Summary

• Russell Crowe has sustained multiple injuries throughout his career due to physically demanding movie roles, including torn Achilles tendons, a disintegrating hip, missing cartilage in his toes, shoulder injuries, and bone marrow edemas in his knees.
• The filming of "Gladiator" contributed to Crowe's Achilles injuries and disintegrating hip, while other films like "Mystery, Alaska" and "Cinderella Man" also added to his injury list.
• Crowe's injuries were a result of the intense physicality and dangerous nature of the action sequences in his films, and despite the risks, he persevered and pushed through the rigorous physical demands of his roles.

Russell Crowe has starred in some physically intensive movies, resulting in several injuries. The 59-year-old movie star began his career in the 1990s, appearing in Australian films before earning international acclaim for his roles in L.A. Confidential and The Insider. He reached the pinnacle of his stardom with the Ridley Scott historical epic Gladiator, winning him an Academy Award for Best Actor. The film saw Crowe in several prolonged action sequences, including scenes with real tigers, leaving a lasting mark of injuries on his body.

A 2016 Vulture interview prompted the actor to open up about his many injuries. He described the physically demanding and dangerous experience of filming Gladiator, "When you see the film and there’s the take up on the screen, the other 19 where the horse ran you over or the guy smacked you in the head or whatever are not in the movie." Gladiator was the first film in Russell Crowe's career to leave injuries, but 2005's Cinderella Man and the 2010 Robin Hood film, also directed by Ridley Scott, tacked on a few more.

5 Grade-Four Tears In Both Achilles Heels

Russell Crowe's first lasting film injury was Achilles tendon tears. In 1999 Crowe starred in an ice hockey film called Mystery, Alaska. The film sees Crowe as John Biebe, a local outdoor hockey player in the fictional town of Mystery. The town's ion for their local hockey game gets them published in Sports Illustrated, which attracts the attention of the New York Rangers for an exhibition game. “I was wearing ice skates 12, 14 hours a day and my feet just didn’t grow up that way,” he claimed, explaining the cause of his Achilles injuries.

Gladiator certainly didn't help with the Achilles injuries. Crowe claimed that during the early stages of filming the Roman historical epic, the costume designer didn't allow the actors to wear heels on their shoes for the purpose of historical accuracy. Gladiator has several historical inaccuracies, making it ironic that the detail of heeled shoes would be unacceptable in the film. Torn Achilles tendons have different tear levels, and Crowe expressed that his tears probably reached grade four by the filming of Cinderella Man. On the bright side, there's no grade five, so it can't get any worse.

4 Disintegrating Hip

Crowe described that his disintegrating hip, also known as Osteonecrosis of the hip, came from a fall on the set of Gladiator. The Gladiator arena battle scenes are hectic with several moving pieces. While war scenes are generally physical and dangerous to shoot, packing dozens of men, horses, and tigers into an arena for a messy fight is a different story. Despite the injuries, it's still one of Russell Crowe's best performances. Actor Djimon Hounsou described his experience in the action scenes in an interview with Variety, "I almost accidentally stabbed somebody in the head in the fight sequence in the Colosseum when Maximus gets on the horse."

Hounsou described the intensity brought to the set. He adds, "Most of us got carried away and I think when you’re truly doing it for real, the pretend sort of goes out of the way and the emotional takes over, so a lot of people got hurt." Famous actors are injured making movies all the time, but the way actors describe the experience on Gladiator makes it seem violently hectic. In the same interview, Russell Crowe expressed that such injuries were par for the course. He also joked that he was young and "made of rubber," which allowed him to push through the rigorous physical shoot.

3 Missing Cartilage In Toes

Russell Crowe described having missing cartilage in his toes, something that had deteriorated through years of fight sequences. He explains that it happens due to the lateral movement from fight scenes. This injury can likely also be attributed to Gladiator, though the Ron Howard boxing film Cinderella Man is also probably a culprit. Crowe plays depression-era boxer James J. Braddock, who returns to the ring after previously falling off from the top. In one of Ron Howard's best films, Russell Crowe gives a stellar performance as the would-be heavyweight champion of the world.

Crowe adds to the explanation for the injury, saying, "Sometimes you have to stop abruptly, because if you don’t, either you stop or you die. You get run over or something. So that’s where that one comes from." Films like Gladiator, Robin Hood or even 3:10 to Yuma see Crowe in big combat scenes with moving animals and vehicles. Even with intense safety precautions placed on films, the injuries tend to rack up for action stars.

2 Shoulder Injuries

Two instances in filming caused Russell Crowe to need operations on his left shoulder. He describes the first experience occurring during pre-production for a film he didn't end up doing, saying that the injury occurred during practice for a gymnastics scene. The gymnastics went wrong, and his scene-partner stepped on his arms, resulting in a torn labrum tissue. That wasn't it for Crowe's left shoulder, as it continued to have bad luck in pre-production.

The second shoulder injury came during pre-production for Cinderella Man. Russell Crowe trained for the intense boxing film with real boxers and renowned boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, who also appeared in the film. Crowe described the injury that occurred while training, "I was in the middle of an actual boxing fight and this Canadian former Olympic-level boxer took my elbow out which subluxated my shoulder, which exacerbated a problem that was already there." Re-injuring that shoulder sounds dreadful, especially in the manner of being struck by a professional athlete.

1 Bone Marrow Edemas In His Knees

Bone marrow edema is when fluid builds up in the bone marrow and causes swelling. It's not a pretty-sounding injury, and Crowe's story from the Robin Hood set that led to it is even worse. In the film, where Crowe plays the titular character, he was intended to jump off a portcullis and land 14 feet below on prepared ground, which would help soften the landing. Crowe describes the experience, "I have to hit flat-footed, and they didn’t prep the ground. So I hit flat-footed on rock-solid dirt. It was terrible.” Despite these experiences, Russell Crowe continues to take on physical roles like 2022's Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher.

Sources: Vulture