Russell Crowe has revealed he broke both his legs performing a stunt on the Robin Hood set… but didn’t realise until a decade later.
The actor recalled the incident while out on the promotional push for her his new action thriller film Land Of Bad, which also stars Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, Ricky Whittle and Milo Ventimiglia.
During a conversation with People, Crowe explained how he once worked the last month of a film shoot with two broken legs.
The ‘small mishap’ happened while performing a stunt for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood back in the summer of 2009, when he had to jump down from a portcullis, a heavy, vertically closing gate found at one of the medieval fortifications used in the movie.
‘I jumped off a castle portcullis onto rock-hard uneven ground,’ the Oscar winner, 59, told the publication. ‘We should have prepped the ground and buried a pad but we were in a rush to get the shot done in the fading light.’
Crowe, who was 45-years-old when he played the titular role, didn’t realize the extent of the danger until he was up above the landing spot and just about to take the leap.
‘With hundreds of extras around, arrows flying and burn pots setting the castle on fire, there was no pulling out,’ Crowe recalled. ‘As I jumped, I remember thinking, “This is going to hurt.”‘
In those last few seconds, Crowe remembered thinking he wanted to land on the balls of his feet to help with the impact.
‘It was like an electric shock bursting up through my body,’ he recalled of his reaction to the pain, but ultimately he knew no matter the injury he had to push on.
‘We were shooting a big movie, so you just struggle through, but the last month of that job was very tricky,’ the actor said. ‘There was a number of weeks where even walking was a challenge.’
Crowe said he ‘never discussed the injury with production, never took a day off because of it, I just kept going to work.’
About a decade later, Crowe would be prompted to see a doctor when he began to have ‘very strange pains’ in his lower legs.
The Gladiator star didn’t think it was anything serious, and that it was likely the result of a lack of exercise and sun after ‘working through a long New York City winter.’
So he was totally stunned when the doctor asked him, ‘When did you break your legs?’ It turns out, the doctor found the remnants of the fractures in both shin bones from X-rays.
Crowe didn’t even think twice about doing his own stunt for a scene where he had to jump from down about a portcullis, which is a heavy, vertically gate found at one of the medieval fortifications used the production
‘I jumped off a castle portcullis onto rock-hard uneven ground,’ the Oscar winner told People. ‘We should have prepped the ground and buried a pad but we were in a rush to get the shot done in the fading light’
The Wellington, New Zealand native, who predominantly grew up in Sydney, Australia, said struggled to even walk the last month of the Robin Hood shoot
In an effort to help Crowe recall when the injuries happened, he told the actor that the X-rays show it would have been about 10 years ago.
The stunt where he jumped off the portcullis on the Robin Hood set immediately came to mind when hearing the time frame.
‘Apparently I finished that movie with two broken legs,’ he said with confidence. ‘All for art. No cast, no splints, no painkillers, just kept going to work and over time they healed themselves.’
Crowe must have subconsciously known something was wrong, physically, at the time, considering he wound up taking a year off from work after the Robin Hood shoot. He didn’t return until he signed on to play Jor-El, a Kryptonian scientist who is Kal-El’s (Superman) biological father, in Man Of Steel, which shot in the summer of 2011.
‘In retrospect I obviously knew something was wrong,’ the Academy Award winner said. ‘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.’
Robin Hood, which Scott worked from a screenplay by Brian Helgeland, went on to gross $321.7 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of around $155–237 million, which was considered to be somewhat of a disappointment.
But there were critics who maintained the true financial setback to the production wasn’t a lack of money returns but rather the fact that it went over budget.
The longtime leading man said he wound up finding out he fractured the shins of both legs about a decade later, when he was prompted to see a doctor when he began to have ‘very strange pains’ in the lower parts of his legs; the actor is see in October 2022
Crowe currently stars in William Eubank’s Land Of Bad, which just made its premiere in theaters on February 16
Along with Crowe, the stellar 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), that wound up being a huge hit with fans and critics, grossing $465.4 million with a production budget of $103 million.
Among its many accolades, Gladiator won five Academy Awards, including the coveted Best Picture, as well as Best Actor of Crowe.
A sequel is currently in the works and is slated to be released in the U.S. on November 22.
William Eubank’s Land Of Bad just made its premiere in theaters on February 16.
