HOLLYWOOD DARE DEVILS

THESE STARS HAVE BEEN WILLING TO RISK LIFE AND LIMB TO MAKE THEIR REEL WORK AS REAL AS POSSIBLE

TOM CRUISE

On 2018’s Mission Impossible: Fallout, Tom “knew instantly my ankle was broken” when a jump between buildings went awry. And even though he’s “broken a lot of other bones,” his passion for doing his own stunt work remains undaunted. “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance? Why do you do your own dancing?’ ”

HARRISON FORD 

“I don’t do stunts. Stunt people do stunts; I do physical acting,” once claimed Harrison. Yet that acting has taken its toll over the years — from tearing an ACL on Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Fugitive to breaking his leg on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

CHARLIZE THERON

In 2005’s Aeon Flux, the Oscar winner landed on her neck doing one stunt and “was a centimeter away from being paralyzed for the rest of my life.” Nevertheless, she went on to make more action pics like Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde. “There’s definitely a switch in my brain. Something that says, ‘If you can’t go and do it all out, just don’t touch it.’ ”