the accident left its mark in more than just a physical way.
"I'm ready to get back on the horse," she said. "There's no medical reason why I can't. It's just psychological now. I don't think I'll ever get on a horse again without thinking of Christopher Reeve. See, I won't ski for that reason. I don't want to hurt myself and let people down, but I can't not do everything, so I'm going to get back on that horse. It's important for me to give myself that challenge. Otherwise, I'm forever going to be frightened."
Halle Berry (Gothika)
Halle Berry's injury shut down filming on "Gothika" for a week, the BBC reported in 2003. The official statement included few details, and simply said that her broken arm occurred while filming a scene that wasn't even particularly a stunt scene, and that it had been an accident where "her arm didn't go the way it was supposed to."
In 2012, though, The Movie Network talked to a source who suggested there was more to it than that, and that Berry hadn't forgiven the actor who had been holding onto her when he arm broke: Robert Downey, Jr. According to their source, she felt that he hadn't sufficiently apologized for the incident — which he said was a complete accident — and still tends to avoid him.
Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead)
There are few films that capture the heart of a cult classic quite like "Evil Dead," and it's impossible to forget that the entire thing was essentially created by a group of friends just goofing around and having a good time. One of the long-standing rumors is that Bruce Campbell actually had his jaw broken when they were filming the original movie, though according to him, it's absolutely not true. "I love the fact that people still believe that," he told a crowd at Dallas Comic Con.
He was, however, injured for real while filming "Ash vs. Evil Dead." According to what he told Entertainment Weekly just before the season finale debuted, he had blown out his hamstring two weeks before shooting wrapped.
"If you've ever blown a hamstring, you know they call it hamstrung for a reason. You can't walk. So, to do fight scenes for two weeks when you can't walk — now you're living the dream!"
Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist)
Ellen Burstyn played the afflicted Reagan's mother in 1973's "The Exorcist," still one of the most infamous horror movies of all time. When The Telegraph spoke to her in 2016 about her decades-long career, they noted that one of her most striking characteristics — her stiff posture — was a reminder of an injury she'd sustained while filming "The Exorcist."
For a scene where Burstyn was to be thrown against a wall, she was equipped with a harness and rig that was supposed to yank her off her feet. After getting one take, Burstyn says she not only protested the idea of doing another one, but insisted she was going to get hurt. She says when she went to the director, William Friedkin, to tell him she wasn't comfortable doing it again, he told her they'd go easy on her. When she turned away, though, Friedkin told the stuntman on the other end of her harness, "Give it to her this time."
The pain on her face in that scene is real, and the ambulance was called after the cameras stopped rolling. Burstyn has suffered in permanent pain ever since, and that's not something you forget. "It was way beyond what anyone needs to do to make a movie," she later said.
Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith (Roar)
The 1981 movie "Roar" hit select theaters again in 2015 for a limited release, and Entertainment Weekly took another look at just what went on behind the scenes of a movie that put its cast and crew alongside a supporting cast of 132 animals, including lions, tigers, and a 10,000-pound elephant.
One of the child stars, John Marshall, told the publication, "In hindsight, I know how stupid it was to do this film. I am amazed no one died." He also says that the oft-repeated statistic that 70 people were injured during filming was a little off, and that it was actually 72 people.
Among those people was Tippi Hedren, who rose to fame in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and found her calling hoping to raise awareness about the conservation of the world's big cats (that was the heart of the film). By the end of shooting, IndieWire reported she had weathered her way through scalp wounds and a broken leg that had been crushed by the elephant and went gangrenous. Melanie Griffith's injuries were no less severe, as she was mauled so badly she needed facial reconstruction surgery to fix the damage. Theirs weren't the only horrible injuries, either: director Jan de Bont (who went on to direct "Twister") was scalped and needed 120 stitches.
Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket)
Sometimes, actors will go to extremes for a role, and Vincent D'Onofrio has turned extremes into an art form. After being cast in "Full Metal Jacket," he rushed to gain 70 pounds for the part. Going from fit and athletic to putting on that much weight in that amount of time did some damage, and in a 1987 interview for The New York Times, he talked a bit about what it did to him.
The change was so drastic that he found himself having trouble doing even the most mundane of tasks, like tying his shoes. When it came to shooting the scenes where the Marine recruits were going through boot camp, it was as physically grueling in real life as it looked on screen. During the filming of one of the obstacle courses, D'Onofrio blew his knee out so badly he needed to have surgical reconstruction done. A year later, he was back to running six miles a day.
Charlize Theron (Aeon Flux)
In August 2004, People reported that Charlize Theron had been injured on the set of her new film, "Aeon Flux." At the time, they didn't know how serious the injury was, and reported that the role had required all sorts of specialized training in gymnastics.
It only came out later that she had been incredibly close to being paralyzed. The stunt in question had been a backflip, which she'd had to do while wearing platform shoes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she slipped, fell, and landed on her neck. The fall herniated a disc near her spinal cord, and production stopped for eight weeks. Originally, doctors had suspected she might be at least partially paralyzed, and while she was back at work surprisingly quickly, she later said she'd learned a valuable lesson.
"Now I know there's a time and a place," she told Total Film (via StarPulse). "You have to be smart about it and I've definitely come to a place in my career where I would be the first to say, without feeling guilty or not badass enough, 'You know what? I don't need to do this.' It's wise because I felt guilty for shutting down production 10 days into shooting for eight weeks."
Erik Estrada (CHiPS)
Erik Estrada skyrocketed to fame with the cop drama "CHiPs," and it was that same show that almost claimed his life. While filming in 1979, Estrada was shooting a scene that NBC representatives called a relatively slow ride around a car. It was something they'd done before, and was nothing like the high-speed chases the show was known for. Estrada crashed, though, and was sent to the UCLA Medical Center with fractured ribs and possible damage to his heart.
A week after the accident, Estrada was taken off the critical condition list, and The Chicago Tribune reported a few more details. Not only had he crashed the 500-pound motorcycle he'd been riding, but he'd been hit by the car they were supposed to be going around. The final injury toll was a broken breastbone, a few broken ribs, and a broken wrist. Filming was halted, and doctors issued a statement that he would be out of the hospital in a week.
Jessica Chastain (The 355)
Jessica Chastain joined Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, Lupita Nyong'o, and Penélope Cruz for "The 355," a movie about a group of international spies who agree to work together to prevent World War III. As the film was shot on a low budget, the stars did much of their own stunt work. However, they didn't do so without some injuries.
Chastain managed to hit her head pretty badly during filming. "I actually had to go to the hospital," she explained during an appearance on "The Late Late Show with James Corden." "I was doing a fight scene, and it was on a marble floor ... I had to fall and hit my head; I misjudged the distance." Head injuries are no joke, and according to Chastain, she "heard a crack." The cast and crew immediately "stopped" what they were doing "and looked scared," and she admitted she was "a bit stunned" as well.
That's when her stunt double walked up to her and told her she had "to put it back in," referring to her bruise. She managed to do a few more takes "because I don't give up easy," but then she went to the hospital — though only after Cruz convinced her to. Cruz, who appeared alongside Chastain, admitted being "really worried" when her co-star hit her head. Fortunately, Chastain had no permanent damage from the fall.
Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz)
"The Wizard of Oz" is one of the most celebrated movies of all time, but it very nearly wasn't. There are many stories of on-set accidents that occurred during production, and several people were injured making it. The actor who was hurt the most was Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West.
Shortly after her introduction, the Witch makes her exit from Munchkinland by disappearing in a cloud of red smoke that becomes a fireball. While filming the scene, everything went well. Unfortunately, director Victor Fleming wanted to do a second take, so the stage was reset, and Hamiton returned to her mark. The second time proved to be dangerous, however. When Hamilton dropped through the trapdoor, her coat and hat caught on fire, causing several layers of skin on her face and hands to be severely burned. Because she was covered in green paint, it could only be removed at the hospital via alcohol, which must have been excruciating.
It took Hamilton six weeks to recover enough to return to the set, though she'd yet to fully heal. She understandably refused to do any stunts involving fire after that, which unfortunately left her stunt double, Betty Danko, to do the skywriting scene. That didn't go so well either, and Danko was hospitalized for two weeks due to an explosion that occurred during filming.
Brad Pitt (Seven)
Brad Pitt had a plethora of memorable roles in the 1990s, but his work playing Detective Mills in "Seven" proved to be one of the best of his career. He's known for giving his all during a performance, though that professionalism caused him some serious pain and injury while filming "Seven." During a chase scene, Pitt was running when he skidded on a car hood and his hand broke through the windshield.
When the glass shattered, a shard "severed a tendon in his hand." The actor had to be rushed to the hospital, where the docs stitched him up. While the injury wasn't minor, it didn't keep Pitt from working — though some changes to the script had to be made. Because he injured his tendon, he had to wear a cast to keep his hand immobile, something that couldn't be easily covered by makeup or some costume trickery.
It would have been impractical to hold off filming Pitt's scenes for too long, so the writers were forced to incorporate the injury into the story. That's why Detective Mills' arm is in a cast throughout much of the movie. Because films are rarely shot in order, Pitt had to hide his arm as much as possible while filming parts that came earlier in the story. He did this remarkably well, because it's impossible to tell he's wearing a cast in any of those scenes.
Jane Seymour (Harry Wild)
Jane Seymour was tapped to executive produce and play the lead in the Irish mystery thriller "Harry Wild" for Acorn TV. However, while shooting an action scene for the series, she had an accident, which she revealed in an Instagram video posted to her page on May 25, 2021.
"I thought I'd break the news to you all; I fell pretty badly on set about a week ago. I've got lots of hairline fractures on my kneecap. Got lucky comparatively! In spite of it, I managed to finish the scene and work all week ... trying not to hobble. This is acting!"
In the video, Seymour explained that the accident happened while she was running across a bridge. She said it was "really painful" but would continue to work. She explained she was "acting above the kneecap" while having a "wonderful double for below the kneecap." She also showed off her knee brace and revealed she'd been given the nickname "Hop-along." Seymour further revealed that she couldn't move her knee for a few weeks while she healed.
Seymour posted a follow-up about her injury the next day, writing that she was "taking extra care" of her knee and that "rest and patience is the cure!" She also noted that her background in ballet was helping her to "not limp on set." Three weeks after her fall, Seymour returned to the set of "Harry Wild" sans crutches and was seemingly walking without any problems.
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Rachel Brosnahan's prominent role as "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" has landed her on streaming devices across the world. The actor has certainly made the titular character her own, and she's been recognized for her efforts with numerous awards, including the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 2018 Emmys. The show is about a 1950s housewife who becomes a standup comic after her husband leaves her and their children.
Because the show takes place in the '50s, there are some essential costume requirements to make sure everything looks just right, including the need for a corset. Brosnahan told James Corden on "The Late Late Show with James Corden," "I actually got kind of a corset-related injury. We talk so fast on the show that just to get all the words out, you can't really take very many breaths." This left her feeling "constrained," and some of her ribs "are sort of fused together." Brosnahan said she couldn't "take super deep breaths anymore." While that sounds serious, and fellow guest, RuPaul, expressed shock, Brosnahan was quick to indicate otherwise. She said, "It's really fine, guys. Champagne problems."
Corset-related injuries aren't uncommon in Hollywood (or throughout the past). Emma Stone's organs shifted from wearing one on "The Favourite," as she revealed on "The Graham Norton Show." Stone said, "For the first month, I couldn't breathe ... After about a month, my organs shifted ... it was only temporary, but it was gross."
Ruby Rose (Batwoman)
Ruby Rose surprised fans when she quit "Batwoman" after the first season, leaving many to wonder what caused her to walk away. Eventually, it was revealed that she suffered a lot of injuries while filming, as her role required numerous stunts and fight choreography, which many believed led to her departure.
Rose was initially quiet about what happened, but she later explained more in an Instagram post. She wrote, in part: "A couple of months ago, I was told I needed an emergency surgery or I was risking becoming paralyzed ... I had herniated two disks doing stunts, and they were close to severing my spinal chord [sic]." Rose included a truncated video of her surgery in the post, explaining that she had it filmed because she wanted to see what happened after she was anesthetized.
Despite this news, Rose didn't officially explain her departure from "Batwoman" until an October 2020 interview on "The Jess Cagle Show" on SiriusXM. She said that the injury made working on the show "tricky," and the COVID-19 pandemic didn't help. Rose said that she put "a lot of thought and reflection" into her position on the series. She also said that she and the production team "mutually agreed" that her departure was "best for the show." The actor has since changed her tune, however, posting a series of Instagram Stories in October 2021 (via Vulture) alleging that she didn't quit, but instead left over unsafe working conditions and "bullying tactics."
Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Quantico)
While shooting a scene for "Quantico," Priyanka Chopra fell, injuring herself. Her reps called it "a minor incident," but she required emergency medical treatment. TMZ reported that Chopra "slipped and fell" onto her head while attempting a stunt and was immediately rushed to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a concussion. She was released from the hospital and filming didn't get suspended, but Chopra wasn't able to join her castmates at a press event the day after.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Chopra discussed the accident, saying, "I'm doing better. I'm a bit sore and have whiplash. The doctors said I had a concussion." Vanity Fair offered a bit more information about the nature of the injury, writing that Chopra was injured while filming "an action sequence on a wet road." More detail was given by the actor to USA Today: "I was supposed to be saving someone, as usual. And I was wearing rubber boots, it was raining and there was plastic on the floor, and I flipped on that."
And though she missed the press event for "Quantico" the following day, she did make it to the People's Choice Awards just a few days later, where she was nominated for Favorite TV Drama Actress. While there, she assured fans she was okay: "As long as I don't do any action and stuff, I'm supposed to be fine."
Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
Jennifer Lawrence has been injured on movie sets throughout her career, each with different levels of severity. Most recently, a glass explosion resulted in some shrapnel hitting her right eyelid on the set of "Don't Look Up." Fortunately, since the glass missed her eye, she returned to work soon after the accident, though filming was halted for the rest of the night.
While an eye laceration may seem scary, that wasn't as bad as what happened to her on "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" set. There, she suffered significant hearing loss. Lawrence described what happened while doing a Google+ Hangout with co-stars Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, and "Catching Fire" director Francis Lawrence. "I went deaf in one ear for two and a half weeks. I had a double ear infection because I had to keep diving into the water." She further explained that jets of water punctured her eardrum (via E! News). Lawrence elaborated on her ear-splitting experience in an interview with Vanity Fair, explaining that she "went deaf in one ear for months," which is a bit longer than the time period she mentioned previously. Fortunately, the hearing loss diminished after some time, and her hearing is back to 100%.
Lawrence's on-set accidents tend to sound worse than they are, especially when it comes to "Mother!" While filming that movie, she "tore her diaphragm for hyperventilating." Thankfully, Lawrence recovered from that injury as well.
Linda Blair (The Exorcist)
There have been some hellish tales from "The Exorcist's" production, often involving unorthodox filming techniques, but some injuries occurred as well. Ellen Burstyn famously injured her back, suffering permanent back pain and damage as a result of a stunt, but she wasn't the only one. Linda Blair also injured her back, albeit in a much different way.
Blair was often strapped into a harness during several scenes. This was used to guide the young actor as she thrashed about the bedroom set. While this was happening, the harness repeatedly hit her spine, resulting in some severe damage. To complicate matters, a mechanical failure during a bed-levitating scene resulted in a small fracture to her spine. As a result of this injury, Blair developed scoliosis. If that's not bad enough, a few years later, she flipped a motorcycle while filming another movie, further injuring her spine. Add to that her love of equestrian riding, which she did competitively, and you have a recipe for spinal disaster.
A decade after "The Exorcist" hit theaters, Blair continued to have significant back problems. "I had a lot of difficulty living with the aftermath of 'The Exorcist,'" she said, via USA Today. "The back injury was far more serious than I ever imagined and really affected my health negatively for a long time." Eventually, her chiropractor was able to "realign and straighten [her] spine," and Blair said "he saved my life."
Kyle Richards (Halloween Kills)
While filming "Halloween Kills," Kyle Richards broke her nose. Richards told ET that she was hurt while "working with a stunt coordinator to do a fight scene with Michael Myers. ... Something flew back and hit me in the face and I knew immediately that something was wrong."
Richards told Us Weekly that she didn't know her nose was broken when it happened. She knew she had injured herself, but she didn't tell anyone. "I didn't want the stunt double to step in and have them be like, 'Oh Kyle, you know, let the stunt double handle this.'" She took some Advil and got back to work. It wasn't until she returned to Los Angeles that the severity of her injury became clear. Her makeup artist noticed something immediately, telling Richards that she had "a bone poking out." Richards thought the lack of blood meant the injury wasn't that bad, but she went to the doctor anyway, who set her nose right.
That wasn't the only on-set mishap Richards has had, either. She was also hurt while filming "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" when she walked into a beehive. She explained on her Instagram Stories (via PageSix) that her "family wasn't home" and none of her employees heard her, although that was just the beginning of her problems. Her "landline wouldn't dial 911," and her "epi-pen was defective." Richards survived the incident, but she had to spend some time in the hospital to recover.
Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - Fallout)
Tom Cruise is one of the most devoted actors in the world, and he's insistent on doing all of his own stunts whenever possible. The man learned how to fly a helicopter just so he could do so in a movie, and he scaled the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Most of his more impressive stuntwork occurred while filming one of his many "Mission: Impossible" films, but that's also when he injured himself.
While shooting a rooftop chase scene for "Mission: Impossible – Fallout," the sixth film in the franchise, Cruise literally jumped from one building to another. The scene was shot in London, and the take when he was injured (mostly) made it into the final cut of the film. He explained what happened during an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," alongside co-stars Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Henry Cavill: "I'm chasing after Henry ... I hit the side of the wall and climb up on the wall ... I didn't want to do it again. I knew instantly [my ankle] was broken ... run past camera, we got the shot ... I said, 'Sorry guys, it's broken, take me to the hospital ... that's a wrap.'"
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Cruise did indeed break his ankle when he hit the wall "at a slightly different angle," causing filming to go on hiatus while he recovered. However, the premiere wasn't delayed.
Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix & The Matrix: Revolutions)
"The Matrix" was a groundbreaking film that required a great many practical stunts. It also employed a ton of martial arts choreography, which put the cast through the wringer. There were numerous injuries in pre-production and while filming, which impacted pretty much everyone involved in the film. A Guardian interview with the cast and directors revealed how extensively everyone was hurt. Hugo Weaving's injury required him to have surgery. Laurence Fishburne was allergic to some of the special effects, and Carrie-Anne Moss hurt her ankle. The ankle injury happened early in the production process, but the actor kept it a secret and worked through the pain.
She didn't reveal what happened until the end of production because she was worried about being replaced. This was at a time when Moss was unknown, and "The Matrix" became her breakout role, so her concerns may have been valid. However, that wasn't the end of her "Matrix" injuries, as she was also hurt while filming "The Matrix: Revolutions." While rehearsing a scene, Moss was injured even more severely. "I broke my leg on a wire. I broke my leg the first week of training. It was a challenge to overcome right off the bat," she explained to IGN.
Moss eventually recovered and returned to filming, shooting both sequels back to back. She also returned nearly two decades later for "The Matrix: Resurrections." Fortunately, there were no reported injuries for her on the set of that film.
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky IV)
Movie stunts are carefully orchestrated to ensure nobody is injured, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. While filming "Rocky IV," Stallone reportedly decided he wanted to make Rocky's fight against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) appear "as real as possible," so he asked Lundgren to do something a little different than what they'd originally planned.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone told Lundgren to "Just go out there and try to clock me. For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all." Stallone took his hits, though later that night he felt off so he went to the hospital. "Dolph Lundgren put me in the hospital for nine days. I knew I was in trouble when I showed up and nuns met you at the ICU." Later, Stallone looked at the footage and determined that an uppercut caused the injury, as the punch "caught the ribs and hit the heart against the ribcage."
According to his doctors, the injury was consistent with damage found in head-on collisions. Stallone joked that he "did hit a bus, of sorts." Lundgren explained in a separate interview that he got a two-week vacation after the incident because, as his producer put it, "Sly's in the hospital." Stallone has been injured making movies before, but "Rocky IV" nearly killed him.
William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek)
There are many stories about how Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner's friendship developed into a feud. The two men butted heads often while filming "Star Trek" and the franchise's movies, but that doesn't mean they never did anything together. One thing they shared was a permanent hearing injury while filming an episode of "Star Trek."
The trauma occurred on July 6, 1967, while the two were filming a scene in the infamous Gorn fight episode, "Arena." They were "standing too close to a special effects explosion" — something that was often used on the set — so when the pyrotechnics went off, whichever ear was facing it sustained significant damage. Shatner was injured in his left ear, while Nimoy was injured in his right. Both men suffered significant tinnitus as a result of the accident, and it was permanent. They both also developed partial hearing loss, and Shatner has since needed a hearing device. It constantly produces white noise, which helps counter the ringing in his ears caused by his tinnitus.
Shatner often spoke about his injury over the years. He has worked with various charities to raise money to support tinnitus research, and his work for the American Tinnitus Association has been ongoing for many years. He credits the organization for helping him overcome his condition and saving his life. "The harsh reality of tinnitus has robbed silence from the lives of nearly 50 million Americans," he wrote in a statement for the ATA.
Jennifer Garner (Alias)
Jennifer Garner shot to superstardom when she landed the lead role on "Alias." From there, she continued working in stunt-heavy roles, including playing Elektra Natchios on "Daredevil" and her own spinoff, "Elektra." Since Garner is no stranger to dangerous stuntwork, she — like many others in her profession — has been injured while filming.
In January 2005, Entertainment Weekly reported that Garner suffered "nerve damage to her back" as a result of filming a stunt for an episode of "Alias." This injury kept her from fulfilling all of her promotional obligations for "Elektra" and made her unable to host an episode of "Saturday Night Live," which would have helped promote the film. The extent of Garner's nerve damage has never been revealed, and it isn't clear if she still is facing complications from it. Though Garner's on-set injury sidelined her for a bit, she got back to filming "Alias" soon after, potentially pointing to a full recovery.
Garner's injuries aren't always related to things happening while filming, however. In 2018, she injured her foot while wearing high heels. While this doesn't have anything to do with filming, her treatment for the pain (so she could go to the gym) was inventive. She posted a video on Instagram where she dunked her feet in a bucket of ice for 30 seconds, making them numb. It must have worked because she managed to make it to the gym, proving she knows how to work through the pain.