Russell Crowe remembers one painful acting memory: 'I jumped off'

Russell Crowe opens up about an injury he received during the shoot of 2010's Robin Hood, but its after-effects were felt after a decade.

In a chat with People, the Academy winner said, "I jumped off a castle portcullis onto rock-hard uneven ground."

Adding, "We should have prepped the ground and buried a pad, but we were in a rush to get the shot done in the fading light."

However, the 59-year-old added he had no idea that the jump could be precarious. 

"With hundreds of extras around, arrows flying and burn pots setting the castle on fire, there was no pulling out," he recounts. "As I jumped, I remember thinking, 'This is going to hurt.'"

As he thought, the veteran actor said he landed on an uneven ground, prompting a gush of pain on his heels.

"It was like an electric shock bursting up through my body," he continued. "We were shooting a big movie, so you just struggle through, but the last month of that job was very tricky. There was a number of weeks where even walking was a challenge."

Despite the injury, Russell recalls, he"never discussed the injury with production, never took a day off because of it, I just kept going to work."

A decade later, the pain came back — the Gladiator star approached the doctor for this. In return, he was shocked by the findings.

"I thought it was nothing serious," noting, "After working through a long New York winter, my body was just missing exercise and sunshine."

When did you break your legs?" the doctor asked the New Zealand actor after observing his X-rays.

"Apparently, he could see the remnants of fractures in both shin bones," he shared. "To jog my memory he said, 'Would have been maybe 10 years ago?'"

Russell said his memory immediately switched back to the incident on the Robin Hood set.

"Apparently, I finished that movie with two broken legs," he adds. 

"All for art. No cast, no splints, no painkillers, just kept going to work and over time they healed themselves."