14 DAY TRIAL // Some disconcerting news from the set of “The Expendables 3” movie, which was released into British cinemas yesterday. One of the actors who have been with the franchise since the beginning, Jason Statham, came to a brush with death while filming the movie when the brakes failed on a heavy truck and it plunged into the sea off a cliff.
The Mirror reports that the entire thing happened while shooting for the movie and when a stunt went horribly wrong, causing the truck Statham was driving in to come crashing into the Black Sea. Stallone was the one who disclosed the incident, and he reckoned that Statham's previous diving expertise was the only thing that saved his life.
Some of you might not know that Statham used to be a professional diver, who took part in the '90s Commonwealth Games before he became an actor. Stallone praised Jason's calm and professionalism, “He faced death. He was test-driving a three-ton truck and the brakes run out.”
He goes on to add that “It went down 60ft [18.2m] into the Black Sea and became impaled. Luckily we had taken the doors off before. If anyone else had been in that truck we would have been dead because we were all wearing heavy boots and gun belts. We would have drowned. But because Jason is an Olympic-quality diver he got out of it.”
As you can see, the situation did get a little hairy for a moment, but because Statham was a trained diver, he managed to keep his cool and come out unscathed. He wasn't bothered by the fact that he had to jump from an impressive height, nor that he was weighed down by heavy equipment.
This news comes just weeks after a clip from the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, leaked, showing Jason doing a dive as part of the British team. Experts were not impressed with his skills, and many said that it was better that he got into acting in the meantime because his diving wasn't that good.
Who knew that one day his athletic training was going to pay off and eventually it was even going to save his life?
Despite his brush with death, Jason Statham didn't seem phased by his experience and joked when he was asked what was his worst injury on set. He simply smiled and joked, “I snapped a shoelace in the very first scene.”