Kristin Chenoweth tried to keep her 2012 The Good Wife accident quiet because she feared being viewed as weak and didn’t want to be “a problem” for CBS

Marie Claire

Chenoweth recounts the July 11, 2012 accident that left her hospitalized and with years of injuries in My Moment: 106 Women on Fighting for Themselves, a new collection of essays that will be released on May 24. "As I stood on my mark, awaiting the next shot, a piece of lighting equipment crashed down on top of me and knocked me back into a curb," Chenoweth writes in an excerpt published by Marie Claire. "I was rushed by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. My injuries were severe. My ribs were cracked. My nose and some of my teeth were broken, and I had a skull fracture. And those were just the injuries that actually showed up on X-rays; never mind the nerve, tissue, and muscle damage I’d have to face in the weeks, months, and years that followed. Although there was a good deal of media interest in the accident, I tried to keep it all very quiet. There were a couple of reasons why. I didn’t want to be viewed as weak. In the entertainment industry, as is the case with so many other lines of work, when someone considers hiring you for a part, they want to know that you’re ready to run. Ready to work the long hours. Ready and able to push as far as 'getting the job done' might require." She adds: "So I kept the extent of my injuries quiet because if I let the truth get out about how badly I was hurt, it would certainly cause me to be seen as weak and broken. And when you’re a woman in this industry, that perception of weakness is inherently baked into the cake from day one. I didn’t want to feed into that negative stereotype. The other reason I kept it quiet is because I didn’t want to be 'a problem' for CBS. 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. I mean, actors have worked entire careers in film and TV without pieces of heavy gear falling on them. Imagine that." CBS declined to comment.