Hollywood isn’t always what it seems.
I know right. WHO KNEW.
While we see happily ever afters, peachy keen resolutions and even student-teacher relationships that are deemed appropriate for the sake of viewership, actors see long hours, entitlement at its finest, co-star conflicts and even scenes and stunts which go horribly wrong. But that’s the magic of movie production, innit? If it weren’t for late night shows (#BringBackRoveLive) and Vanity Fair interviews, we’d never know what really went down on those fateful sets.
Buckle on in, because below are five extremely dangerous things that happened on your fave blockbusters – and these acting heavyweights have the scars (physical and emotional) to prove it.
DYLAN O’BRIEN, MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE
Production of Maze Runner: The Death Cure was shut down indefinitely in March 2016, after star Dylan O’Brien suffered serious injuries on set as a result of a stunt gone wrong. O’Brien was strapped to the top of a vehicle in a safety harness, when he was unexpectedly pulled off and hit by a car, suffering “concussion, a facial fracture and lacerations.”
The film’s release date was delayed by almost a year (it’s out in cinemas now – win tix to see it here) to allow time for O’Brien’s recovery. This setback means we’ve had to wait a bit longer to have all our burning questions answered in the epic conclusion to the Mazerunner series but, with this film slated to be one of his finest roles yet, it’s bound to be well worth the wait.
CHANNING TATUM, THE EAGLE
Channing Tatum‘s poor dicky got burnt during the filming of The Eagle in Scotland. Basically Tatum had to dip into freezing cold water wearing a wetsuit, keeping warm only by pouring a mix of boiling and river water down the attire. One fateful day, though, one of the crew guys forgot to dilute the water.
“So he poured scalding water down my suit. And I was trying to pull the suit away from my body to somehow get away from the boiling water, and the more I pulled the suit away, the lower the water went. It just went straight down and pretty much burned the skin off the head of my dick,” Tatum explained to the (aptly named) Details magazine.
That’s… hot?
ISLA FISHER, NOW YOU SEE ME
This one can sod right off because it’s actually a thing of nightmares. Our own homegirl Isla Fisher almost drowned during the filming on Now You Can See Me because everyone thought she was just acting hey underwater magic scene really well. Oh my word. No. No no no.
“My chain got stuck. I had to really swim to the bottom; I couldn’t get up. Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. I was actually drowning. … No one realised I was actually struggling,” Fisher told Chelsea Handler on an ep of Chelsea Lately. She was underwater for almost three minutes and look, I can barely survive ten seconds.
Thankfully, she managed to get outta there thanks to quick-release switch, and switched-on stuntman nearby.
JASON STATHAM, THE EXPENDABLES 3
Confirmed: Jason Statham is a true bad, bad dude. However, these are the eloquent word of his Expendables 3 co-star, Terry Crews, and I cannot take full credit for the compliment. For the film, there was a stunt where Staham was driving a truck that went overboard into Bulgaria‘s Black Sea. Yes, he was inside for the ordeal.
Crews recalled on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: “I’m in a heap on the ground, he’s in the water, in the truck. Now we are freaking out, everybody’s screaming,” Statham didn’t need help though – he’s a true bad, bad dude, remember? Crews continued:
“He gets out, swims to the top, and the truck is gone. We were supposed to be on the back of that thing. I was supposed to be on that … Let me tell you something, Jason Statham is a true bad, bad dude.“
LEONARDO DICAPRIO, DJANGO UNCHAINED
For 2012 drama Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio went full-actor for his character Calvin Dandle, slamming his hand on a table so damn aggressively that he broke a glass and cut the beautiful work of art attached to his wrist.
That is – hands down – some of the best acting we’ve been graced with and I’m not at all sorry for that shameless pun. “Blood was dripping down his hand,” producer Stacy Sher told Variety.
