Russell Crowe He is currently promoting his new action-thriller film Land Of Bad, which also stars Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle and Milo Ventimiglia.
During a recent conversation with People, The actor revealed how he once worked the last month of filming a movie with two broken legs.
The “little mishap” occurred while performing a stunt for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood in the summer of 2009, when he had to jump from a portcullis, a heavy gate that closes vertically and is located in one of the medieval fortifications used in the film. movie.
“I jumped from a castle portcullis onto uneven, rock-hard terrain,” the 59-year-old Oscar winner told the publication. “We should have prepared the ground and buried a platform, but we were in a hurry to get the shot with the light getting dimmer.”
Crowe, who was 45 when he played the lead role, did not realize the magnitude of the danger until he was above the landing site and about to make the jump.
Russell Crowe, 59, spoke while promoting his new film Land Of Bad and revealed that he broke both legs while performing a stunt for the film Robin Hood (2010).
“With hundreds of extras around, arrows flying and pots burning down the castle, there was no way to retreat,” Crowe recalled. “As he was jumping, I remember thinking, ‘This is going to hurt.’
In those final seconds, Crowe remembered thinking he wanted to land on the balls of his feet to help with impact.
“It was like an electric shock that went through my body,” he recalled of his reaction to the pain, but in the end he knew that, regardless of the injury, he had to keep going.
“We were filming an important movie, so it’s hard for you, but the last month of that job was very difficult,” said the actor. “There were several weeks where even walking was a challenge.”
Crowe said he “never talked about the injury with production, never took a day off for it, just kept working.”
About a decade later, Crowe was forced to see a doctor when he started having “very strange pains” in his lower legs.
The Gladiator star didn’t think it was anything serious and was probably the result of lack of exercise and sun after “working through a long winter in New York City.”
So he was totally stunned when the doctor asked him, “When did you break your legs?” It turns out that the doctor found traces of fractures in both shins in the x-rays.
Crowe didn’t even think twice before doing his own stunt for a scene where he had to jump from below onto a portcullis, which is a heavy, vertical gate found in one of the medieval fortifications used in the production.
“I jumped from a castle portcullis onto uneven, rock-hard terrain,” the Oscar winner told People. “We should have prepared the ground and buried a platform, but we were in a hurry to get the shot with the light getting dimmer.”
The Wellington, New Zealand native, who grew up predominantly in Sydney, Australia, said he had difficulty even walking during the final month of filming Robin Hood.
In an effort to help Crowe remember when the injuries occurred, he told the actor that X-rays show they would have been about 10 years ago.
The trick where he jumped off the rake on the set of Robin Hood immediately came to mind upon hearing the time frame.
“Apparently I finished that movie with both of my legs broken,” he said confidently. ‘All for art. No cast, no splints, no painkillers, they just kept working and eventually healed themselves.’
Crowe must have subconsciously known something was wrong, physically, at the time, considering he ended up taking a year off from work after filming Robin Hood. He did not return until he signed on to play Jor-El, a Kryptonian scientist who is the biological father of Kal-El (Superman), in Man Of Steel, which was filmed in the summer of 2011.
“In retrospect, I obviously knew something was wrong,” the Academy Award winner said. ‘To be Superman’s Kryptonian father it was six months of incredibly intense physical training. Between free time and training, things took care of themselves.’
Robin Hood, which Scott worked on from a script by Brian Helgeland, grossed $321.7 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of between $155 million and $237 million, which was considered somewhat disappointing.
But there were critics who maintained that the production’s real financial setback was not the lack of return of money but rather the fact that it went over budget.
The longtime leading man said he ended up discovering he had fractured the shins in both legs about a decade later, when he was asked to see a doctor when he started having “very strange pains” in his lower legs; the actor will be seen in October 2022
Crowe is currently starring in William Eubank’s Land Of Bad, which just hit theaters on February 16.
Along with Crowe, the all-star cast included Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins and Max von Sydow.
Crowe had previously worked with Ridley Scott on the epic historical drama film Gladiator (2000), which ended up being a huge hit with fans and critics, grossing $465.4 million on a production budget of $103 million.
Among its many accolades, Gladiator won five Academy Awards, including the coveted Best Picture, as well as Crowe’s Best Actor.
A sequel is currently in the works and is scheduled for release on November 22 in the United States.
William Eubank’s Land Of Bad just opened in theaters on February 16.