This WWE Star Accidental Punch Made Robert Downey Jr. See Stars

Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. was unintentionally punched by a WWE Attitude Era star. The real Robert Maillet made his acting debut in movies like 300, Deadpool 2, and Sherlock Holmes after becoming well-known in the WWE as Kurrgan. The former Oddity star unintentionally struck actor Robert Downey Jr. in real life during a fight scene while filming Sherlock Holmes.
Kurrgan shared the following tale while appearing on a recent episode of Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw:
He said, “We were shooting a complicated scene. It was a fight scene mostly with him, and then we were shooting fight scenes underneath a boat. It was very complicated and took a few days to do it. We were changing stuff every day, the choreography of the fight. Sometimes, we never had the time to rehearse and sometimes Robert Downey was away, busy, doing something else. We had to rehearse with a stunt double. It always kept changing, all the time. We did a segment where I was aiming my punch towards his face. He was supposed to block it and then my punch was aimed towards his chest and he would fall back into barrels. We did that a couple of times on film. One time, it happened so quick, that he forgot to block. It’s tricky because I couldn’t pull back at the last minute because it happened so fast. I was aiming towards his face, he didn’t block it, so I hit him right in the mouth.”
Robert Maillet went on to describe the extent of the harm to Robert Downey Jr., who was obviously bleeding from the unintentional strike.
He further noted, “I knew it was bad. I knew I hurt him. He did go down. He’s such a method actor, nobody knew on the crew whether it was part of the choreography or not. Nobody knew. He fell down, I knew I hurt him, I didn’t know how bad I hurt him. I didn’t want to break anything. He’s the leading star of the movie. I saw blood coming out of his mouth, so that was bad enough. He was dragging himself on the ground because he’s a character actor. He realized that it was real, so he stopped filming. I chased him, ‘Are you okay?’ What happened was he cut the inside of his lip. They stopped the bleeding and put some ice on it to take the swelling down. He didn’t break anything. We finished out scenes for the night and then they took him to the hospital. He got, I think, five stitches.”
The former Kurrgan made it apparent that he never intended to cause harm to his co-star while expressing how awful he felt about the accident. But when Robert Downey Jr. presented Robert Maillet with a gift bag the following day, he made it apparent that there was no ill will.
He concluded saying, “I felt like shit. I felt terrible. You don’t want to go there and hurt people. I don’t want to kill the star. The insurance agents were on set and they were very nervous. The next day, he was fine, he came to my trailer. I was doing makeup and preparing for the next day. He came up and dropped a gift bag without saying a word. I thought he was going to attack me. It was a bottle of champagne, he wrote a personal note saying everything is cool and okay. It gave me a boost.I was (more upset than he was). I felt bad. In the end, it gave me a bit more publicity. It went viral because it said, ‘An extra hits Iron Man.’ I wasn’t an extra in that movie. It kind of insulted me a bit. Stuntman is fine. I was kind of a stunt actor, I did my own stunts. It went viral enough that I did a lot of publicity for it. I was even mentioned on David Letterman when Downey was on the show promoting the movie. He told the story, and it was good publicity. It’s going to be on my tombstone or something [laughs], which is fine. Everybody survived and Robert Downey did another $15 million and he’s okay.”
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The incident, though unfortunate, ultimately became a humorous anecdote for both Maillet and Downey Jr. While the accidental punch caused initial concern, Downey Jr.'s graciousness and the subsequent publicity surrounding the event ultimately turned the mishap into a positive experience for Maillet. It serves as a reminder that even in the face of unexpected challenges, professionalism and good humor can prevail.