Bruce Campbell Hilariously Recalls the Time He Got Injured on Burn Notice Set: “Take This Cadaver Away!”
Chuck Finley made a full recovery, but did need to keep his leg elevated for a while after an on-set injury on Burn Notice.
Sometimes being a spy, even a fake one on TV, can lead to serious bodily harm.
Appearing on the Fandemic Tour in 2023, screen legend Bruce Campbell recalled how the worst injury of his acting career, a pulled hamstring, took place on the set of USA Network's Burn Notice during a scene that required him to fight a stuntman.
Bruce Campbell says his worst acting injury came on the set of Burn Notice
"I laid down on the ground and the director goes, 'Should I cut?' I'm like, 'Yeah, you should cut and get a f—ing car here because I'm done. Take this cadaver away!'" he says in this TikTok video posted by fandomspotlite. "You know why they said, 'Oh, he's hamstrung'? Yeah, you can't do sh— if you pull your hamstring."
He explained he was immediately rushed to a medical facility, but things didn't exactly improve from there.
"I get to the X-ray room and the lady goes, 'Okay, lay it flat here and we'll get the X-ray.' I go, 'Are you kidding me? I can't bend it past here.' She goes, 'Well, then we can't get a good X-ray, can we?' I'm like, 'What a b-otch! I'm trying to work here!' So she strapped it flat. Meanwhile, more sh— is tearing just because she's straightening it. I was on set 36 hours later, sitting in a car, and there were a lot scenes during that time with [Sam keeping his leg elevated on surfaces]."
Campbell, of course, played the role of semi-retired Navy Seal turned freelance spy, Axe across the show's seven-season run between 2007 and 2013. Despite wanting to enjoy his pension and a endless flow of alcohol on the beaches of sunny Miami, Sam is dragged back into the cloak and dagger game by burned covert operative Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), who works as a freelance fixer of sorts, helping downtrodden individuals with nowhere else to turn, while trying to get his old job back.
Sam often factored into Michael's various schemes and ruses against shady individuals, with Mr. Axe adopting the iconic pseudonym "Chuck Finley." The character also took center stage in his very own TV movie, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, an origin story set before the events of the show that co-starred Pedro Pascal before he became a massive star.
Last summer, Campbell voiced his hope of a Burn Notice revival, telling ComicBook: "I want to bring back Burn Notice. It's time. There's a bunch of perps in the world — international perps that are scumbags all around the world that still have to be dealt with. None of our cast is dead, either in real life [or] their characters. So you do a two-hour movie. I'm trying to lobby for these.”
There's certainly precedent, given the fact that both Psych and Monk returned in feature form on Peacock.
In the mood for classic USA programming? Head over to Peacock for Suits, Monk, Fairly Legal, Psych, and Covert Affairs!
