She’s been an evil queen, an imperator in an apocalyptic wasteland, a secret agent, a cyberterrorist and a serial killer, but for her next film, Long Shot, Charlize Theron is playing a role we don’t often see her in: romantic comedy lead. Perhaps Charlize Theron should have stayed in the safe confines of the action genre though, because her rom-com adventure was dangerous enough to land her in the hospital, as she explained:
This is so stupid. We had to do a small little action thing, like a tiny little thing. And this really nice stunt guy wanted to put some kneepads on me. And as I sat down just to put the kneepads on, my hand slipped and my head hit a bench behind me. And I ended up in the ER. It was so stupid, I was like ‘This is so embarrassing.’
Head trauma is no joke, but Charlize Theron is right, smashing your head while putting on kneepads does sound embarrassing. It wasn’t even before doing some super elaborate and daring stunt either; this wasn’t Tom Cruise literally jumping from one building to another. As Charlize Theron told Seth Meyers on Late Night, it was a small, easy bit of action.
To be extra cautious, the stunt guy wanted Charlize Theron to wear kneepads. That overabundance of caution proved to be her downfall as the actress somehow slipped putting on the kneepads and hit her head, no doubt sending the stunt guy and the crew around her into a panic.
Maybe Charlize Theron is just so used to being a badass in movies that wearing something as decidedly un-badass as kneepads had an Achilles’ heel/kryptonite effect on her.
Long Shot isn’t an action film, but as you can see from the trailer, there is some action in it. Of course, given the fall his character Fred Flarsky takes in the trailer, you would think that Seth Rogen would have been the one more likely to get injured, I mean, he's the one that's admittedly high all the time, while Charlize Theron has cut back.
But alas, it was a trip to the emergency room for the Oscar-winner who plays Secretary of State Charlotte Field in the movie. It’s not the kind of role you’d think would be an injury risk, but as an action-film veteran, Charlize Theron also told Seth Meyers “It’s always the ones you least expect.”
The actress elaborated that it’s usually not the action films where she gets injured, but instead the films that don’t look as dangerous, where she isn't expecting it. Another such example is Tully, where she gained 50 pounds and wound up getting a herniated disc in her back due to carrying around the extra weight.
That’s not to say that action films are entirely harmless endeavors either. While training for Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron cracked her teeth in a brutal fashion that actually wound up requiring surgery. Thankfully, Charlize Theron is fine and her injury on the set of Long Shot seems rather tame by comparison.
Long Shot is now in theaters. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all of this summer’s biggest movies, and for the latest movie news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
