J.J. Abrams Broke His Back On The Set Of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
BeforeHarrison Fordcrashed his plane in Los Angeles, he had alreadysustained a pretty significant injuryon the set ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens, breaking his left leg. But it turns out that wasn’t the only injury sustained during the production ofEpisode VII.
In fact, when one of the doors on the film’s set fell on Harrison Ford’s leg, directorJJ Abrams(who appeared onThe Daily Show with Jon Stewartyesterday) rushed over to help by lifting the object off Ford as quickly as possible. But in the process, Abrams actually broke his back. That’s right, Abrams literally broke his back trying to make this movie forStar Warsfans.
Hear more about how J.J. Abrams broke his back after the jump!
This revelation came from an interview onThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart(viaHulu):
As a bigStar Warsfan, Jon Stewart tried to get J.J. Abrams to tell him everything aboutThe Force Awakens, but the director successfully dodged the hardball question by simply praising Stewart as he only has four shows left before he leavesThe Daily Showbehind.
With regards to the injury, Abrams lays out what happened, and it sounds pretty gruesome. If you can’t watch the video, basically a hydraulic door fell on Harrison Ford, and the director says you saw the actor’s ankle turn 90 degrees, breaking instantly. Thankfully it sounds like Ford, who Abrams calls a superhero and miracle man, was about as cool as you can be when there’s a door on top of you that just broke your leg.
But Abrams wasn’t so lucky since he found out that he broke his back in the process of trying to help. He had to wear a back brace on set, but didn’t tell anybody what had happened to as not to raise concern. During this time, a completely healed Ford was able to run over to Abrams on set, while the director felt pain just by talking to him. Trust me when I say Abrams tells this story better when talking to Jon Stewart, so it’s worth six minutes of your time.
Other chatter in the interview focuses on whether or not Abrams has ever been fired from a job before, and how The Force Awakens is about the story of Jar Jar Binks (who almostended up being played by Michael Jackson).
Check out thelatest edition of Star Wars Bitsfor another quick interview with Abrams about the pressure of directingStar Wars: The Force Awakens, and stay tuned for even more updates about the continuing sci-fi saga.
