Russell Crowe Broke Both Of His Legs While Shooting A Huge Critical Bomb

On the whole, Russell Crowe has found remarkable success as a Hollywood star. From "Gladiator" to "3:10 to Yuma," he has excelled in a range of roles in films that critics and audiences alike showered with praise in their time. However, not everything Crowe has signed on for has been a total win. Take, for instance, 2010's "Robin Hood" from legendary director Ridley Scott, which very much failed to impress critics and moviegoers during its theatrical run. Worse yet, during the film's creation, Crowe wound up breaking both of his legs in a scary on-set incident.

The injury came when Crowe jumped from a portcullis onto uneven ground, recalling to People that the impact gave him electric shock-like pain throughout his body. Unsurprisingly, the pain didn't simply go away. "The last month of that job was very tricky. There was a number of weeks where even walking was a challenge," he said. Nevertheless, Crowe pushed through the discomfort and finished the film, only to find out at a doctor's visit a decade later when his leg pain returned that he had indeed fractured both of his legs on the "Robin Hood" set.

In hindsight, Crowe attributes a brief acting break and training for another notable production to the eventual healing of his legs.

In the wake of "Robin Hood," Russell Crowe elected to take a break from acting and heal his legs. When he inevitably returned to the big screen, though, he did so in a somewhat more memorable and better-received feature: "Man of Steel" from director Zack Snyder. The DC Extended Universe-launching 2013 film features Crowe as the father of Kal-El (Henry Cavill), aka Superman, Jor-El. While he's far from the main star of the movie, he still went through an intense training regimen to bring the Kryptonian to life.

In fact, Crowe told People that between the year off from acting and his "Man of Steel" workout routine, his legs seemed to heal up on their own. "I obviously knew something was wrong," he admitted, adding, "To be the Kryptonian father of Superman was six months of incredibly intense physical training. Between the time off and that training, things fixed themselves." Seeing as he went to a medical professional to get his legs looked at years later, it stands to reason he didn't make a full recovery by resting and hitting the gym, but the fact that his legs largely healed all by themselves is undeniably incredible.

Now knowing what Crowe went through on the set of "Robin Hood," hopefully, some of its detractors can find a newfound form of appreciation for the film and offer Crowe a bit more credit for his performance.