When Kurt Russell broke his ankle but soldiered on: “I wasn’t gonna let that payday go away”
In 1998, Kurt Russell starred in his biggest opportunity as a leading man up to that point. Hits like Backdraft, Tombstone, and Stargate had seen him vault through the Hollywood ranks in the early ’90s, and with each one, his quote increased in size. By this film – a sci-fi action extravaganza with a $60million budget – Russell was paid a cool $15m. To this day, it’s the most he would ever be paid for a movie. Imagine his horror, then, when the actor broke his ankle during the first week of shooting in a manner that was so blackly comical the studio lied to the press to cover it up.
Throughout the 1980s, Russell starred in a succession of action movies and comedies that were either minor successes, flops, or movies whose triumphs were primarily attributed to other stars. Several of these pictures became genuine cult classics with dedicated followings to this day – namely, the three he made with John Carpenter – but none of them made him a truly bankable A-list star.
That all changed with 1994’s Stargate, though, when producer Dean Devlin crunched the numbers and found that Russell tested as the most likeable actor in Hollywood. Devlin noted that his movies played superbly overseas, too, so he decided to pay Russell $7m to take the lead in his “Wormhole meets Ancient Egypt” sci-fi adventure. It wound up banking MGM’s biggest opening weekend ever, and internal studio research revealed that 66% of people responding to a survey claimed they saw the movie specifically for Russell.
“That changed my financial position in the movie business,” Russell told GQ. “For the first time, I realised, hey, I have a future here – not just in the business, but to make some money.”
After Stargate, Russell grinned, “I joined the big parade…by pulling the lottery chain.” It all culminated in Paul WS Anderson’s Soldier in 1998, which netted him that eye-watering $15m cheque – and a huge Warner Brothers tentpole release resting squarely on his newly-jacked shoulders.
Russell committed to a year and a half of physical preparation to play the emotionless military assassin known as Sergeant Todd ‘3465’ in Anderson’s picture. He worked out like a demon, completely transforming his body to look good on-screen and handle the rigours of the movie’s many action scenes. Everything seemed set for Russell to ascend to the level of action giants like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, or Arnold Schwarzenegger—but then disaster struck.
During the first week of the shoot, Russell was milling around between shots on the film’s elaborate main set, the living quarters of a colony of people exiled to a waste disposal planet. Suddenly, he stumbled over an ornamental cabbage and took a tumble, breaking his left ankle. This was potentially catastrophic for the production, but studio executives knew it also could turn Russell into a laughing stock. So, it released a press release claiming Russell had been injured in a stunt rather than admitting to the cabbage calamity.
Amazingly, though, Russell was back on set after just a week. He was determined to walk off the injury as best he could—but then the top of his right foot was broken in a separate incident. It seemed like the movie Gods had cursed Soldier, but Russell simply gritted his teeth, agreed to move the schedule around, and soldiered through the pain.
Scenes where his character was lying down were moved to the start of shooting, followed by those where he moved to a seated position and then any that required him to stand. Finally, right at the end of the shoot, he was cleared to perform the action sequences, including an extended running scene that actually takes place at the start of the movie.
It all simply goes to show that, even though he broke his ankle in a silly way, Russell has always been one tough customer. Or, as he put it, “Come hell or high water, I wasn’t gonna let that payday go away.”
