Russell Crowe was reduced to a blubbering mess on the set of the new Biblical epic Noah when he suffered hypothermia after a day of filming.
The emotional day of filming came just weeks after the Crowe's wife, Danielle Spencer, told him she wanted to end their nine year marriage.
The Australian actor known for his tough movie roles spent an entire day shooting scenes in seawater off the Iceland coast and his body eventually succumbed to the miserable conditions.
Crowe began shaking uncontrollably and the star admits his emotions got the better of him, breaking down in tears.
He tells British magazine Event, "We were doing a scene in Iceland where I had to fall into the sea ... I'd been in and out of the sea, half-naked, filming all day ... physically it was very demanding. There were these rain towers in the sky that could flood eight football fields in 30 seconds, and it was constant rain. We had 36 days of it.
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"It gets to the point where it's like Chinese water torture. You can't take it any more. I went into hypothermia. When we wrapped, I was lying on these stones and I couldn't get up. I couldn't stop shaking. I couldn't stop crying.
Crowe says the crew put several blankets on him and even sat ontop of him until he stopped shaking.
"It was crazy - they were hugging me, trying to stop me shaking. This happened just a few weeks after Danielle had told me she didn't want to be married any more and insisted that we sit in front of our children and tell them. So it was pretty heavy."
Crowe's private live became the talk of the tabloids after news broke in late 2012 that Spencer had left him.
The couple had been married for nine years and have two sons together, Charlie and Tennyson. Neither Crowe or Spencer have ever publicly confirmed the separation.
Since news of the break-up Crowe has been forced to brush of rumours of romances with a number of women including Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia, Dita Von Teese and his Les Miserables co-star Samantha Barks.
* Noah opens in Australian cinemas on March 27.
