3. Herzog Throws Himself Into Cactus (Following Two Nearly Fatal Accidents)
In his 1970 film, Even Dwarfs Started Small (it stars an all dwarf cast, by the way), Herzog ran into two major problems, both with the same actor. The first problem occurred when - during a scene where a car drove around with no one at the wheel - the actor was run over. Somehow he escaped without injury. Now, at this point most directors would count their blessings with regards to not having a dead dude's deadness to worry about and make the rest of the shoot as safe as possible. Not Herzog. Later on, he filled flower pots with gasoline and ignited them, resulting in the same actor catching fire. Herzog himself leapt onto the actor to beat out the flames. The actor received minor injuries. This was enough to inspire change. No, Herzog's methods weren't the problem. It was this god-damned actor, not looking when the runaway car was hurtling towards him and being so... well, flammable! Herzog promised that if the actor and the rest of the cast took extra special care not to injure themselves again, he would jump into a cactus once they had completed the project. This was his idea of showing solidarity for the cause. He held true to his word, stating afterwards: "It was a nasty one. It had long spines. Some are still sticking in my knee sinew. You can't operate them out."