Ryan Reynolds has joined the ranks of celebrities who refuse to carry out their own stunts after learning he broke his neck while making Safe House with Denzel Washington.

The movie hunk took a beating in the film, joining Washington for a string of incredible fight scenes - including one inside a car - but it was only months after the project wrapped that he realised one ache wasn't healing and he checked in to see a doctor.

He says, "My neck was killing me after the movie for, like, six or seven months. I finally got an X-ray and the doctor laughed and said, 'You broke your neck!' I was like, 'What?' My C5 (cervical vertebrae) and six were broken from this stunt.

"You think you're an actor and the stunt guys do it all but you get beat up. So now I'm like, 'Let the stunt guy do it. I'm good'."