There are so many movies and tv shows these days that something is bound to happen once in a while. Especially with all of the action movies that we watch, someone is bound to get hurt while trying to perform a stunt. Well, it turns out that even the mildest of scenes can end up damaging someone. Though, these incidents are not always painful in nature. Sometimes it's something as simple as having to perform a sex scene in front of your mother. Well, if you want to know what happened behind the scenes of your favorite shows and movies, keep reading to find out.
Blazing Saddles
Not every incident on set has to be painful or tragic. There are also plenty of hilarious occurrences to be had as well. Take the classic western film "Blazing Saddles" for example. While filming, a man wandered into a scene who wasn't from the cast or crew. Despite being asked to leave, the man didn't exactly understand and ended up coming back. Director Mel Brooks decided to make the most out of it.
He handed the man a waiver to sign and had him placed into the scene. You can even see him at the end of the film wearing a sweater and watching everyone run out of the Warner Brothers studio.
The Wolf Of Wall Street
You wouldn't think that there could be many accidents that happen on the set of a movie that isn't so much known for its action as it is for its witty commentary and historical fiction narrative. However, according to Margot Robbie, the scene where she's in bed with Leonardo DiCaprio and a whole lot of money wasn't exactly the best. I got a million paper cuts on my back from all that money! It's not as glamorous as it sounds", she exclaimed.
"If anyone is ever planning on having sex on top of a pile of cash: don't. Or maybe real money is a bit softer, but the fake money is like paper, and when I got up off the bed, I turned around to get my robe and everyone gasped."
Jaws 2
While filming the sequel to the original Steven Spielberg classic, the crew had a pretty traumatic incident by all accounts. Ironically, while shooting in the sea, they were surrounded by a group of real hammerhead sharks and when they started screaming for help their calls went unanswered because it was written in the script that way. The crew didn't think they were in danger, so they had to fend for themselves.
Luckily, sharks rarely actually attack humans and no one ended up getting hurt. But while filming a man-eating shark movie, we're sure the last thing anyone wants is to be noticed by real sharks.
Rocky IV
Considering the amount of time Sylvester Stallone has spent as the mighty Rocky Balboa, you'd think that there might be some accidents before the fourth film, though, to be fair, choreographed fight scenes rarely cause accidents if at all. But in one specific scene, Stallone asked Dolph Lundgren to try to actually knock him out. So what did he do? He hit him with such a hard punch that Stallone ended up in the ICU for more than a week.
The moral of the story? If you're in a movie where people can fight for real, maybe try not to fight for real. A lot of accidents happen that way.
The Godfather
Apparently, Marlon Brando has never been the easiest person to work with on set. Because of this, Paramount was pretty reluctant to get him involved in the film. And maybe they were right to be nervous as by the first day of shooting he ended up costing the producers $40,000. How did he do this exactly? By simply missing his overnight flight from LA to New York the previous day.
You would think that as a famous actor he'd be able to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. That or he could simply schedule his flight for an earlier time to avoid complications.
Spring Breakers
Apparently, being a big-name rapper and a movie star is a bad combination... Big surprise! While working on the set of "Spring Breakers", Gucci Mane was supposed to be filming a sex scene. And the one thing you don't want to be doing during a scene like that is falling asleep. Well, that's exactly what happened to Gucci Mane as he could not keep his eyes open between takes.
Apparently, the reason for this was because he was working 12 hour days and then going out at night. Moreover, this scene took place at 4 in the morning so nothing was going to keep him up.
Masters Of Sex
Speaking of sex scenes, there was a scene in "Masters of Sex" where they do exactly that. During a scene where Lizzy Caplan had to get shirtless in front of her co-star Michael Sheen, he actually ended up throwing up in the garbage after putting his hand on her chest. Although it did turn out that he had actually eaten something bad earlier, it ended up being really bad timing.
"My whole self-confidence plummeted to the ground and I realized that I'm a monster and anybody who touches me will immediately start vomiting and that’s just the way it's going to be," she said of the experience.
The Vampire Diaries
But that apparently wouldn't be the last time someone got hurt during a sex scene in a movie. Who knew they could be so dangerous? During a scene in "The Vampire Diaries", Nina Dobrev actually broke one of Paul Wesley's fingers. Though it wasn't entirely her fault. Being the not-suave guy that I am, my thumb got bent back in a romantic scene where I slowly lowered Nina onto a bed. I was out of commission for a week," said Wesley.
Reading all of these stories makes us wonder if we'll see any more. It sounds like the crew really needs to keep a better eye out to make sure these things don't happen.
Mission Impossible: Fallout
It's not always easy to do your own stunts. In fact, it's downright dangerous sometimes. That's why you have to appreciate the dedication that some actors have to do something like this. But when Tom Cruise stepped up to the plate to do his own stunts in "Mission Impossible: Fallout", he walked, er, limped away with a broken ankle. It happened during the scene where he's jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
"I knew instantly my ankle was broken and I really didn’t want to do it again so just got up and carried on with the take," he said, "'It’s broken. That’s a wrap. Take me to hospital’ and then everyone got on the phone and made their vacation arrangement.”
Fifty Shades Of Grey
One movie that we might actually expect there to be some injuries during a sex scene is "Fifty Shades of Grey". In this movie, there are plenty of scenes where something could go wrong because they are playing out their BDSM fantasies. And as it turned out, there were definitely some times that they could have done without all the roughhousing. Just ask Dakota Johnson about her experience.
"I got whiplash once from him throwing me on the bed," she explained. "So f***ing painful. I wish we had a gag reel from the shoot." We also wish to see that.
Goodfellas
When you think of accidents happening on set, you probably don't think about what could possibly happen afterward. After all, the pretty easy answer is that they go to the hospital if they are pretty severe or not if everything is fine. Well, what happened to Michael Imperioli when he sliced his hand on some glass is pretty interesting. When he was injured, he was actually in the middle of filming his death.
So, when he went to the hospital, instead of being treated for his hand-wound, the doctors rushed to start treating his fake bullet wounds. The injury sucks, but that makes for a hilarious story.
Groundhog Day
This one isn't so much of an "accident" as it is so much an incident. Basically, during the filming of "Groundhog Day", Bill Murray was really frustrated from the frustrations of going through a divorce and working hard that he was asked to get an assistant to help ease the communication between himself, the director, and the studio. But he was so against the idea that he decided to do the unexpected.
Instead of getting someone to communicate, he got someone who literally couldn't communicate. He hired a deaf person and no one knew how to speak sign language. He really didn't want to talk.
Girls
When you have to do a nude scene in a movie or TV show, there's always that question of how are you going to keep your private bits... private. Well, for many people, the solution to that dilemma is to wear a nude patch, but that doesn't always seem to work. Especially not for Lena Dunham. "I stopped wearing the nude patch after the first season of Girls," said the actress.
"There’s not one guy who works on that show who hasn’t seen the inside of my vagina. You glue it over your vagina. It gets sweaty and always falls off. My male co-stars, at the end of the day, don’t care."
Superbad
While this isn't exactly an incident, per se, it is definitely worth mentioning. During this movie, which is rife with language, nudity, and drugs, you would expect to have to do some things that you might not otherwise do in real life. Especially not in front of one of your parents. Well, you guessed it, that's what happened. 17-year-old Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) legally had to have his mother there for his first-ever sex scene.
While this makes total sense, we want to point out how uncomfortable it is to have to shout "It’s in. Oh, my God, it’s in." He said of the scene, "She got there, and I had fake sexual intercourse in front of her. Afterward, we didn't talk about it; we still don't speak about that moment."
Another Time, Another Place
Okay, brace yourselves. This one is a bit more graphic and serious than the others. Actors Lana Turner and Sean Connery were filming a love scene for "Another Time, Another Place" (which you'll soon wish was where Turner's boyfriend showed up) when Turner's mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato (which sounds both gangster and incredibly aggressive) showed up with a gun in hand. As a very jealous person, he thought this would be the answer.
Courageously, Connery grabbed his wrist and twisted until he dropped the gun and fled. Unfortunately, her daughter Cheryl had to go through the trauma of killing him when he showed up later in fear that he might kill Turner. It was ruled justifiable by the courts.
The Hateful Eight
When you're borrowing things from someone, you better make sure that nothing happens to it. Unfortunately for the production crew of "The Hateful Eight", they were unable to fulfill this unspoken rule. For a scene where Jennifer Jason Leigh had to play the guitar, the Martin Museum in Pennsylvania graciously loaned them their vintage Martin guitar that was worth nearly $40,000. It was meant to be swapped out during a cut, but...
That didn't end up happening. Apparently, Kurt Russel didn't get the memo and destroyed what the museum described as a "priceless, irreplaceable artefact" and they would never loan anything again. Fun fact, Leigh's reaction is so genuine because she realized he didn't get the memo.
Battlestar Galactica
That's not the only time anyone has ever destroyed a precious item while filming a scene. In an episode of the 2004 remake of "Battlestar Galactica" Edward James Olmos, who was portraying the commanding officer of the BS Galactica, William Adama, got a little carried away while playing around with a model of the ship... He ended up completely destroying a museum-quality replica worth around $200,000. How's that for an accident?
We'd think that the crew would try to do their best to prevent these things from happening. And maybe they do, but there's no way they told him how much it was with. Otherwise, this wouldn't have happened.
Maps To The Stars
In a scene in "Maps to the Stars", "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson was supposed to be getting intimate with Julianne Moore's character in the back of a car. Although, he describes it as a little too intimate for his comfort. "I sweat like a f***ing crazy person,” he said. “I was trying to literally catch drops of sweat to stop them hitting her back. Afterwards she was like, 'Are you having a panic attack?' It was so embarrassing."
At least it's not as embarrassing as getting paper cuts from money. Or losing your nude patch. Or getting whiplash, breaking your thumb, or having your mom watch you act it out. But to be fair, that is pretty embarrassing.
Love And Other Drugs
And if you want to hear some more nude scene mishaps, then look no further than one of the scenes between Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie "Love and Other Drugs". This is something perhaps a bit more humiliating than your nude patch slipping off. It was almost time for her to get naked, but she jumped the gun a bit and got undressed before the cameras were even rolling.
"I have to remove my trench coat and be nude underneath, and I thought we were filming,” she said. “But it turned out we were just rehearsing and I got unnecessarily naked in front of a lot of people!"
Life During Wartime
Another sex scene, another potential accident. "We had to have sex up against a wall and they started spraying us with glistening stuff to make us look sweaty, but no one seemed to realize that we were standing on a marble floor,” said Michael Lerner. “They said ‘Action’ and he pulled me up against the wall and his feet slipped out from under him and he went crashing down on the floor. It was terrible, but it was one of those moments I'll never forget."
We bet this looks like a scene from a sitcom. Hopefully, no one was seriously injured. They probably went with a "caution: slippery when wet" sign on their next take.
The Change-Up
During this sex scene from "The Change-up", however, there were no potential injuries at hand. Ryan Reynolds and his co-star Olivia Wilde were filming a scene when she decided to start painting smiley faces on her underwear. In the scene, she’s sitting there and I take her top off and the bra off, and she has those panties on, but she’s drawn these adorable little smiley faces on them,” he began.
“And I forget every line. Not just from this movie, but from every other movie I’ve done." We would also be taken aback a little bit. This sounds like quite a weird surprise.
The Walking Dead
In a show like "The Walking Dead, you would expect that we're about to tell you that someone got hurt from one of the prop weapons or mock fights. Well, it turns out this one is also a sex scene incident. But when Christian Serratos and Michael Cudlitz had to get intimate in front of a crowd of onlookers (who were drinking coffee and eating ramen noodles) things went awry.
They were practically naked but covered, but while they were humping the covers got knocked off. "Then we just started laughing, because it's ridiculous. It's two people, we barely know each other, lying on top of each other naked," said Cudlitz.
The Specialist
In "The Specialist" there was a scene where Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone get naked in the shower together. Unfortunately, the two had basically zero chemistry between them. So when Stone refused to get naked for the scene, Stallone suggested they get drunk. He explains, "Let it be known, I didn’t want this scene because Sharon was not cooperating. We get to the set and she decided not to take off her robe off. The director asks only a few of the crew to remain, and she still won’t take it off."
"She said, ‘I’m just sick of nudity.’ I asked her if she could get sick of it on somebody else’s film. She was having none of it, so I went down to my trailer, bought back a bottle of Black Death vodka that was given to me by Michael Douglas, and after half-a-dozen shots we were wet and wild."
The Legend Of Tarzan
In this 2016 reenvisioning of the all-time classic, Margot Robbie, who plays Jane, accidentally injured her co-star during--you guessed it--a sex scene. "I didn’t injure Alexander," she said. "And I didn’t punch him in the face, at least not hard. But he’s a pretty strong guy. He can take it. We just got carried away a bit." Apparently, she was asked by the director to be a little bit more "Violently passionate".
Although this may sound to some like he's saying to be rougher during the act, it sounds more like a moderator of the adjective for us. No punching during sex!
The Tudors
Apparently, a more, shall we say, natural incident occurred on the set of "The Tudors" when actor Henry Cavill had to get intimate with one of the actresses in the scene they had together. He explained, “A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts and I hadn't rearranged my stuff into a harmless position. She's basically rubbing herself all over me and, um..." you get the picture. He said he had to "apologize profusely".
“All you’re doing is smacking your nuts against someone and nothing is going in.” But he also said, “It’s not great when you’re in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a boner, is it?”
Desperate Housewives
That's not the only time someone got a little too excited during a sexy scene. When Jesse Metcalfe had to shoot a scene with Eva Longoria, everything was going smoothly until they got to the more intimate parts. "We were rehearsing and then the director was like, 'OK, get out of bed, we have to reset the set', and I was like, 'I need a minute.'," said Metcalfe.
He went on to add: "It doesn't happen that frequently...there are a lot of people on set, and it can be very technical, but it happens from time to time."
The Princess Bride
During one of the fight scenes in "The Princess Bride", Cary Elwes' character falls to the ground unconscious. The thing is, this really happened in real life. During the fight, Christopher Guest ended up hitting him too hard with the hilt of the sword and he fell unconscious. Not only that, but Elwes even broke his toe during his first week on set when he was supposedly "messing around" between scenes.
He did almost manage to hide this injury well enough. "I was limping a bit, you can see it in some of the scenes – you can see that I was limping into the fire swamp," he pointed out.
Being John Malkovich
During a scene of "Being John Malkovich", the titular character storms off when he finds out that Craig Schwartz had been renting out his brain to random people. What happened next ended up staying in the movie because the director liked it so much. One of the cast members, who was a bit drunk, threw a beer can from a moving vehicle while shouting "Hey Malkovich, think fast!" and it hit him in the head.
Because he ended up with a speaking role, the extra ended up getting his pay boosted to $700 a day, and Malkovich just needed to sustain a head injury to make it happen.
The Lord Of The Rings
When Aragorn sees that the two hobbits are lying dead in the scene with the two towers, he decides to kick his helmet in anger. It's at this moment that he also belts out a primal cry and falls to the floor. But what really happened here is that Aragorn's actor, Viggo Mortenson kicked the helmet so hard that he ended up breaking some of his toes in the process.
We're not exactly sure what caused this. Was the helmet that heavy, or was his kick that hard? In any case, we don't want to be on the receiving end of either of them.
Roar
This is another pretty gruesome incident to occur on a movie set. During what was supposed to be filming for a comedy movie, probably the worst thing that could have happened did. As the name suggests, this movie featured some lions. Unfortunately for director Noel Marshall's family who was cast for the film, which included his then-wife, her daughter, and his two sons, this was not a very good thing at all.
They all ended up getting mauled by the lions. His wife at the time received multiple scalp wounds while Marshall suffered from so many bites that he was hospitalized and developed gangrene.
Now You See Me
In this movie, there was a pretty well-known scene involving a giant tank of water. Actress Isla Fisher was supposed to be performing an underwater escape act, but during one of the attempts, something went horribly wrong. "I was in a tank of water...And whilst in there...even though I had a quick-release magnetic thing on my handcuffs, the chain that went between my ankles and my wrists was not able to be broken, and it got stuck underneath the slat and I was trapped," she said.
The biggest problem with scenes like this is if something goes wrong, that's technically how the act should look, and no one would be able to tell. "Everyone just thought I was doing fabulous acting. They thought I was being Meryl Streep in the tank - actually, I was drowning!"
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
There's a reason so many actors choose not to do their own stunts. It's because it can be dangerous when performed by the wrong people, or those who aren't well-trained. This was proven to be true during the filming of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" when Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double, David Holmes, suffered a spinal injury leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. And that could have been the end of Radcliffe's career, too.
During a scene that took place in the air, an explosion that was meant to be a part of the stunt ended up causing Holmes to fall, injuring his spine.
The Hangover Part II
That wasn't the only stuntman to be injured on set, and coincidentally also from Warner Bros. There are many ways that stunts can go wrong and people tend to overlook the dangers of being a stuntman for TV shows and movies. While filming in Bangkok, stuntman Scott McLean took a blow to the head when the taxi he was leaning out of failed to avoid an oncoming car. Warner Bros. issued a statement revealing they were paying his medical bills and that he was put into a medically induced coma.
However, he didn't end up making a complete recovery. Although he did come out of it well enough to continue living, he said that he "likely [suffered] permanent brain and physical injuries". His scene somehow actually ended up in the final cut.
Live Free Or Die Hard
While the last two dealt with a stunt person getting injured, this one involves an injury caused by a stunt person. But not only that, another stuntman was injured in this movie as well. First, bruce Willis sustained a bad injury to his face and had to receive seven stitches after Magie Q's stunt double kicked him too hard with the heel end of her stiletto. But that's not all.
Willis' own stunt double, Larry Rippenkroeger was injured as well after falling 25 feet from a fire escape. He suffered broken ribs, facial bones, a punctured lung, and fractures in both wrists, halting production. Willis personally paid for his parent's hotel room and visited him constantly in the hospital.
Rust
This movie has been indefinitely suspended after a shooting incident occurred, killing a camerawoman. On October 21, 2021, the production's property key assistant and armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, retrieved a firearm and ammunition from a locked safe where it was checked by assistant director Dave Halls before being given to Alec Baldwin, the producer, and actor in the film. He was meant to point the "cold gun" (meaning it was empty) at the camera and fire it.
While doing a practice run and explanation of how he was going to draw the gun from his holster, he accidentally fired a live projectile into the chest of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who was flown by helicopter to and pronounced dead at the hospital.