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Stone Cold Steve Austin doesn’t know his own strength, it would appear. On the set of Expendables, Austin body-slammed actor Sylvester Stallone so hard that he suffered a serious neck fracture and was forced to undergo seven different surgeries.
According to Stallone, he needed a metal plate inserted into his neck as well as spinal fusions and treatment for dislocated shoulders.
Stallone Says He Was ‘Never the Same’
“I did stupid stuff. I was directing ‘Expendables‘ and, like an idiot, I’m doing take 10, take whatever, and I remember one slam and I could actually feel one bang,” Stallone recalled on his reality TV show, The Family Stallone, which is currently airing its second season.
“I never recovered from ‘Expendables 1.’ After that film, it was never physically the same. I’ve warned people: Don’t do your own stunts.”
As Business Insider confirms, the news of Stallone’s injury was not made public until after filming had concluded and the actor had begun promoting the movie in 2010.
In the Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone reflects on his illustrious career. Regarding the injury, he commented in an interview, “Truthfully, I never fully recovered. It did such a number on my body, I’ve never been the same. Never.”
Roomies With Arnold Schwarzenegger
Interestingly, during one of his procedures, Stallone ended up in an adjacent hospital bed to fellow Expendables star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was undergoing surgery for a shoulder injury.
Schwarzenegger also weighed in on the incident, “It’s not uncommon for an action hero to get injured on set, but I think it is clear that Sly drove it to the extreme,” he said. “I thought it was too much.”
Stallone would attempt to turn negatives into positives by stating that he’d be the perfect candidate to play Quasimodo “if they ever need a remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Before they moved to New York City, Stallone enrolled his daughters — Sistine and Sophia — in a boot camp to learn self defense. Scarlet was grateful to not be involved.
