10 On-Set Injuries That Forever Changed Actors

While on the set of geopolitical thriller Syriana, George Clooney was filming a scene in which his character CIA operative Bob Barnes is being tortured by a Hezbollah agent who’s pulling out his fingernails when the chair he was strapped to toppled over.

Clooney struck the floor, hitting his head and damaging his dura – a rather important membrane that protects the brain and spinal cord. As a result of the injury, the actor suffered headaches so debilitatingly painful that he began self-medicating with alcohol and at one point even contemplated suicide.

Six years after a marathon surgery in 2005, Clooney was still feeling the effects of his injury and was forced to pull out of the big screen adaptation of 60s spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as filming would’ve been too physically demanding. He’s since undergone several other surgeries which have fixed much of the problem though Clooney does still experience agonising headaches today.

He did, however, win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana but whether scooping that little golden statue was worth all those years of pain is debatable.