Acting isn’t as glamourous a career as you may think; in fact, it can lead to bodily harm. While filming one of the best movies ever made, Acclaimed star, Morgan Freeman proved that even Hollywood A-listers can suffer from workplace accidents. While working on the 1994 drama movie The Shawshank Redemption, a certain scene resulted in an arm injury that left Freeman wearing a sling.
Based on Stephen King’s novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the acclaimed film tells the story of two imprisoned men, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) and Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Freeman), serving life sentences. In a film detailing prisoners, you’d expect violent and heavy action scenes to be the cause of any on set accidents. However, According to Mark Dawidziak’s book ‘The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive’, it turns out Freeman’s injury came from one of the most relaxed moments we see in the tense story – when Red and Andy first met.
When describing the scene that caused his injury in an interview with Dawidziak, Freeman said, “It’s just a conversation that takes place when a few of the prisoners are throwing a baseball around in the prison yard. Nothing to it, right?” However, the star went on to share how the director, Frank Darabont, “wanted a lot of takes, covering things from all different angles.” So, needless to say, simply throwing a baseball turned into a gruelling physical undertaking.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2014, Freeman touched on his experience with working with a director who demanded perfectionism, even from simple tasks such as baseball throwing.
“Acting itself isn’t difficult,” Freeman explained, “but having to do something again and again for no discernible reason tends to be a bit debilitating to the energy.” Luckily, throwing a baseball for hours on end didn’t fully put the star out of commission, and he was healed in time for the 67th Academy Awards, where he won Best Actor for his performance as Red.
Still, the whole situation does bring up some concerns about working conditions on sets. For more cinematic classics, here is our guide to the best thriller movies.