Ruby Rose Recalls Emergency Surgery After Batwoman Stunt Left Her Close to Paralyzed

Playing a superhero seems like the ultimate job, but Ruby Rose says that there’s a lot more to the role than meets the eye.

For the CW’s latest action show Batwoman, the actress stars as the titular hero—and revealed filming was more physically demanding than she ever imagined. 

“I did a stunt, and for, like, a very extended amount of time, like, seven hours,” she recalled on Monday night’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “We thought that I had broke a rib or just fractured a rib and that it was, like, 6 to 12 weeks of healing. So, then I had 6 to 12 weeks of chronic pain and just sort of kept assuming that was what it was.”

Finally, a doctor explained that the pain she was experiencing was actually coming from her neck and that her injuries were more severe than she had realized. Later, an MRI revealed that she had two herniated discs in her spine and that she could become paraplegic if her injury wasn’t treated immediately. 

“It was really, really terrifying,” explaining that her spine was on the verge of severing at any moment. “Even just, like, sleeping wrong, or you know, moving my head in a strange direction.”

The Orange is the New Black star says that she ignored the signs that her health was in jeopardy, listing “weird things” like losing mobility in her arms and not being able to pick things up as symptoms she experienced. She finally got surgery on her spine and said that she was back to work 10 days after the procedure.

Rose explained that the recovery process wasn’t easy and that it left her feeling “depressed,” but looks back at this challenging time with a new mindset because of how it helped her appreciate her health. 

“I wasn’t paying attention to my body,” she said. “I wasn’t listening. I was in such a hurry to get things done. It was like, ‘Batwoman, yes! And, now I’m going to do this film. I’m going to come back, we’re going to pick up the series…’ I think [the injury] was the world’s way of saying, ‘You’re going to have to pay attention and you’re gonna have to slow down—and you’re not actually a superhero.”