Lights.
Quiet please.
Action.
Rebel Wilson — actress, comedian, producer and new mom, star of the iconic "Pitch Perfect" trilogy — is always on her mark. She quips. She deadpans. She performs her stunts. She crushes it.
Cut.
But one day, while filming "Isn't It Romantic," in Long Island, New York, Rebel noticed a grassy hill leading down to the set was slippery from the morning dew. As both the producer and star actor in the film, she warned to crew to be careful – only to slip herself seconds later. She landed right on the back of her head.
She lost consciousness briefly, and knowing a hit to the head was nothing to muck around with, ended up in an ambulance to be evaluated at the hospital. Diagnosis: Concussion.
Rebel will be the first to tell you: Concussions don't only happen to athletes and stunt doubles.
"In reality, concussions are almost always everyday accidents like whacking my melon after slipping on the morning dew," she said.
She's right. Nearly half of traumatic brain injury (TBI) hospitalizations are caused by slips and falls, a far cry from the intense dancing and stunting Rebel does onset. And the idea that athletes are most at risk of concussions is a common myth – a recent Abbott survey found that 84% of people believe this.
And if Rebel hadn't checked her melon and sought testing, she could’ve risked further injury. Research has shown that there's an increased risk of a second concussion after your first one, known as second impact syndrome, often due to slower reaction time, dizziness or vision changes.
The one thing she would do differently now, though, is take a break.
"I felt pressure to go back [to set] because if I didn't, they wouldn't be able to shoot for the whole day," she said. "They said my concussion was mild and it wasn't that dangerous to 'act' that day, essentially walking and talking in the scene. So I returned to work," she said. "In hindsight, this was a mistake, and I should've rested, especially because my symptoms got worse over the next few days. I guess I looked fine from the outside … but it wasn't the wisest idea."
