It's no secret that actors get hurt on the sets of their films. Sometimes these injuries force a production to shut down, and other times the performer simply needs to walk it off. Now, as it turns out, Noomi Rapace suffered some brutal injuries while working on the set of her new spy thriller, Unlocked -- not the least of which included a ripped muscle in her stomach. The Prometheus star opened up to me during our recent conversation about Unlocked and explained:
Well the first week was like three days of fighting and I think the second day I pulled a muscle in my stomach. Like I ripped a muscle in my stomach. So I had to get like injections. Some weird like Russian, I don't even know what it was. This Russian doctor came and put a long needle in my tummy and said like 'you're gonna be good for four hours,' and then after four hours I couldn't move again.
I don't know about you, but that sounds like one of the most horrific on-set injuries that could happen. Noomi Rapace ripped a muscle in her stomach (that kind of reminds you of the controversial cesarean scene from Prometheus, doesn't it?), but she powered through it with sheer willpower and a four-inch needle full of mystery medicine. If she looks intense during her fight scenes in Unlocked, that's probably because she quite literally threw herself into her stunts.
However, that wasn't the only significant injury that Noomi Rapace suffered while working on Unlocked. The actress continued and explained that co-star Orlando Bloom actually broke her nose during a fight scene, saying:
So that was the first week. My nose fractured in a fight scene between me and Orlando. I got an elbow. He hit me with an elbow, accident, but elbowed me on my nose and I went down. And he screamed and he was like 'I hit her! I hit her! I hit her! I'm so sorry! I hit her!' and I was like 'let's keep going!'
Finally, as if those injuries weren't severe enough, it appears that Noomi Rapace also suffered a severely broken foot on the final day of shooting. Rapace elaborated:
'And then the very last day when we were shooting in London I was escaping from a building and was like jumping over a fence and I landed. I had high heels and I landed with my full body weight on my foot and it just like cracked something inside. I was like 'this is not movie going.' And then I kept running and I did one more take and then they were like, the shoot was over, we wrapped the film and I went to a hospital like a few days later and they were like 'yeah a broken bone in your foot and fractured nose.'
When you put all of that together, filming Unlocked sounds like a legitimately exhausting process. Learning about how hurt Noomi Rapace got on the set of that one movie, it makes sense why certain performers would leave the stunt work to the professionals. That said, it's clear that Rapace's commitment to the physicality of her roles shines through in all of her work, and this film is no different.
Unlocked out now in theaters and VOD. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, check out our comprehensive movie premiere guide and fill out our moviegoing calendars accordingly!
