“He Nearly Died”: After Bruce Willis Signed His Career-Changing Movie Refused by Arnold Schwarzenegger for $5 Million, His First Day on Set Almost Killed Him

After $450 million worth Arnold Schwarzenegger earned recognition in the film industry, he became quite picky about his movies. One of his rejected films was the 1988 action hit Die Hard, later taken up by Hollywood superstar Bruce Willis. Interestingly, even though he passed on the role initially, he later signed it for $5 million. Although the Die Hard franchise changed the trajectory of his career, his first day on the movie’s set was a nightmare.

Willis almost got killed after a spine-chilling stunt nearly went wrong, as revealed in the book The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage. Besides the challenges of the role, the actor was also criticized by Arnold and others for doing an action film.

Bruce Willis’ near-fatal encounter on the sets of Die Hard

According to the book by Nick de Semlyen, the 76-year-old bodybuilder was not up for playing NYPD detective John McClane and rejected it, along with other stars like Clint Eastwood and Richard Gere. “All the possible action people turned it down,” producer Larry Gordon said. However, Willis’ agent took advantage of the crisis and signed him up for a whopping $5 million, which was a lot in the 80s.

In addition to the criticism the 68-year-old faced for entering the action sphere, he also had to sport some insane stunts. Hence, the first day of shooting itself was a test of his skills. Willis was scheduled to jump off a five-storey garage, shirtless, into an inflatable airbag. If that’s not scary enough, after the actor landed, gasoline bags blew up, which pushed Willis to the edge of the bag, nearly resulting in his death.

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Actress and Willis’ then-girlfriend, Demi Moore, visited the set on his first day and was terrified by the scene. She said, “He nearly died jumping off a five-storey garage, just making it on to the airbag below when he was blown off course by a scripted explosion. (He laughed about it. I didn’t.)” As he landed, the crew came rushing towards Bruce to check if he was alive, whereas the actor hoped it would turn out to be a compliment. “[I] thought they were going to say, ‘Great job! Attaboy!’” the star added, as stated in the book. While the stunts alone made Willis’ job difficult, he was also ridiculed by many for playing the part.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once publicly mocked Bruce Willis

The German-born actor was not the primary or secondary choice but, in fact, the last choice for playing John McClane. “That’s a Schwarzenegger movie,” the creator of the show Moonlighting, Glenn Gordon Caron, said after he learned Bruce was doing the part. Likewise, the Austrian Oak also did not believe that Bruce would thrive in the action show business.

“Know why you’ll never be an action star?” Arnie once yelled across a restaurant to Willis, soon after Die Hard debuted. Everyone heard his remarks, as per the book. Yet the actor didn’t lose his calm and asked, “No, Arnold, why?” The former athlete responded while flexing his biceps and scoffed at him, “Toothpick arms.” Last month, the franchise celebrated 35 years in the industry and was marked as the film that vaulted Willis as a global action star.

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The story behind Bruce’s entry into the action cinema industry is undoubtedly worth praising. Moreover, the Bruce-Arnold rivalry eventually turned into a life-long friendship, as they appeared in The Expendables together.