It’s Not all Acting: Four Gruesome Movie Injuries

People like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio get accolade after accolade for their acting. People like Sylvester Stallone, well, maybe not so much, but he is one of the biggest movie stars in the world. What all of these gentlemen have in common is an awful injury sustained during the filming of one of their hit movies. Since we don’t want their suffering to be in vain, let’s read all about it.

Brad Pitt in Troy

Chalk this one up to some pure bad luck. In the movie Troy Brad Pitt played the Greek warrior Achilles, who had just one vulnerability: his Achilles heel, or Achilles tendon if you want to be specific. While filming one of his combat scenes, Brad Pitt ran and jumped to kill a Trojan warrior, and when he landed, you guessed it: he tore his Achilles tendon. While this take did make it into the final cut of the movie due to its gritty realism, filming was seriously delayed due to the injury.

Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV

Never let it be said that the man is not committed to the authenticity of his movies. In the first round of his character’s fight with Dolph Lundgren, Stallone wanted it to seem like he and Lundgren were fighting like ‘pit dogs,’ so he didn’t want any of the fighting staged. Apparently also committed to this realism, Lundgren punched Stallone in the chest so hard that Stallone’s heart had ricocheted off his breastbone and began to swell. When he finally sought medical attention that evening, he could barely breathe and his blood pressure was over 200.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained

Ever the professional (and ever in pursuit of that Oscar), Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t about to let a little thing like his blood-dripping hand stop him from finishing his scene. DiCaprio was filming a scene that required him to slam his hand on a table repeatedly, and at one point he brought his hand down on a cordial glass, shattering it and slicing his hand open. He kept filming and later received stitches.

George Clooney in Syriana

Details are sparse on the exact cause and nature of the injury, but while filming Syriana (a role for which he would eventually win a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award) George Clooney seriously injured his spine when a stunt went awry. The injury was so bad that Clooney told Rolling Stone that prior to having his spine surgically repaired, he even contemplated suicide. He spent three weeks in the hospital unable to move with headaches that mimicked the effect of a stroke.