Animals were harmed in these films
"It was meant to be the ultimate duel between sword and whip. I was suffering from dysentery, really, found it inconvenient to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time," explained Ford.
Darren Aronofsky—the director of 'Noah' (2014)—certainly had good intentions in making the movie set environmentally friendly. This meant that plastic water bottles were a no-no. This had disastrous consequences for Emma Watson.
"I had to be hospitalized. If you ingest that much matter into your lungs you’ll get very sick, and we were literally doing fake coke for, like, seven months, every day," said Hill.
'The Conqueror' (1956) was shot near a nuclear weapons testing site. You can imagine what happened in the next few years...
"Having no water bottles on set at five in the morning, when you're exhausted and delirious, wasn't ideal. I was so tired one morning I picked up a mug from my trailer and drank some stagnant water that had been there for the duration–so three months. I was so ill," confessed Watson.
"Within a week, five of our actors went down, ill. Random stuff, too—random appendectomy, random 103.5 fever, random like a broken ankle," explained actor Dylan O'Brien.
The late actor headed to the Amazon jungle to film 'Fitzcarraldo' (1982). Robards had already shot almost half of the movie, when he came down with dysentery. He had to leave the location to be treated and was unable to return. Director Werner Herzog had to recast and shoot everything all over again.
The shooting took place in an ancient Native American burial ground in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The cast and crew were asked to respect it, and not litter or take any artifacts. But not everyone followed the rules, and weird things started happening.
"It was a hardship condition-right in the jungle, on the Amazon River bank… It was unhygienic. The place was rife with insects and mosquitoes,'' said Robards' agent, Clifford Stevens.
In 2000, we saw the actor play a survivor in a desolated island in 'Cast Away.' Tom Hanks actually sustained an injury that would have been fatal if he really were alone on that island.
The prosthetics on his face contained latex, and it happens that Rhys-Davies is allergic to it! Needless to say, the actor didn't like to walk around with a skin rash and his eyes swollen.
If you've ever watched 'The Revenant' (2015), it's easy to imagine how hard it was for the whole film crew to shoot in those weather conditions.
Hanks cut his leg while shooting a scene, but he was seemingly fine. Though after the wound had become worse and excessively swollen, the actor was diagnosed with a staph infection. Tom Hanks was taken to hospital immediately.
Things went terribly wrong for the actor when he changed his diet to play Steve Jobs in the 2013 biopic 'Jobs.' Kutcher delved into fruitarianism, which was essentially a fruit-based diet that Jobs himself had tried. Except, it didn't work for the actor.
The actor was originally cast as the Tin Man in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939). Ebsen started shooting the movie, but a few days later the actor started to have chest pains and shortness of breath.
It turns out Buddy Ebsen was allergic to the aluminum powder used in the makeup. The actor was eventually replaced by Jack Haley.
The actor contracted an unlikely disease while shooting the blaxploitation movie 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' (1971).
It looks like Peebles was really going for it in the sex scenes. So much so that he contracted gonorrhea!
"I ended up in the hospital two days before we started shooting the movie. I was doubled over in pain, and my pancreas levels were completely out of whack, which was terrifying, considering everything," said Kutcher.
It wasn't easy for the actor to change his facial appearance to play Gimli the Dwarf in 'The Lord of the Rings' movies.
Not only that, but Leonardo DiCaprio was actually sick on camera, when he bit into a raw bison liver. It proved to be too much for DiCaprio, who happens to be vegetarian. He did win an Oscar for his performance, so maybe it was worth it!
Kotero had to repeatedly shoot a scene where she had to jump into Lake Minnetonka. The actress started to go into hypothermia at one point and, according to her, Prince held her in his arms and helped her stay warm.
The gun versus sword scene in 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981) became a classic. But actually, this was supposed to be an epic sword versus whip fight instead. The reason why the scene was so simple was because Ford was really ill with diarrhea!
Some 30 years later, nearly half of the 220 cast and crew members got some form of cancer. This includes late Hollywood star John Wayne.
Sources: (The Richest)
The actor played William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting in Martin Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' (2002). Being a method actor, Day-Lewis walked around in freezing temperatures with his costume on.
The actor came down with pneumonia as a result. "I had to do my preparation. I will admit that I went mad, totally mad… He was a bit of a punk, a marvelous character and a joy to be–but not so good for my physical or mental health," said Day-Lewis.
Coke consumption was abundant in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013), so the actor had to snort vitamin powder in many scenes. The powder was safe...if done in small quantities, which was obviously not the case.
“I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus,” she explained, adding that they filmed the now-iconic scene after she took a test but before they got the results. “They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.” It of course came back positive, and she was promptly removed from set and not allowed to redo the scene. “I think I probably could have done it a bit better,” she added.
The actress nearly lost her life while shooting 'Purple Rain' (1984), but was reportedly saved by Prince.
Jenna Ortega's dance scene on 'Wednesday' was already a hot topic as the actress choreographed it herself, but she's since revealed she also had COVID while filming it. The actress told NME that she'd woken up with cold symptoms and body aches on the morning of filming.
We've all heard stories of how much some actors push themselves to prepare for their roles. From body transformations, to method acting, these professionals give it all for their characters... even their health sometimes. It is true that anyone can get sick while at work, but how many of us have come down with hypothermia or contracted a sexually transmitted infection?
Click on the following gallery and check out who came down with what while shooting.
Actors who got sick while filming
From hypothermia to STIs
MOVIES Illness
We've all heard stories of how much some actors push themselves to prepare for their roles. From body transformations, to method acting, these professionals give it all for their characters... even their health sometimes. It is true that anyone can get sick while at work, but how many of us have come down with hypothermia or contracted a sexually transmitted infection?
Click on the following gallery and check out who came down with what while shooting.