Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain and More Stars Who Freaked Out While Doing Their Own Stunts

Sure, Tom Cruise earned a Guinness World Record for most burning parachute jumps by an individual — 16! — for his feats in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but these stars aren’t so anxious to put their lives at risk.

Ana de Armas – From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

The 37-year-old, who plays a trained assassin, said she freaked out when asked to wield a flamethrower in the action movie, despite being assured that the stuntmen she was aiming at were fully protected. “They got the main fire guy that gets burned, and he’s all covered in this sticky grease or whatever… and they’re like, ‘OK, go ahead. Just burn him,’” Ana told Entertainment Weekly. “And I did, and I started crying … I’ve never seen anyone burning, even though it’s fake.”

Jennifer Connelly – Top Gun: Maverick

“Originally, when I signed on to do the movie, there was no flying for my character. My character was on land. She was on the water. She was never in the air,” the 54-year-old, who has a “crippling” fear of planes, revealed on The Graham Norton Show after the 2022 film wrapped. Before she knew it, her daredevil costar — and trained pilot — Tom Cruise had persuaded her to join him in acrobatic stunts on high. “That’s how I found out I was going to be up in the P-51 with Tom flying it,” she joked.

Bryce Dallas Howard – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

She was so frightened, she passed out! Director J.A. Bayona wanted realistic reactions as the 44-year-old plummeted off a cliff in a gyrosphere, so he designed a special roller coaster to create the terrifying scene in the 2018 movie. “I was so scared,” Bryce admitted Jimmy Fallon on a 2018 episode of The Tonight Show, adding, “Normally, with stunts, with each take you get more and more confident. With each take my panic increased substantially … I just blacked out!”

Ryan Gosling – The Fall Guy

Even though Ryan was playing a stuntman in the 2024 action comedy film, the 45-year-old admitted he used doubles for most of the more dangerous scenes. Still, he insisted, it was “important” for him to do at least some of the stunts — which wound up being a problem. “They dropped me 12 stories off the building,” he told People. “And I have a fear of heights!”

Jessica Chastain – It Chapter Two

No way out! A scene in the 2019 horror film where the 48-year-old’s character was tortured by Pennywise in a bathroom used a record-breaking 4,500 gallons of fake blood — and had to be shot in one take. The dangers were obvious to Oscar winner Jessica. “When we were rehearsing it, we couldn’t really rehearse it,” she revealed to Conan O’Brien. “And so we would talk about what would happen.” Most terrifying for her: when she was directed to slip off the toilet and be fully submerged. “If I got stuck, or if something happens, no one would know where I was.”