Yahoo Lifestyle 13 Actors Who Developed Phobias, Medical Conditions, And More While Filming These TV Shows Or Movies
1.First, while filming Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018), Dylan O'Brien was hit by a car during a stunt and suffered multiple injuries. Dylan said that his accident "completely rewired" how he felt about being on set, and there was a time when he thought he'd never step foot on a set again.
"I loved what I did. I loved being on set; it was my favorite place in the world. I loved my crew. My crews are my families, my life, my worlds. I put my trust into them, and I think that was a piece of what made it so hard, having that so viciously and scarily broken one time," Dylan explained while reflecting on his accident in 2020.
2.In 2012, while filming The Good Wife Season 4, Kristin Chenoweth was hospitalized after suffering a "seven-inch skull fracture, a hairline fracture, cracked teeth, and ribs" when lighting equipment fell and hit her. The on-set accident led to Kristin having "long-standing injuries" that she still deals with today.
In 2023, while promoting her new book, Kristin revealed that she regrets not taking legal action against CBS, the network behind The Good Wife, after her accident. She said, "I didn’t do it out of fear and anxiety, so don’t ever let fear ruin your life."
3.After filming Psycho (1960), namely the iconic scene where Marion is stabbed in the shower, Janet Leigh said it caused her to develop a phobia of taking showers. She only took baths, and would "leave the bathroom door open and shower curtain open" if possible.
4.Sophia Bush said she developed a fear of being underwater after filming a scene in One Tree Hill Season 8 (2010) when Brooke almost drowns inside a car. On an episode of the Drama Queens podcast, she explained that in order to film the scene, she was submerged in a pool with weighted belts in her lap and had to act like she was drowning.
However, Sophia's brain obviously didn't know she was not actually drowning, so now her body thinks it really happened to her. "I have nightmares about drowning," Sophia continued. She even explained that she can't even put her face in a bowl of water because it freaks her out.
5.Four days before filming The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), Barry Keoghan suffered from a case of necrotizing fasciitis, aka flesh-eating disease, on his arm. Barry said amputation was discussed by his doctors, too. Director and writer Martin McDonagh recalled visiting Barry, saying, "I went to the hospital thinking, Shit — is he going to die? Let alone, is he going to make the movie."
Barry also remembered Martin telling him, "Just remember this when you've been nominated for an Oscar." And sure enough, Barry was nominated for his first Oscar for his work in The Banshees of Inisherin.
6.While filming Buried (2010), Ryan Reynolds became extremely claustrophobic due to the fact the movie focuses on his character being buried alive in a coffin. He said, "For me, I was enclosed in there and had moments of utter panic that were soothed in various ways."
Ryan reflected on filming, saying, "One woman was playing all the roles when we were shooting. I had a microphone close to my chest, and she could hear my panic attack starting 'cause she could hear my heart accelerating. There were times when I couldn't get out of the coffin with any ease, so I just had to stay in there with 50-60 pounds of wood on your chest pressing down so you start to have moments of panic."
He also suffered from insomnia while filming Buried, saying, "I'd go home, and I'd pace until sun up, like a vampire, and then climb into a coffin to film. I was losing my mind; I hadn't slept in days, weeks."
7.Tippi Hedren developed a fear of birds after filming Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). In her memoir, Tippi recalled the horrible days on set when real birds were used during the famous attic scene to attack her. She wrote, "It was brutal and ugly and relentless." At one point, birds were tied to her costume, and animal handlers threw live birds directly at her.
The abuse Tippi suffered on set while filming The Birds led to her sobbing from exhaustion on the final day of filming the attacking birds scenes. Her doctor reportedly ordered Hitchcock to let her take a week off before finishing the film.
Writing about the success of The Birds, Tippi said, "I never forgot for one moment that it was all happening because of Alfred Hitchcock, and I never forgot for one moment that I’d earned it."
8.While filming The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), during the scene when Samwise runs into the river to catch up to Frodo, Sean Astin pierced his foot with a sharp piece of glass. The cut was so deep, and there was so much blood, that they had to call a helicopter to the woods where they were filming in order to rush Sean to the hospital.
"We were a good hour, hour-and-a-half out of town," director and writer Peter Jackson recalled. "When they took the prosthetic off, it was a big deep gash in the foot. It was a substantial cut."
9.In his 2002 book, Lucky Man, Michael J. Fox revealed that while filming the close-ups where Marty McFly is hung in Back to the Future Part III (1990), he almost died while hanging there. Michael said for a few takes he was able to have his hands between the rope and his neck so that he was still able to breathe, however it went wrong on the third take. He wrote, "I miscalculated the positioning of my hand. Noose around my neck, dangling from the gallows pole; my carotid artery was blocked, causing me briefly to pass out."
Director and writer Robert Zemeckis was the one who noticed that Michael was actually struggling. Michael said, "I swung, unconscious, at the end of the rope for several seconds before Bob Zemeckis, fan of mine though he was, realized even I wasn't that good an actor."
10.While filming Napoleon and Samantha (1972), when she was only nine years old, Jodie Foster was mauled by a lion. "Then, [the stand-in lion] picked me up sideways and shook me in his mouth and turned me around," Jodie recalled. Due to the incident, Jodie said, "Now cats freak me out a little bit."
11.After filming Hereditary (2018), Alex Wolff suffered from PTSD. He said, "I don’t think you can go through something like this and not have some sort of PTSD afterwards." Alex also added, "It was one of those ones that really did some gymnastics on my emotional well-being." He said he suffered from some memory loss when it comes to remembering filming certain scenes in the horror film, too.
He elaborated, saying, "It stuck with me while we were filming, and it stuck with me well after. When I started talking about it, all these flashes with all this disturbing shit I went through sorta came back in a flood. It kept me up at night to where I got into a habit of emotional masochism at that point of just trying to take in every negative feeling I could draw from."
12.Tom Hanks was rushed to the hospital while filming Cast Away (2000). He explained, "I was there for three days with something that, believe it or not, almost killed me." Tom had an infection from a cut that was "eating its way through [his] leg."
13.And finally, after filming Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Kristen Stewart revealed, "I never want to get back on a horse." The stunt coordinator for the film also revealed that Kristen was "nervous to start with" and was "very cautious" while filming the riding scenes in the movie.
