Charlize Theron’s list of her many brutal on-set injuries: “A lot of fractures”
Though there’s more and more progress every year, female action stars are still a relative rarity.
Sigourney Weaver did a lot for the genre with her appearances in Alien and Aliens, while Carrie-Anne Moss inspired plenty of onlookers with her role as Trinity in The Matrix franchise. More modern examples include Ana de Armas, Michelle Rodriguez, and Scarlett Johansson, but one name that’s easy to overlook in this discussion is Charlize Theron.
The South African-born star has succeeded in numerous acting disciplines, but her work on the action front is up there with the very best. Her role as Furiosa is one of the most talked-about parts of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, widely regarded as one of the greatest action flicks of the 21st century. Chuck her in appearances in franchises like ‘Fast and Furious’ and ‘The Old Guard’, as well as standalones such as Atomic Blonde, and her prowess as a badass is undeniable.
Like any good action star, Theron has suffered for her art. She’s previously described how tough it was to make Fury Road, which was filmed across various harsh regions of Africa and Australia. She’s also picked up a wide range of injuries, as she revealed during an interview with The New York Times. It got to the point where her friends and family would notice just how often she was in a state of disrepair.
“I run into people and they’re like, ‘Oh, what happened to your arm?’ And I’m like, ‘oh, I just had surgery. And they’re like, the last time I saw you, you had surgery’,” she revealed. “I had an unfortunate injury on the first action attempt I ever did, for a bad movie called Æon Flux. On day nine, I did a back handspring, and I didn’t get enough height, and I landed on my neck on a concrete bridge. I had the last surgery on my neck 18 years ago. I’ve had surgery on both elbows, my right shoulder, my thumb, carpal tunnel, fractures. A lot of fractures.”
Æon Flux was released in 2005 and is based on the animated TV show of the same name. Theron plays the title character, a skilled warrior leading a rebellion in a world ravaged by a deadly virus. The injury she sustained set filming back for a month while she recovered; she spent five days in hospital recovering and then endured another six weeks of physiotherapy to get back to full health.
Theron is far from the only actor to endure great physical pain on set. It’s amazing that Jackie Chan is still alive, given what he’s put his body through. He’s very nearly died a few times, especially whilst making the movie Armour of God. Tom Cruise, who is very much the Western equivalent of Chan in his tendency to perform his own stunts, has also come off worse for wear on a number of projects. 71-year-old Harrison Ford broke his leg after a piece of set fell on him during the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
In a way, it’s a badge of honour that Theron has hurt herself so much making movies; proof that she belongs in the action big leagues. On the other hand, she’d probably have preferred not to have landed on the top of her head.
