10 Times Famous Actors Risked Everything For Their On-Set Performances

The movie industry keeps billions of people around the world entertained year in, year out. But what we don’t often think of is just how difficult filming some of those scenes can be.

Here are a bunch of people who risked everything for their art when they stepped on set – whether they were aware of the dangers or not!

1. Margaret Hamilton was set on fire while filming the Wizard of Oz

Hamilton, who unforgettably played the Wicked Witch of the West, experienced a trap-door malfunction during the Wicked Witch’s famous first appearance, which left her entirely exposed to an active pyrotechnic device, causing her to sustain third degree burns. As good as the movies were, health and safety just wasn’t up to scratch in the golden age of Hollywood.

2. Robert Pattinson tore his buttcheek while filming Twilight

Robert Pattinson was a bona fide teen heartthrob in the late 2000s, but that didn’t stop him from picking up an excruciating (and un-glamorous) injury on set.

“We were doing the fight scene at the end of the first one, and I tore my glute — well, almost tore it,” Pattinson said. “In my second shot of the whole movie, of the whole series. They had to get a physiotherapist to come in and massage my butt cheek for the rest of the day.”

I’m sure there are plenty of people who would have done that for free.

3. Brendan Fraser was nearly hanged for real on the set of The Mummy

Although the prop crews on big-budget Hollywood blockbusters are all total professionals, it doesn’t stop things from going horribly wrong from time to time, as Brendan Fraser discovered when he had to be resuscitated on set.

“They killed me for 18 seconds. I was hanging from the noose standing on a board,” Fraser said. “Steve [Sommers] said, ‘The noose doesn’t match the stunt guys. Can we bring up the tension a little bit?’ They did the take and I figured, ‘I’ll hold my breath,’ and something went wrong. The next thing I knew, I was waking up.”

4. Sean Astin impaled his foot on glass while filming The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Okay, so this might not be as bad as battling with a Warg or a gang of bloodthirsty Orcs, but that didn’t make Sean Astin feel any better when a shard of glass went THROUGH his foot as he was wading into the water while filming the first movie in the Peter Jackson trilogy.

“His foot had been completely impaled on this shard of glass,” director Jackson said. “We were a good hour and a half’s drive to town. We called for a chopper.”

Surely a giant eagle would’ve been better-fitting?

5. Isla Fisher was drowning in front of an audience while filming Now You See Me

Things got all too real for Isla Fisher when shooting this 2013 flick, with nearly fatal consequences .

“Even though I had a quick-release magnetic chain on the handcuffs, the chain that went between my legs couldn’t be broken and it got stuck,” Fisher said. “Everyone just thought I was doing fabulous acting.” Luckily, the crew caught on after a few minutes.

6. Sylvester Stallone spent 5 days in an ICU while filming Rocky IV

In case you ever wondered how much Stallone committed to the role of Rocky Balboa, remember that he took a real-life beating from his opposite number Dolph Lundgren.

“I said ‘Hey, I got an idea, for the first 45 seconds, really try to knock me out, I mean go for it.’ Bad idea. He comes across — boom, boom! He catches me in the chest,” Stallone said. “Next thing I know I’m in intensive care for five days. He hit my heart so hard that it banged against my ribs and started to swell.”

You can see why people love these movies so much.

7. Meryl Streep almost drowned filming The River Wild

While shooting this film, Streep — who did many of her own stunts — was asked to do one more take by the director on a very rough river, which nearly cost her her life.

“The boat surfed down into the hole, rose and flipped over, and I went into the river. I remember sinking down to the bottom with this powerful and freezing water pulling me in deeper,” Streep said. “My first thought was that if I died, my husband would come to the set with a machete.”

Well, thank goodness that you’re still with us, Meryl.

8. Linda Hamilton sustained partial hearing loss while filming Terminator 2

During the escape from the hospital scene, Hamilton made the simple mistake of forgetting to put her ear plugs in, which proved to have serious consequences.

“To this day I have serious hearing loss in one ear. We were shooting a scene in an elevator,” Hamilton said. “The doors closed, we had shotguns and started blasting, and suddenly I was in agony. I fell to my knees in pain. I thought I’d been shot. The noise was so intense, so extreme, I’ll never forget it.”

9. Daniel Craig sliced of part of his finger during a James Bond stunt

James Bond wouldn’t truly be James Bond if he hadn’t brushed off an injury like it was nothing, which is exactly what happened to Daniel Craig during a stunt gone wrong filming Quantum of Solace.

“It wasn’t as extreme as all that. I was bleeding a lot. I had to get it cauterized,” Craig said. “Filming stopped and everybody went, ‘Oh God! He sliced the end of his finger off!’ They went looking for it, but couldn’t find it.”

Well, “easy come easy go”, I guess!

10. Harrison Ford and JJ Abrams both broke bones on the set of The Force Awakens

Obviously, Harrison Ford and the Millennium Falcon go way back, but apparently the beloved actor has fallen foul of the ship on many occasions. During shooting, a hydraulic door shut on him, which caused multiple injuries to cast and crew.

“The door went down, he broke his ankle. It was pretty brutal,” director J.J. Abrams said. “I was trying to lift the door off of him, and I broke my back. I felt this pop and a week later I went to the doctor and he was like ‘Oh dear, you fractured your L4.'”

Ford is now well into his 70s, and by the sounds of it he is still as tough as they come!

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