The Reason Steven Seagal Broke Sean Connery's Wrist
Steven Seagal isn't just an actor. He's also served as fight choreographer for several of his films. That isn't the most interesting bit, however. In the early 1980s, Seagal became involved with Never Say Never Again, the not-entirely-official James Bond film which saw Sean Connery return to the role of Bond. Seagal was supposed to help Connery with martial arts moves for the film. Connery was familiar with karate — he has a first degree black belt, according to Martial Arts and Action Movies — and so wasn't a complete novice. While Seagal was training Connery, things didn't go as planned, and then everything escalated. According to VICE, Connery was mostly tight-lipped about the incident until 1996, when he opened up in a conversation with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. Connery mentioned that he didn't even know how badly he was hurt until many years later. Ouch.
Connery didn't hold any grudges against Seagal, though. He even joked to Leno about how the injury made it tricky for him to grab for his wallet. On October 31, 2020, it was announced that Sean Connery had died in his sleep, according to the BBC. The venerable actor was 90.
Steven Seagal was annoyed with Sean Connery and accidentally broke his wrist
While Connery may have gotten ahead of himself while practicing, he was definitely not expecting to end up with a broken wrist. While talking about how he's been fairly lucky in terms of injuries during the course of his career, with Bond and other action heroes on his resume, Sean Connery recalled the Seagal episode and explained what actually happened.
"We were going to do a film called Never Say Never Again and there was a possibility I was going to do Aikido and what have you," Connery explained to Leno. "And I got ahold of Steven and we had this training in the building where I had an apartment and he was really very, very good and everything. And I got a little cocky because I thought I knew what I was doing because the principle is it's defense, so it's a pyramid and I got a bit flash" — showing off — "and I did that," he said, raising his hand near his face. "And he broke my wrist."