he became Harry Potter when he was just 11 years old. Even then he needed support with some of the more demanding scenes. David Holmes was hired for this role, who accompanied Radcliffe like a shadow on the set and performed all the stunt scenes as a replacement for the young actor.
How dangerous this job can be was revealed on the set of the penultimate film in the series. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, David Holmes replaced Radcliff in the explosion scene. The force of the explosion was supposed to throw him against the wall, but unfortunately not everything went according to plan.
A stuntman on the set of “Harry Potter” broke his spine
That day, David Holmes was just preparing for the scene in which Harry Potter is thrown away by an explosion. He never shot it – the equipment failed during rehearsals. The harness, intended to pull the stuntman away from the source of the “explosion”, suddenly pulled him with too much force. David Holmes hit a wall and broke his spine.
Since then, he has been paralyzed from the waist down. He was not left to his own devices. Daniel Radcliffe, together with his friends and other stuntmen from the set, got involved in helping the injured David. Now it has been reported that the actor and Holmes have been working in recent months on a documentary film with a significant title: “David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived.”
Daniel Radcliffe and David Holmes together in a documentary
The film, which will be available to watch on HBO in less than a month – in mid-November – will show David Holmes’ life after the accident, as well as present the difficult and dangerous work of a film stuntman. You will be able to see how Holmes’ rehabilitation progressed and how he coped with a completely new life. There will be scenes with Radcliffe, who became his friend. The actor is also a co-producer of the documentary.
In 2020, the actor and former stuntman also produced a podcast devoted to the work of stuntmen together. In it, Radcliffe mentioned that we see them as “superheroes or supermen.”
But when the audience sees something particularly painful or terrible on screen, they believe it’s the magic of special effects, or the result of some particularly clever but safe way of doing the scene. Most often this is not true. There’s no way to fake a fall down the stairs. When we show a car getting hit, it’s still a car getting hit, although of course it’s going slower than it should. This is the safest method of performing the scene, but it is still painful, Radfliffe said.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
