Although Tom Cruise is out here breaking his ankle and still finishing the shot, in general stunt doubles exist for a reason. They make dangerous and difficult stunts look easy, thereby making the actors look good. But sometimes it's beneficial to have the actor do the stunt so that they can be seen in the shot. Since actors aren't stunt performers, such instances can sometimes lead to bruised bodies and bruised egos, as Chris Pratt found out. While filming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the actor embarrassed himself while filming the scene where Owen Grady escapes the container with the T-Rex, as he explained:
There's this trick in the stunt world where you have a stuntman do a spectacular thing and then he dips out of frame and the actor pops up That's always such a giveaway, you know that the actor didn't do the stunt. So we were doing this and the momentum every time kept bringing me down below frame. I was like, 'I can do this, what's the point of having me do the stunt if I fall below frame? I can do this, I got this.' And I did it, and on that one I banged my elbow so hard. But I was immediately embarrassed and I wasn't gonna say anything. This move was a hurdle, it hurt my body. I just got banged up in this one.
I guess stunt performing is sometimes a no-pain, no-gain endeavor. In the scene, Owen Grady does a diving roll through the jaws of the awoken T-Rex and slides out of the truck, then holds his back to the door as Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing closes the container. But the momentum of the roll out of the container made it hard for Chris Pratt to stay upright. So each time he would dip out of frame before coming back in, negating the need for him to do the stunt in the first place. Chris Pratt was able to finally perform the stunt and stay in frame, but smashed his elbow in the process. Fortunately, it wasn't a major injury, but he was embarrassed about it and tried to play it off like he was fine when anyone asked.
As far as embarrassing things go, hurting your elbow after doing a diving roll out of a truck on a movie set ranks pretty low on the list. I guess Chris Pratt was just embarrassed that he hurt himself at all, which is understandable, but he should still be proud he performed the stunt right. Plus, there's no shame in your elbow hurting after smashing it; that's universal. As Chris Pratt said in People's clip from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's home video release, he just got a little banged up on this film. Running from dinosaurs, even digital ones, is hard work, and repeatedly doing diving rolls over and over again to get the shot right is going to result in some bumps and bruises. Hopefully he gets time to heal up before he's back at it again in Jurassic World 3.
Temporary embarrassment aside, everything worked out for the best. That scene in the container with the T-Rex was fun and tense, and it just made Chris Pratt's character look cooler when he escaped. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has also been a huge success, making over $1.3 billion worldwide and becoming Universal's most profitable franchise.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom arrives on digital September 4, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD September 18th. Check out our guide for all of Chris Pratt's upcoming movies, and to see what else is heading to theaters this year, hop over to the release schedule.
