As one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, Brad Pitt has been gracing movie screens for over 35 years. Yet as Pitt and his fellow thespians know, acting isn’t an easy profession, and it can sometimes be a dangerous one. That's why most actors have stunt doubles to handle the more challenging scenes. Despite this, there are no guarantees that an actor won’t be injured while filming—even one as famous as Brad Pitt. In fact, while filming the 2004 epic Troy, Pitt ruptured his Achilles tendon, setting the entire production schedule back by two months.
Though obviously devastating for Pitt and the rest of the crew, this wouldn’t have been a particularly notable occurrence on an action movie set except for the irony of the leading man's injury. In Troy, an adaptation of Homer's The Iliad, Pitt starred as the ancient Greek hero Achilles, whose heel was his only vulnerable spot and is the namesake of the Achilles tendon.
Before taking on the role of Achilles, Brad Pitt had taken a two-year break from the big screen. He embarked on an eight-month training regimen to get in top physical shape, reportedly bulking up with 10 pounds of muscle to portray the legendary warrior.
Once Pitt had recovered from his Achilles tendon injury, production started up again, but not for long. Shortly afterward, a hurricane roared through the set in Mexico, destroying numerous props.
Heroes and heroics:
- Known for being the greatest of all the Greek warriors in the Trojan War, the legendary hero Achilles had one weakness that would ultimately prove fatal. According to Greek myth, as an infant, Achilles was dipped into the river Styx by his mother, the sea nymph Thetis. While most of his body was rendered invincible, the heel with which Thetis had held him was still vulnerable. In many accounts, Achilles is killed with an arrow to the heel by Paris, a prince of Troy.
- Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, Troy was filmed in Malta, Mexico, and London, with a budget of around $200 million. The film co-starred Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, and Peter O’Toole as Priam.
- Pitt and Bana did not use stunt doubles for the epic fight scene between their characters, Achilles and Hector, which took six days to film. They kept a running score for accidentally hitting each other, with Pitt ultimately owing Bana $750 at the end of the sequence.
- An Achilles tendon rupture is five times more likely to occur in men than in women. Most injuries occur between the ages of 30 and 40. (Brad Pitt was 40 when Troy was released in cinemas.)
- The Flemish surgeon and anatomist Philip Verheyen is credited with the earliest known mention of the tendon at the back of the lower leg being named for Achilles. He called it the “cord of Achilles” in his 1693 text Corporis Humani Anatomia. It is also known as the heel cord or calcaneal tendon.
