Charlize Theron Opens Up About Painful Neck Injury on 'Bad Movie' “Aeon Flux”: 'Landed on a Concrete Bridge'
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Charlize Theron injured her neck on the set of "bad movie" Aeon Flux
The actress "landed on" her neck "on a concrete bridge," on the set of the 2005 action film, she revealed in a new interview
Theron previously said she knew early on that Aeon Flux would "flop" at the box office
Charlize Theron has suffered some serious injuries as an actress — even for movies she’s not particularly fond of.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R16ekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R26ekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeWhile speaking with The New York Times alongside Uma Thurman, The Old Guard 2 costars were asked about “particularly memorable injuries” they have suffered on set. Theron, 49, said she has “sadly” experienced “a lot” — including a graphic accident while making 2005’s Aeon Flux.
“I run into people and they’re like, Oh, what happened to your arm? And I’m like, oh, I just had surgery. And they’re like, the last time I saw you, you had surgery!” the Atomic Blonde star said in the interview
But one of the worst came on the set of the “bad” 2005 sci-fi flick, she recalled.
“I had an unfortunate injury on the first action attempt I ever did, for a bad movie called Aeon Flux,” she recalled to The New York Times. “On day nine, I did a back handspring, and I didn’t get enough height, and I landed on my neck on a concrete bridge.”
Jasin Boland/Paramount/Mtv/Kobal/Shutterstock Charlize Theron in 'Aeon Flux'The last time she had to have surgery on her neck, Theron revealed, was 18 years ago — but it isn’t the only place she’s required medical attention for a movie-set injury.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R1dekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R2dekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe“I’ve had surgery on both elbows, my right shoulder, my thumb, carpal tunnel, fractures. A lot of fractures,” she said, later adding that she often gets the reaction: “It’s a movie, what are you doing?”
"And I’m also accident prone, so I’m not blaming anybody,” Theron later added, as a seemingly concerned Thurman, 55, promised that if the stars “ever work together again, I’m going to keep a really good eye on her.”
As for the one stunt Theron refuses to do? “I have no desire to learn how to fall down a flight of stairs,” she told The New York Times, as Thurman once again chimed in: “No! That is not your job.”
Theron previously opened up about knowing the movie would be a box-office "flop" before it even hit theaters.
Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty
Charlize Theron in 2025In 2022, Theron told The Hollywood Reporter that she knew from the get-go the Karyn Kusama-directed sci-fi action movie was not going to rake in big numbers.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R1lekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R2lekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe"This is going to sound so 'poor me,' but I do feel like sometimes, as women, we get one shot and I knew that Aeon Flux was going to be a f---ing flop," Theron said of Aeon Flux, which made just $53.3 million worldwide on a $62 million budget, per BoxOfficeMojo. "I knew it from the beginning, that's why I did Arrested Development."
Theron — whose role in the sci-fi flick followed her Oscar-winning turn in 2003's Monster — also said that she does not know “if I had the answers for how to [fix it], but I definitely knew we were in trouble."
"I wasn't a producer on it,” she told THR, “and I didn't really have the experience to say what I believe Tom Cruise has maybe said for the past 20 years, which is, 'Shut this s--- down, get four more writers on it and let's figure this out.' "
"Instead,” Theron added, “I'm going, 'Oh God, I've just got to get through this day, I have bronchitis, but let's keep shooting.’ ”
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The Old Guard 2is available to stream on Netflix.
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