Mark Ruffalo burst Channing Tatum's eardrum with Foxcatcher slap
Actor Channing Tatum suffered a ruptured ear drum on the set of new movie Foxcatcher after encouraging co-star Mark Ruffalo to "be a man" and slap him as hard as he could.
Tatum portrays real-life U.S. Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz opposite Ruffalo, who plays his brother and fellow gold medallist Dave Schultz, and one confrontational scene involved The Avengers star lashing out at the 34 year old.
The Magic Mike hunk urged Ruffalo to hit him harder after his
initial attempts failed to hit the spot - but he quickly regretted
his words.
Ruffalo explains, "There's a moment where I slap him and I came in
and slapped him. And he said, 'C'mon man, I'm trying to act here.
What is that? Come on! Be a man! Hit me!'
"So I walked out and I came back in and I clopped (sic) him so hard
across the head, but I hit his ear... I broke his ear drum! And
(director) Bennett Miller yelled, 'Harder!'"
But Tatum wasn't the only one left nursing a painful injury on set
- Ruffalo, who plays angry superhero The Hulk in The Avengers
movies, adds, "His arm is literally the size of my torso. I play
The Hulk in the (Avengers) movie, and he is The Hulk!
"He hit me so hard one day (wrestling for the film), I felt like
someone literally dropped a piano on me. I almost dropped to the
ground, but I couldn't, we were shooting."
And Ruffalo admits he is still suffering from the wrestling move:
"(Tatum's burst eardrum) healed, but my neck hasn't."
Despite the onset injuries, the Oscar nominee is a big fan of
Tatum.
He concludes, "We are brothers. That guy, I love. We went through
the most amazing process together; he's amazing in the film."