Russell Crowe has gifted the world with some of the best action flicks of all time, with all the spectacular storylines and his brilliant acting chops. But what makes his movies all the more unique and appreciable is the fact that he doesn’t back down from performing most of the stunt and fight scenes in the movies by himself — even if it means sometimes ending up injured.
Just like almost every other time, Crowe decided to do some of the stunts in his 2010 film with Ridley Scott, Robin Hood, by himself as well. However, this time, he ended up with an excruciating injury from doing all the action. While he initially refused to pay much attention to it, Russell Crowe only found out about a decade later just how severe his injury was!
Russell Crowe only found out a Decade Later how Severe his Injury on Robin Hood was!
Even though critics tend to slightly differ in their opinions on this — judging from the 44% rating on the Tomatometer; 2010’s Robin Hood was a masterpiece, for real. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film gave fans the ultimate action flick they were desiring, with Russel Crowe leading most of the stunts by himself.
These iconic stunts he did himself included the one where the Gladiator star had to jump off “a castle portcullis onto the rock-hard uneven ground.” While usually, for stunts like these, the crew at least buries a pad on the ground and covers it with soil, this time, they didn’t do it because “we were in a rush to get the shot done in the fading light.”
As dangerous as it was, Crowe still agreed to do it despite knowing the risks of injuries associated with it. During a recent interview with PEOPLE for One Last Thing in this week of February’s issue, the Oscar-winner shared the feelings he experienced while performing this very precarious stunt. He said:
“With hundreds of extras around, arrows flying and burn pots setting the castle on fire, there was no pulling out. As I jumped, I remember thinking, ‘This is going to hurt.'”
Nonetheless, he took the jump, and… landed with his heels hitting the uneven ground first. Inevitably, this hard impact felt “like an electric shock bursting up through my body.” But instead of stopping and paying attention to make sure he wasn’t injured severely, The Pope’s Exorcist star continued on with the shoot.
During this interview, while he agreed that the last month of the filming of the “big movie” was indeed “very tricky” where sometimes even walking proved to be a challenge for him, he continued to struggle through it and “never discussed the injury with production, never took a day off because of it, I just kept going to work.”
Somehow, Russell Crowe managed to get through those remaining days that Robin Hood was being shot. However, a decade later, the severe consequences of the injury started peeking through as the actor started feeling “very strange pains” in his lower legs. Finally getting it checked, Crowe was faced with an unbelievable realization:
He had fractured the shin bones of both of his legs while shooting that iconic scene for Robin Hood, which could only be discovered as the doctor pointed out “the remnants of fractures in both shin bones” of his in the results of his MRI and X-ray.
Russell Crowe’s Injury seemingly “Fixed” itself During the time he took a Break
Continuing, Russell Crowe concluded how severe his injury on the sets of Robin Hood was as he said: “Apparently I finished that movie with two broken legs. All for art. No cast, no splints, no painkillers, just kept going to work and over time they healed themselves.”
While it continues to remain unbelievable that a person managed to go around his daily life with both of his lower legs fractured and without even diagnosing it, the Unhinged star added what could have helped him heal up quickly: The year-long break he took after the shoot for Robin Hood wrapped up in 2009, and the time he didn’t work until 2013’s Man of Steel.
“In retrospect, I obviously knew something was wrong,” he says. “To be the Kryptonian father of Superman was six months of incredibly intense physical training. Between the time off and that training, things fixed themselves.”
Nobody can defeat the real-life undefeated Gladiator champion Russell Crowe when it comes to strength and endurance!
You can stream Robin Hood on Amazon Prime Video.
