Ruby Rose Opened Up About Her "Terrifying" Neck Surgery For An Injury That Almost Paralyzed Her
"I wanted to talk about it because Hollywood — and the world at large, I guess — we always try to make out like everything is effortless," the Batwoman actor said.
Ellie Hall
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on September 30, 2019, at 1:28 p.m. ET
JJ Reddington for BuzzFeed News
Ruby Rose said Monday that she decided to publicly discuss her recent neck surgery to combat the entertainment industry's expectations of actors.
Rose, 33, was injured performing stunts while filming Batwoman, which premieres Sunday on the CW.
"I wanted to talk about it because Hollywood — and the world at large, I guess — we always try to make out like everything is effortless and everything is about kind of being perfect and being a certain way," the actor told BuzzFeed News during an appearance on AM to DM. "I think in Hollywood it's sort of like you're meant to be young and beautiful and strong and good at all these different things. And it's kind of like, we're also human beings. And I wanted to embrace the fact that, yeah, no, I have a Pez dispenser scar."
Rose shared the news that she'd undergone an emergency surgery on Instagram on Friday.
"A couple of months ago, I was told I needed an emergency surgery or I was risking becoming paralyzed," she said. "I had herniated two discs doing stunts, and they were close to severing my spinal [cord]."
Leading up to the surgery, Rose said, she was in chronic pain and couldn't feel her arms.
She shared graphic footage of her surgery on Instagram, as well as a more SFW version featuring her surgeon on YouTube.
Ruby Rose / Instagram / YouTube
Rose told BuzzFeed News that the procedure was "terrifying" because there was a chance that it might leave her paralyzed if something went wrong — but there was also "a really high chance" that she would be paralyzed without the surgery.
In fact, she waited to talk about her surgery in part because of her fear of complications.
"I didn't tell anyone for a long time because I didn't want to distract from the show. I didn't want to have people worried about me," she said. "I didn't want to talk about it and be like, 'Hey, I did this great surgery and it's great' — and then have it [fail] and be like, 'Just kidding, it didn't work out, guys.'"
Rose added: "I want to talk about it because I've lived and it's something that I'm proud of and it's something that means a lot. It also reminded me to slow my roll, slow down a little. There's a lot of people out there who have to get much worse surgeries than this, and I would rather talk about it than pretend that it didn't happen."
Watch Ruby Rose's interview here:
Ellie Hall is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.
Contact Ellie Hall at
ellie.hall@buzzfeed.com.
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