Join today to claim your daily loot

15 Actors Who Injured Their Co-Stars

1-15

Nazarii Verbitskiy

Entertainment - September 30th 2026, 18:30 GMT+2

15. Billy Crystal & Mandy Patinkin — The Princess Bride (1987)

Billy Crystal managed to injure Mandy Patinkin without ever laying a finger on him. Crystal improvised relentlessly as Miracle Max, leaving Patinkin desperately trying not to ruin takes by laughing off-camera. He eventually bruised the muscles around a rib from holding everything in so tightly. Sword fights, cliffs, torture machines—and comedy was what finally got him. | © 20th Century Studios

14. Tony Bellew & Michael B. Jordan — Creed (2015)

Michael B. Jordan wanted the knockout in *Creed* to look authentic, which meant making the deeply sensible decision to let professional boxer Tony Bellew actually punch him. Twice, as it turned out, because the first camera angle wasn’t good enough. Jordan said he was seeing stars afterward and felt as if he had been in a car accident for several days. Cinema! | © Warner Bros. Pictures

James Caan and Gianni Russo — 13. James Caan & Gianni Russo — The Godfather (1972)

Sonny’s vicious beating of Carlo already feels disturbingly convincing, and Gianni Russo later said parts of it were much more real than planned. According to Russo, James Caan struck his elbow with a metal garbage-can lid and kicked him hard enough to crack two ribs during filming. Russo believed their off-screen friction contributed to Caan’s aggression, although that remains his account of what happened. | © Paramount Pictures

Steve Austin and Sylvester Stallone — 12. Steve Austin & Sylvester Stallone — The Expendables (2010)

Sylvester Stallone’s fight with former WWE star Steve Austin became considerably rougher than the average choreographed movie brawl. Stallone later said one particularly brutal sequence left him with a hairline fracture in his neck, eventually requiring serious surgery and a metal plate. Considering *The Expendables* was built around aging action legends proving they could still take punishment, Stallone perhaps proved the point a little too thoroughly. | © Fox

Valentina Shevchenko and Halle Berry — 11. Valentina Shevchenko & Halle Berry — Bruised (2021)

Putting Halle Berry opposite an actual UFC champion certainly helped *Bruised* look convincing; it also came with two broken ribs. Berry said Valentina Shevchenko’s real kicks and physicality contributed to the injury during their fight scenes. Rather than shut down the production she was also directing, Berry kept filming, essentially discovering the least enjoyable possible way to make an MMA drama feel authentic. | © Netflix

10. Chris Casamassa & Linden Ashby — Mortal Kombat (1995)

Linden Ashby’s Johnny Cage survived Goro, Scorpion and Shang Tsung, but Chris Casamassa’s heel proved considerably harder to shrug off. While shooting their fight, Casamassa delivered an axe kick that slipped between Ashby’s protective pads and struck him directly in the kidney. Ashby later recalled urinating blood afterward, which puts all those complaints about video game movie costumes into rather brutal perspective. | © New Line Cinema

Cropped The Princess Bride 1987 — 9. Christopher Guest & Cary Elwes — The Princess Bride (1987)

Cary Elwes wanted Westley being knocked unconscious to look convincing, so he asked Christopher Guest to give him a genuine tap with the heavy sword. Guest obliged—and hit him harder than either expected. Elwes really did lose consciousness, waking up in the hospital and requiring stitches to his scalp. Sometimes the quickest route to realistic acting is apparently just skipping the acting altogether. | © 20th Century Studios

Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus — 8. Andrew Lincoln & Norman Reedus — The Walking Dead (2010)

Andrew Lincoln apparently brought enough enthusiasm to *The Walking Dead*’s physical scenes that Norman Reedus learned to keep his guard up. Reedus recalled a sequence where Lincoln was meant to tackle him toward an airbag but instead came flying in with both fists and caught him directly in the face. Reedus has joked about Lincoln’s habit of accidentally hitting castmates, making Rick Grimes dangerous even between zombie attacks. | © AMC

Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum — 7. Mark Ruffalo & Channing Tatum — Foxcatcher (2014)

Channing Tatum specifically told Mark Ruffalo not to hold back during one of their confrontations in *Foxcatcher*. Ruffalo took the instruction seriously enough to slap Tatum and accidentally pop his eardrum, leaving him temporarily unable to hear properly. Tatum later said the injury healed, while Ruffalo jokingly admitted that four months of getting thrown around by his much larger co-star made delivering the slap fairly easy. | © Sony Pictures Classics

6. Bruce Lee & Jackie Chan — Enter the Dragon (1973)

Long before Jackie Chan became an action icon himself, he was a young stunt performer getting knocked around by Bruce Lee in *Enter the Dragon*. During one sequence, Lee accidentally struck Chan in the head with a fighting stick, leaving him briefly dazed. Chan later admitted the pain faded quickly, but he kept pretending it hurt because an apologetic Lee was fussing over him—and really, who could blame him? | © Warner Bros. Pictures

Cropped the texas chain saw massacre 1974 — 5. Gunnar Hansen & Marilyn Burns — The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The dinner sequence in *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre* was miserable enough before Gunnar Hansen decided fake blood was taking too long. Hansen later admitted that the prop knife meant to cut Marilyn Burns’ finger kept malfunctioning, so he removed the protective tape from its blade and actually cut her. Burns’ reaction required very little performance—a fittingly nasty detail from an already notoriously punishing production. | © New Line Cinema

Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone — 4. Dolph Lundgren & Sylvester Stallone — Rocky IV (1985)

Sylvester Stallone wanted the final Rocky–Drago fight to feel authentic, so he instructed Dolph Lundgren to hit him for real. Stallone has said one crushing blow to his chest eventually landed him in intensive care with dangerous swelling around his heart. Lundgren has been more cautious about directly attributing the medical emergency to one punch, but Stallone has consistently connected the hospitalization to their brutal filming sessions. | © MGM

Robert Downey Jr and Halle Berry — 3. Robert Downey Jr. & Halle Berry — Gothika (2003)

A struggle scene in *Gothika* went badly wrong when Robert Downey Jr. restrained Halle Berry’s arm and accidentally broke it. Both actors later described the injury as a freak accident during an intense physical sequence, with Downey remembering actually feeling the bone snap. Production had to pause for Berry to recover before filming resumed, giving this supernatural thriller one very real horror story behind the camera. | © Warner Bros. Pictures

Joe Pesci and Macaulay Culkin — 2. Joe Pesci & Macaulay Culkin — Home Alone (1990)

Harry threatening to bite off Kevin McCallister’s fingers is one of *Home Alone*’s nastier moments, particularly because Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin during rehearsal. Culkin has repeatedly said Pesci broke the skin and left a scar that remains visible decades later. He was only nine during filming, making this one behind-the-scenes injury considerably less adorable than almost everything surrounding it in the finished Christmas classic. | © 20th Century Fox

Dave Bautista and Daniel Craig — 1. Dave Bautista & Daniel Craig — Spectre (2015)

Daniel Craig encouraged Dave Bautista to throw him harder during their ferocious train fight in *Spectre*. Bautista did exactly that, Craig landed badly, and the Bond star tore the meniscus in his knee badly enough to require surgery. Craig later remembered immediately knowing something was seriously wrong. Asking a former professional wrestler built like Bautista to stop being gentle turned out to have fairly predictable consequences. | © Sony Pictures Releasing

1-15

Movie sets are supposed to make danger look real, but sometimes the injuries are painfully genuine. A mistimed punch, an overcommitted stunt, or one prop behaving exactly as it shouldn’t can leave a co-star nursing more than their pride. These actors accidentally hurt the people sharing the scene with them, turning memorable moments on screen into stories their castmates probably remember for very different reasons.

Facebook X Reddit WhatsApp Copy URL

Movie sets are supposed to make danger look real, but sometimes the injuries are painfully genuine. A mistimed punch, an overcommitted stunt, or one prop behaving exactly as it shouldn’t can leave a co-star nursing more than their pride. These actors accidentally hurt the people sharing the scene with them, turning memorable moments on screen into stories their castmates probably remember for very different reasons.