Suffering for art happens more often than you think. There are several incidents and actor’s injuries that you watch on screen that are real. These actors have continued acting the scene despite the injuries and have thrilled us with their performances. Here are some actor injuries that you might have seen in the movie and thought it was their brilliant acting. 

1 Isla Fisher in Now You See Me

In the movie Now You See Me, the actress Isla Fisher nearly drowned on the set in the scene where she was doing a magic trick in a water tank. The 37-year-old actress had the release chain stuck in her costume, and even though her hands were cuffed with easily releasable magnetic cuffs, she couldn’t come out of the chain stuck in the costume. She was actually drowning when the rest of the crew thought she was acting.

The actress had to be submerged in a tank to simulate a magic trick. She followed all the safety protocols. Fisher had a magnetic handcuff which she could come out of if she wanted, but the chain connected to her ankle was stuck on her costume.

She realized that she was drowning and struggled to inform the crew, but the crew thought she was acting when she was actually fighting to save her life. The actress said in an interview that she was terrified by the near-death experience.

The actress also said she knew she was drowning and had already started thinking about her body on an autopsy table with the green dress she was wearing at the time. The actor explained the terrorizing experience in several interviews. She now resides in good health with her family in Sydney. (Source)

2 Brad Pitt in Se7en

Brad Pitt, while filming Se7en, injured himself in a chase scene where he slipped because of the rain on the hood of a car, fell against the glass, and suffered a severed tendon in his hand. The injury was so significant that the scriptwriter had to add it to the story, and that is why he appears with a sling in the next few scenes.

Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman starred in the movie, but little did the audience know about the chase scene where he cut his tendon really happened. On the rainy streets of LA, he fell from a fire escape, slipped on the hood of a car, and crashed into the windshield, breaking the glass.

The actor’s injuries required several stitches and an emergency room visit. He had to return directly back to the shoot because of production time constraints. The writers were immediately put into work to change the scenes to make it look planned, and he appeared with his arm in a sling in some of the next scenes in the movie.

The injury was not planned and this led to changing Brad Pitt’s character in the script. From that point on, the character has an injured arm in the movie. After the movie, he had surgery on his arm. The addition of the injury to the movie script helped continue production rather than stopping the shoot altogether. (Source)

3 Jake Gyllenhall in Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhall, while shooting for the movie Nightcrawler, had to do a scene where the frustrated character punches a mirror. He banged his hand against the mirror and broke it, which led to multiple stitches in his hand, and he had to be taken to hospital to deal with it.

Actors being too intense in their portrayal of the character and not breaking the character even when they are off the set is not unheard of. It is a quite common practice by actors throughout the shoot of the movie to help them bring out a better performance.

Such an incident happened when Jake Gyllenhall, during the shoot of the Dan Gilroy movie, Nightcrawler, had to punch a mirror. he did that and injured his hand, but he didn’t break character and continued the scene.

The mirror was not supposed to break and the actor ended up getting numerous stitches in the ER. He returned immediately to the set after he was released from the hospital. He played the character, Lou, in the movie.

Such incidents are bound to raise questions on the number of safety measures taken by the production. Sometimes budget cuts can lead to giving up on following certain regulations, but the concern is real and sometimes leads to stopping the production depending on the extent of multiple injuries. (Source)

4 Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible

In 2017, during the production of Mission Impossible 6, Tom Cruise was severely injured during a scene when he landed on a rooftop hurting his ankle in the process. Due to the time constraints in the production, this scene appears in the trailers.

Director Christopher McQuarrie informed the media that the star broke his ankle while filming a stunt. The scene required him to jump between two buildings. The production was put on hiatus while he recovered from the injury.

There was a harness to assist him. The video shows him limping heavily after the ankle hit the second building. A report also said that in addition, he also injured his hip in the process. Paramount Pictures later reported that he was doing fine. (Source)

5 Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained 

Leonardo DiCaprio was injured when he had to slam his fist on a table. He accidentally hit a crystal sitting three, and blood began dripping out. He didn’t break out of his character and continued the scene. “It was intense to watch,” said the onlookers. There were several takes of the same scene, but Quentin Tarantino decided to go with the real blood scene. 

Django Unchained is a controversial and intense movie on slavery. Dicaprio plays the slave owner. He had to do a scene where he slams his fist down on a table, but he accidentally slammed too hard and got his hand cut. He continued the scene as if nothing happened.

The actress where he had to act like he was wiping the blood on was slightly uncomfortable knowing it is his real blood. The scene with the actor’s injuries actually made it into the final edit. But having to wipe his hand on a co-star might have been slightly disgusting for the co-star. (Source)