Peter O’Toole — Lawrence Of Arabia
The 1962 historical epic, “Lawrence Of Arabia” is a 4-hour film of people in the desert. While it is representative of great cinema, it’s natural to assume it wasn’t always smooth sailing on set. Peter O’Toole, who starred in the lead role, was crushed by a herd of camels.
The actor fell off his camel and couldn’t get up again. Fortunately, his camel shielded him from the trampling
Michael J. Fox — Back to the Future III
Michael J. Fox was no stranger to playing the "Back to the Future" character Marty McFly. Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as the first two times and Fox ended up getting almost very, very badly injured. In the scene where Fox gets a noose around his neck in the town square, things went a little awry.
Director Robert Zemeckis wanted to make eh scene look more realistic and unfortunately in the third take, the actor was actually getting hanged. Fox swang unconscious at the end of the rope for a few seconds before the director had realized what he had done.
Martin Sheen — Apocalypse Now
One of the most nerve-racking films ever made left many actors naturally traumatized. Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus taunted his actors in the Vietnamese jungles to the point that Martin Sheen actually had a heart attack while filming and had to cry for help.
The cast was surrounded by fake dead bodies, cocaine, and just all-around rough conditions.
Eddie Redmayne — The Danish Girl
It’s no surprise that Redmayne is on this list — he’s become rather well known for his foray into method acting. One of his films, “The Danish Girl”, where he plays transgender artist Lili Elbe, meant he was researching the role for two years before he even knew it was officially his to play!
He also interviewed many trans women, absorbing their stories, as well as an ex-colleague of his, Lana Wachowski (director of “The Matrix”), and gaining insights. He said it was a learning curve because he had always traditionally associated gender with sexuality.
Hilary Swank — Million Dollar Baby
In the film “Million Dollar Baby”, Swank portrays Macushla (well, that was Clint Eastwood’s name for her in the film), a female boxer. But even Eastwood was worrying about Swank’s obsession with training — she spent six days a week in the gym, and gained almost 20 pounds of muscle!
But it was the fact that when a huge blister on her foot popped — and she didn’t stop — that there was cause for actual worry. Apparently, the doctor confirmed that she was just hours from a potentially fatal staph infection reaching her heart. My goodness!