Dev Patel Says His Hand Looked Like An 'Elephant's Foot' After Injury On 'Monkey Man' Set

Dev Patel revealed that “everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong” when he suffered an injury on the set of his directorial debut “Monkey Man.”

The actor, who stars in the upcoming action movie, opened up to Jimmy Fallon on Friday about breaking his hand during the film’s first action scene.

“I’m basically, I’m a crash test dummy and my co-star is using my face to break every piece of porcelain in this bathroom and my hand, I heard it snap. I was like ‘This is not good,’” said Patel on “The Tonight Show.”

“And I knew, you know, you’ve got 450 people on an island, and if I go down, the film goes down. And you know, we had a purpose during a really prickly time in history.”

Patel, who recently described making “Monkey Man” as the “most demanding thing” he’s done in his life, said he told his producer to not say anything and “keep filming.”

“By the end of the day my hand was like an elephant’s foot. And we couldn’t afford to put a cast on and VFX it out of this movie,” said Patel, adding that they got a “cheap medical private jet” and flew to Jakarta to keep a “COVID bubble” while they shot the film.

He continued, “The doctor put a screw in my hand and he goes, ’You cannot put more than a pound or two of pressure on this thing, otherwise it’s like pulling a bent nail out of wood, you will ruin your bone.”

Patel said he went straight back to the set where he was throwing himself and “bouncing off a window” the next day.

The film’s crew would later make a t-shirt inspired by an X-ray of his hand, according to the actor.

“They call it ‘the one screw that kept this production alive,’” said Patel before presenting Fallon with an tee of his X-ray.

Patel’s “Monkey Man” is sporting a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes after the