I’m not sure who in Hollywood started this trend of wilderness hunting thrillers starring A-List actors, but I’m totally here for it. After loving Send Help, Apex, starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, is next on my action watchlist. The latest action flick on Netflix’s release schedule topped the streamers charts this week due to its suspenseful scenes and incredible stunts, and I totally understand why after hearing about how Theron literally put her whole body into making this film.
As far as action movies go, Charlize Theron is a Hollywood vet, but it sounds like Apex really put the Tully actress to the test. True to its name, Theron’s character Sasha must outrun and outlast Egerton in the Australian wilderness as he attempts to hunt her down. Her life is on the line as she scales hundred-foot rock walls and paddles down white-water rapids, and of course, Theron took on the majority of her own stunts. The Odyssey actress told Screenrant she sustained multiple serious injuries from filming Apex, and her explanation is giving ‘just a typical day at the office’:
I think I'm accident-prone. Honestly, I feel like I'm just -- if something is going to go wrong, it will happen with me.
This isn’t the first time Theron has gotten injured on a movie set. She revealed she had to get shoulder surgery after filming 2025’s The Old Guard 2, which can’t have made her rock-climbing stunts for Apex any easier. Even though the stunts themselves were incredibly well thought out, Theron still managed to earn herself a trip to the hospital:
Article continues belowBecause everything, we had an incredible crew, and the safety was really first and foremost, but I did some damage to my elbow. And I, after the film, had to have a surgery and a revision surgery on it. So, two surgeries on it.
Yikes. I give the Atomic Blonde actress huge props for almost always attempting her own stunts, but man, it sounds painful. The list just keeps on going, and I’m starting to believe she really is accident prone after this next one:
[I] fractured a toe. I'm doing water work, I slammed it into a rock.
As a film enthusiast, I love when movies are filmed on location. The less CGI and effects (don’t even get me started on the use of AI) the better. Apex was filmed in the Australian wilderness, and while it’s stunning to see, the scary rock cliffs and roaring rivers in the trailer are very real, and those natural hazards are something to factor in.
Wow, the list just goes on. What if I told you that’s still not the worst of it? Theron said on the press tour she’s still recovering from this next set of injuries, and I’m cringing in pain just hearing about it:
I tore some intercostal muscles when we did the first climb in Norway with all the gear. Kind of like reached for like a nice jug, I thought I had it, but my foot slipped and I was just on the jug , and I just, with the weight, just pulled me down, and I just tore a bunch of intercostal muscles here. Which, by the way, I've never done that before. Total bitch. Like I'm still, I can barely wear a bra, like it's still that bad.
Listen, I know the 50-year-old actress is incredibly fit for her age, which has allowed her to continuously do amazing onscreen action scenes, but what’s the breaking point? Theron has previously complained about her body not bouncing back like it did in her 20s after back-breaking action sequences, but it sounds like Apex really did a number on her:
I think this was the first time ever for me, except for Mad Max: Fury Road, where emotionally I was done. I was so emotionally and physically broken by the end of this movie that I actually couldn't finish the last day of shooting. I had to tap out.
As far as action movies go, Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise are the litmus test when it comes to wild stunts, so if the Monster actress is tapped out, that’s where you call it quits. However, hearing her compare the filming process to one of her best movies, Mad Max: Fury Road, makes me want to immediately go watch Apex with my Netflix subscription.
