It's only been a few weeks since Mission: Impossible 6 actor Tom Cruise injured his ankle on set, forcing production on the movie to shut down for a couple of months. In the time since, stunt safety has been on a lot of peoples' minds, and recently action star Danny Trejo got pretty blunt about stunts, noting that "it's a big myth" that actors do a lot of their own stunts, and that he doesn't feel like it's cool when unprepared actors--seemingly like Cruise--cause delays and other issues on set. During a recent Facebook Live Trejo said,
I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don't want to risk 80 peoples' jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show. Because that's what happens. I think a big star just sprained an ankle doing a stunt, and 80 people are out of a job, 180 you know?
While Danny Trejo doesn't list Tom Cruise by name here, Cruise is the actor that recently got Mission: Impossible 6 shut down. And while director Christopher McQuarrie has said he's simply going to start editing the film during the hiatus in order to achieved the listed release slot, that doesn't take into account all of the cast and crew members who were counting on a payday for the next nine weeks or however long it ends up actually being. Sure, some of those crew members should be able to quickly hop to other projects or may just wait out the hiatus and come back to set once Tom Cruise's injury heals, but for Danny Trejo, actors who attempt dangerous stunts are still being irresponsible.
As for that Tonight Show comment, it's pretty common for stars to related crazy stunt stuff on daytime and nighttime TV. Tom Cruise recently did it whilst doing press for The Mummy, noting that while filming the plane stunt, people were vomiting and it was pretty gross. And Guardians of the Galaxy 2 star Chris Pratt revealed while doing press for the Marvel movie that he was knocked unconscious while filming a particularly tough stunt. Obviously, neither of those filming experiences ended with production being shut down, but Danny Trejo seems to believe that it's not worth the risk, either.
The actor also told Yahoo Movies during the Facebook Live Q&A that there are stunt people there for a reason, and that even though stunts can be cool and make for a good story later, he doesn't attempt them as an actor.
We have stunt people who do that stuff. And if they get hurt, I'm sorry to say but they just need to put a mustache on another Mexican and we can keep going. But if I get hurt, it's like everybody's out of a job. So, I don't choose to do that.
Stunts have been in the news a lot lately, and not simply because of Tom Cruise. Earlier this summer, a Deadpool 2 stuntwoman died while filming a motorcycle scene for actress Zazie Beetz. Earlier this year, something similar happened on the set of The Walking Dead when a stuntman fell off of a balcony. In both of those cases, an actor was not involved, but it still definitely has brought safety concerns to the forefront. One thing's for certain, you don't need to worry about Danny Trejo's safety. He's more than content to sit back and leave it to the professionals.
