Ruby Rose reveals the horrific Batwoman injury that left her a 'shell' and cost her four years of her life

Ruby Rose has opened up about the horror injury she suffered on the set of TV series Batwoman, revealing the broken neck cost her four years of her life. 

The Australian actress, who starred as the title character in The CW series from 2019 to 2020, made the admission in a new episode of her US reality TV military training series Special Forces. 

'I've always done all of my own stunts, so I could turn up as Ruby the actress. But I had an accident in 2019 on the set of Batwoman... everything went bad from there,' she confessed on the show.

At the time, the 40-year-old admitted she was close to becoming permanently paralysed after suffering two herniated discs near her spinal cord when a stunt went wrong. 

'I broke my neck twice already and I have got two replacement discs. There was no bouncing back, there was no part of me left, I was just a shell. Four years of my life gone,' she said. 

'Eventually it's like, I'm not really that action star, am I? I'm just Ruby.' 

Ruby left the show after its first season and put her acting career on hold for several years as she focused on her recovery.

It was not the only injury she suffered on the set of the superhero show, in which her character frequently performed dangerous stunts. 

In 2019, Ruby appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and told the TV host she had undergone back surgery following another injury. 

Ruby said everyone on set initially thought she had just 'broken a rib', but after weeks of pain, she finally went and saw a doctor.

'I had six to 12 weeks of chronic pain and was just assuming that that's what it was...' she recounted.  

She said one doctor sent her for an MRI scan, which revealed how extensive her injury was. 

Ruby revealed she was filming a movie in Romania when her doctor called and told her she needed to return to the US for emergency surgery.

'The doctor called me and was like, "You could become a paraplegic. This is your spine. Two of your discs have herniated. And they've broken all of the protective layers. If you don't get back, you could become a paraplegic,"' she recalled.

Before her diagnosis, Ruby said she had also lost feeling in her arms but simply 'got used to it', despite frequently dropping things. 

She said after the surgery she wasn't able to move for 10 days, which made her 'depressed'.

The actress rose to international fame in Netflix's Orange Is the New Black before starring in films including John Wick: Chapter 2 and The Meg.

That success led to roles in major studio films including Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and XXX: Return of Xander Cage.