industry Aggravating Actors Injury

sfoster

sfoster

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On the first day of shooting 'bumper in berlin' adam devine did a split and hurt his groin.
For the rest of shooting he 'toughed it out' continuing to dance and aggravate his injury, and now a year later he is still injured and dealing with chronic pain everyday.

I understand the pressure of not closing an entire production down after the first day of shooting... and the idea that maybe you will ruin your career for doing something like that.

Is this just the nature of the beast, you get injured during filming and its your responsibility to keep working injured so that you permanently induce pain for the rest of your life? That doesn't sound right. Is it the director or producers responsibility to look after actors like Adam Devine and make the hard calls?

If it were me... i think the best solution would have been to get his character injured too, during the same move that he actually got injured, and then just write that into the pilot that he can't move around and dance that season like normal. You'd have to shut down production for a week or so probably, to fix up the script, but shit does happen sometimes. Like when tom Cruise broke his ankle filming mission impossible, they had to shut down the filming, sometimes if your actor gets hurt you just have to take the financial hit.

Thoughts ?
 
I would think/hope that the production's insurance would require him to get check out medically and get a clean bill of health. I think (disclaimer: not a lawyer but I've worried through 2 feature productions) there could be liability issues if there's a long-term impact on his health so it's better to shut down if necessary.

But yeah, with regard to your underlying question, I think there's an obsessive quality to the top performers (athletes as well as actors) that can cause them to push through when it's not objectively the smartest thing to do.
 
mlesemann said:
I would think/hope that the production's insurance would require him to get check out medically and get a clean bill of health. I think (disclaimer: not a lawyer but I've worried through 2 feature productions) there could be liability issues if there's a long-term impact on his health so it's better to shut down if necessary.
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Yeah that is a great point about the liability, i think he would definitely have a case if he asked to stop production and they told him to keep going.
If it was his own idea to keep going... maybe you still have a case. Good point.

It takes a lot of gumption to stand up to an enitre production and halt it.
 
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They need sports doctors on set. In sports they are very serious about telling a player they need to stop for so many weeks, months, to avoid permanent injury, etc.
 
mlesemann said:
…I think there's an obsessive quality to the top performers (athletes as well as actors) that can cause them to push through when it's not objectively the smartest thing to do.
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It’s also an industry-wide toxicity that we’re constantly fighting.

There’s a contingency out there that seem to take pride in working themselves into ill health, as if 16-hour days and 5 hours of sleep (or less) is some sort of admirable achievement. But that’s the kind of practice that brings people to set without proper rest (and often nutrition), which makes set a very dangerous place.

I was on a show recently (non-union) that had been pushing 15- and 16-hour days for over a week and it was taking a massive toll on the crew. We had injuries. People were angry. People were tired. Honestly, they were angry because they were tired. Tempers were short and people were starting to yell at each other. It finally came to a head, and the producers were forced to keep the rest of the show to 10s and 12s. But they didn’t want to.

It’s definitely a struggle between the old-school mentality of working yourself to death is the only respectable way, and a newer culture that is trying to force a shift to better work/life balance.
 
I remember one time, Sept 1978, on the set of Vega$ (with Robert Urich, not James Caan), and Bob wanted to do a simple stunt that involved rolling over and off a cocktail table at the D.I. Everything went fine, until he landed on his shoulder and dislocated it. He tried to "shake it off", but the casino doctor kinda said "not this time, Skippy" (he had hurt his shoulder previously), and it led to a 6 week hiatus with everyone paid (Aaron Spelling was REAL good to his people) while Bob healed and the stunt coordinator looked for new employment. I don't know what they would have done had it been a "lesser star" who was injured (Bart Braverman would have probably been taken out back and shot). I know on the set of "Hunter", they had to keep reminding Fred Dryer that he was no longer a pro football player, he was now an actor. A lot of stars don't want to stop shooting for injuries... they get paid, but much of the time the crew doesn't.
 
IDK if anyone cares but Adam Devine is getting surgery next week, I'm hoping it works out for him.
We are the same age, and we both love Razorblade Suitcase and want the body of a female crossfitter 😄

Adam seems cool to me, I bet he's a lot of fun at parties, I wish him luck in his surgery.

I'm getting a giant needle in my spine tomorrow afternoon (Facet Joint Injection) and if that temporarily cures my pain for a few weeks then I'll be eligible for a spine surgery called Radiofrequency Ablation that could provide more long term relief.

Spine pain is so lame.. I could get into a cage and fight someone, but I can't sit down in a chair for an hour.
Man I've been under a crazy amount of stress this month!! On top of that my eyes have been aching like hell, and that really worried me too, but it turns out im just getting old and need glasses with a "computer distance prescription".
 
Okay I lived through the anestesia but the dr said I tried to get off the table during the procedure and they had to hold me down.

Man. I thought I'd be more coorperative than that.
 
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