Kristin Chenoweth says hair extensions saved her life when she was injured on The Good Wife set
Kristin Chenoweth also says if she could go back, she would have sued CBS following the incident
Kristen Chenoweth now says she wishes she had sued the pants off of CBS following her injury on the set of The Good Wife in 2012. In an interview on Watch What Happens Live, Chenoweth explains her reasoning for not going forward with a lawsuit following the gruesome injury.
“I didn’t do it out of fear and anxiety,” Chenoweth says. “So don’t ever let fear rule your life. I have long-standing injuries from that. I wished I had listened to my dad, who said, ‘You’re gonna wanna do this.’ And we’re not the suing family, but when you’re practically killed…”
Back in 2012, Chenoweth was set for a recurring character role on the CBS drama, when a piece of lighting equipment fell on her during filming in Brooklyn.
“I heard, like, a flagpole sound. I literally heard, ‘We’re losing the light.’ I heard, ‘Action.’ And I woke up at Bellevue [Hospital],” she explains to host Andy Cohen. “It hit me in the face and it threw me into a curb. Seven-inch skull fracture, hairline [fracture], and teeth and ribs.”
As it turns out, Chenoweth lived through the injury by the grace of her hair extensions, which held her fractured skull in one piece.
“My hair extensions, you know, made the hairline fracture go together. My doctor said, ‘What are these metal things?’ And I said, ‘They’re hair extensions.’ And he said, ‘They saved your life,’” she says. “So, anyone who wants to get hair extensions should, for your health.”
Following the incident, Chenoweth had to bow out of The Good Wife. Last year, Chenoweth published an essay in My Moment: 106 Women On Fighting For Themselves, in which she talked about the injury openly for the first time and why she was encouraged to silently move through it.
“I was advised by a couple of folks on my team and outside of my team too that it would be unwise to attempt to hold CBS accountable for what was clearly their responsibility,” she wrote, per an excerpt obtained by Marie Claire. “I was told that I’d never work again if I sued a major network. And that scared me. I let fear take over and did what so many people do—especially women—in the face of going up against someone or something more powerful than they are. I shrunk.”
She continued, “I’m telling my story about what happened, and I really don’t care if CBS never hires me again. They knew I was hurt really badly, but they exploited the power they held over a person like me. I’m a working actor—keyword working. Unfortunately, the powers that be at CBS at the time did not take responsibility for what happened to me, but there’s a new regime at the network and they’re just lovely to work with. Leadership matters. Full stop.”