Jason Statham Almost Died While Filming 'The Expendables 3'

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rosie huntington-whiteley and jason statham

Getty Images/Jason Merritt

Actor Jason Statham narrowly escaped death while filming "The Expendables 3" when he jumped out of a truck during an action scene that went terribly wrong, according to the UK Mirror.

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With Statham behind the wheel of a three-ton truck, the brakes went out and the truck plunged 60 feet into the Black Sea. Fortunately, Statham - who previously competed as a professional diver for England - knew how to handle it.

"Luckily we had taken the doors off before," his co-star Sylvester Stallone told The Mirror at the film's London premiere. "If anyone else had been in that truck we would have been dead because we were all wearing heavy boots and gun belts. We would have drowned. But because Jason is an Olympic-quality diver he got out of it."

Sly brought up the anecdote recently, although this isn't the first time it's being reported. Actor Terry Crews also told of the incident last year during filming. "He gets out, swims to the top, and the truck is gone," Crews told Jay Leno. "Let me tell you something, Jason Statham is a true bad, bad dude."

Statham for his part, played down any danger he experienced on set while playing the character of "Lee Christmas," a former British SAS soldier. When asked of his worst injury during filming, he said, "I snapped a shoelace in the very first scene," according to the UK Independent.

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