Many actors are willing to transform themselves for roles, from gaining and losing weight,
to wearing prosthetics, and more. But for some actors, taking on the ultimate film role
means going to extremes — sometimes even permanently hurting their bodies in the process.
Here are some actors who've earned some serious, albeit sometimes invisible, scars for their
art.
Jared Leto in Chapter 27
As we've come to know very well at this point, Jared Leto is a method actor who doesn't hold
back when it comes to transforming his body. He's lost major weight for films such as Requiem
for a Dream and his Oscar-winning turn in Dallas Buyers Club. But it was actually gaining
weight for the 2007 indie film Chapter 27 that really did a number on the actor. Playing
Mark Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon, Leto admitted he gained so much
weight so abruptly that he suffered gout.
Leto revealed that the weight gain hurt his body so much, towards the end he couldn't
even walk. He told The Los Angeles Times, "I had a definite problem with my feet. Towards
the end of the shoot, one of the glaring issues was the pain I had with my feet. I couldn't
walk for long distances. I had a wheelchair because it was so painful. My body was in
shock from the amount of weight I gained. It took about a year to get back to a place
that felt semi-normal. I don't know if I'll ever be back to the place I was physically."
Hey, at least dying his hair green and putting in metal teeth to play the Joker in Suicide
Squad left no indelible marks — well except for on his career.
"I'm just gonna hurt you really really bad."
Tom Hanks in Philadelphia and Cast Away
The affable Tom Hanks isn't necessarily known to be one of those actors who loses himself
in roles, but he has gone to a few extremes here and there — and has won two Oscars
for his efforts. In both the 1993 drama Philadelphia, in which he plays a lawyer diagnosed with
AIDS, and the 2000 survival pic Cast Away, Hanks had to lose a lot of weight during the
shoot.
Thanks to the forced fluctuation, and his own genetics of course, the actor revealed
that he was later diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. He said that he probably won't be taking on
any more roles which require him to drastically change his size as a result of these experiences.
George Clooney in Syriana
While George Clooney didn't have to undergo much of a physical transformation for his
Oscar-winning role in 2005's Syriana, he still experienced a real headache during the making
of the movie. While filming a torture scene for the political thriller, the actor cracked
his head open during a stunt and severely injured his spine.
He told Rolling Stone at the time that the pain from the injury was so bad, he considered
taking his own life. "I was at a point where I thought, 'I can't exist like this. I can't
actually live.' I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move,
having these headaches where it feels like you're having a stroke, and for a short three-week
period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this.'"
Doctors couldn't quite pinpoint where the injury was at first — they clearly weren't
as good as his ER alter ego, Doug Ross — but finally noticed fluid leaking from Clooney's
spine, and realized that the condition was more serious than anyone had thought. The
actor revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he was forced to take strong pain medication
as part of a long process and eventually turned to pain management for help dealing with his
chronic discomfort. But he'll never again be 100 percent. "I've gone from where I can't
function… to, 'I've got a bad headache'… My ears will literally pop and my head goes
apes***. But I'm scrappy."
"I'm not kidding because I think I've crossed the line"
Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables 3
As a longtime action movie star, Sylvester Stallone knows a thing or two about cuts,
bruises, broken bones — the whole shebang. In fact, he once joked that he grades the
quality of his movies by how badly he got hurt making them. So, sufficed it to say,
he's certainly experienced more than his fair share of pain on the set of movies, including
a permanent injury on the set of The Expendables 3, in which he reprised his role as mercenary
Barney Ross. The action star suffered a nasty fall on the set that left him in need of spinal
surgery.
"That hurts"
But believe it or not, Stallone's injuries weren't even the scariest from that film set.
Co-star Jason Statham almost lost his life during production: while he was driving a
truck on a loading dock, the brakes failed and the truck plunged 60 feet into the Black
Sea. Thankfully, Statham — who once competed as an Olympic diver — was able to get free
and swim to safety. And here you thought those shoot-'em-up-bang-bang blockbusters were totally
just pretend.
Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Linda Hamilton's badass turn as Sarah Connor in 1991's Terminator 2 set a precedent for
female action stars to follow. She took the role very seriously, training her tail off
to play the hardcore mother of the leader of the future world. But for all the fight
sequences and stunt work, it's hard to bounce back when a shotgun blast goes off near your
ear. While shooting the scene in which Sarah is trying to escape the psych ward and has
to reluctantly accept help from the new and improved Terminator, the actress forgot to
put her earplugs back in after a take. When Schwarzenegger let off a round in the elevator,
trying to stop the T-1000, the amplified sound caused Hamilton permanent hearing loss. Of
course, Hamilton wasn't the first action star to get hurt from guns shooting blanks.
Bruce Willis in Die Hard
That's right: the same type of injury also befell the man who played John McClaine while
he was making his action thriller breakthrough, Die Hard. According to the actor, after firing
off a fateful round, he suffered "two-thirds partial hearing loss" in his left ear. He
added that now has the "tendency to say, 'Whaaa?'" His daughter Rumer Willis even said the reason
her dad isn't as talkative while promoting a movie is because he sometimes struggles
to hear the questions. That explains a lot. Or...does it?
"He's …"
"I dreamed I was on a boat"
Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
It comes as no surprise that Michelle Yeoh injured herself during the spectacular Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. With all the incredible stunt choreography involved, there had to
be a misstep.
"I think in life you must make a choice. Either you do it or you don't."
Indeed, at one point during filming, Yeoh landed wrong and her knee gave out. Sure enough,
the action star completely tore an ACL in her knee. Yeoh had to have surgery and months
of physical therapy. And while she was able to recover, she admitted, "You never get all
the way back to what it was."
Angelina Jolie in Salt
Angelina Jolie is another star who never does any of her action movies half-assed — especially
her 2010 spy thriller Salt. Jolie played a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy
who must prove her innocence while on the run. To prep for fight scenes, Jolie had to
learn a combination of Muay Thai and Krav Maga, which she did during two-hour sessions
three to four times a week. Some of her stunts included jumping off a highway underpass onto
a moving truck. But amazingly, that wasn't the scene that literally scarred her for life.
Speaking at Comic-Con at the time, she said it happened during a scene which involved
her rolling onto the floor — and left her with a permanent scar. Her stunt trainer Simon
Crane told Us Weekly, "During her final fight with Liev [Schrieber] … She had to dive
through an opening door firing a gun … as she carried the sequence on, she rushed into
a corner piece of a set and bumped her head." The injury left a permanent mark, or so they
say. Not that anyone can tell.
Daniel Craig in Spectre
British actor Daniel Craig's time playing James Bond has left him with his fair share
of injuries, as the stunts became more elaborate with each film. In Casino Royale, two of his
teeth were accidentally knocked out during his first stunt and had to be capped, and
in Quantum of Solace, he suffered several injuries. There was a blow to his face that
required plastic surgery, and he was rushed to hospital after slicing off the top of his
finger. He also tore a muscle in his shoulder, and suffered badly bruised ribs.
But it was Craig's time on Spectre that did some permanent damage. While filming a fight
scene with the hulking villain Mr. Hinx, he injured his knee. It required surgery and
threatened to halt filming for six months, but Craig didn't want to wait and put off
the surgery, working through the pain. He told Empire,
"This has been a two-year process since we began talking about the script. It gets to
this point and you say: 'We can shut down for six months and you can go have surgery
and come back then.' I was like: "F— that." I don't give a f—. Stick two planks of wood
on it and I'll f—ing crack on."
Crack on he did, and in the end, production was stopped for only two weeks. Craig has
since had a few surgeries to repair his knee, and has joked he'll only keep playing 007
as long as his knees hold out.
Jackie Chan in...basically all of his movies
Kung Fu legend Jackie Chan has never held back and views any injury he sustains while
filming a stunt as just part of the gig. It's the one reasons Chan is considered a true
hero of the martial arts genre.
"I hear the crack"
"I look at my feet. Upside down"
"Then the cameraman, 'Are you OK?'"
"I'm OK, did you get the shot?"
He's broken fingers, his nose, ankles, his tailbone, even his hip; he's dislocated his
shoulders more than few times and suffered multiple concussions and spinal injuries.
The injury list is as long as his resume.
However, there's one particularly serious boo-boo that made a lasting impression on
his banged-up body. During the shoot for Armour of God , he was supposed to do what was a
"simple" stunt jump, but he was so hurt by the maneuver that he had to have brain surgery
which included the permanent implantation of a metal plate.
Even so, Chan's movie momentum, and commitment to doing his own stunt work, has never wavered.
Chan's the champ!
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