Ruby Rose exclusively opened up to Us about the horrific injury she suffered after filming Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 5.
“The irony is I didn’t get injured until I left — I broke all my ribs just gardening in the backyard,” Ruby, 40, told Us while promoting the Fox reality show.
The Pitch Perfect 3 actress shared shocking footage in June that showed her walking along the edge of a pool when she lost her footing. Ruby appeared to crash into a nearby wall before falling into her pool, where she cradled her ribs in pain.
“That’s your girl,” she captioned an Instagram post with the video. “RIP to my ribs, and to the rest of my summer. They are broken, multiple.”
Speaking to Us, Ruby said she was relieved to come out filming Special Forces season 5 without any injuries given her own recovery from back issues in recent years.
“[I thought about quitting] a couple of times — there were a few moments, but for me it was never because the course was something I couldn’t do,” she explained. “It was more that I worried I’d end up with an injury that would set me back from how far I’ve come.”
In October 2021, Ruby alleged that she suffered two herniated discs and nearly severed her spinal cord while performing stunts for The CW’s Batwoman series. (Warner Bros denied her accusations that there were unsafe working conditions on the Batwoman set, insisting Ruby’s allegations were “revisionist history.” Ruby left her starring role as Kate Kane on Batwoman after a single season and was replaced by Javicia Leslie as a new incarnation of the DC Comics hero.)
In her recent chat with Us, Ruby revealed that one of the toughest aspects of filming Special Forces actually had nothing to do with the physicality of the show.
“I will say another thing that was very hard was not being allowed to touch the dogs, because there were all these beautiful [wild] dogs, but you just can’t — I think probably rabies, mange, diseases — but also then they won’t leave, and I struggled with that because they were so cute,” she recalled.
However, the actress seemingly made friends with at least a few eight-legged visitors to the cast’s Malaysian jungle camp.
“I helped a few spiders when the shower area was getting flooded — some of them were getting stuck on leaves, so I’d get them and move them, and all the guys were like, ‘Kill it!’ I’m like, ‘Never,’” Ruby declared.
While she was able to cope with the physical demands of Special Forces, Ruby acknowledged that her emotions got the better of her at times.
“I don’t even know if it made the cut, but I certainly blew my nose on my own uniform at one point because of the crying — there’s no tissues in the jungle, you know,” she shared. “When I went home later, I was like, ‘People watch this show, don’t they? This is gonna be [emotional]—’ But it was just — you’re tired, you’re exhausted physically, mentally, spiritually, underfed, underslept, wet.”
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 5 premieres on Fox Thursday, September 24, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
