Which were the worst things to happen to stunt performers in Hollywood?
Hi.
This is Olivia Jackson. She is known for being the stunt double for Charlize Theron in Mad Max Fury Road, Elizabeth Olsen in Age of Ultron, and Karen Gillan in Guardians of the Galaxy, among many others.
On the morning of the 5th of September, 2015, in South Africa, Olivia was scheduled to film a fight scene, as she was Milla Jovovich’s stunt double in the Resident Evil: The Final Chapter movie.
But since it was raining that day, she was told, last minute, that she would be doing a motorcycle stunt instead.
The stunt consisted of her driving the motorcycle at 43 mph towards a van mounted with a camera on a crane and the crane operator had to raise the camera over her head as she swoops by.
They practiced twice and everything went great.
But in the first live take, everything went horribly wrong.
Olivia collided with the camera and the crane, as it didn’t go up as it should, ripping a portion of her face-off, leaving her teeth exposed, causing multiple fractures, brain swelling, ruptured arteries in her arm and neck, permanent paralysis on the top left quarter of her body and her neck, a permanently dislocated shoulder, a severed thumb, punctures in both lungs and broken ribs.
She was rushed to the hospital and she spent 17 days in a coma.
When she woke up, she realized she would never be the same.
Her arm had to be amputated.
And she lost the career she loved and which had earned her so much respect in Hollywood.
The crane operator stated that the director Paul W. S. Anderson had instructed him to lift the camera 1 second later than he had in both practice rounds, in order for him to get a better shot.
Olivia was never told about this change.
A fellow stuntman stated:
There wasn’t one ounce of a safety briefing before we started.
Olivia had little protective gear, no helmet, no glasses, and it’s raining and freezing.
Nobody asked her how she was feeling. We should never have done the stunt.
Olivia’s legal team pointed out that that one second change translated to a closing distance of 105 feet.
Olivia stated:
If you rehearse something, you should stick exactly to that and mathematically it should work out the same each time. But he changed his starting position, which changed everything. It’s life or death, and I wasn’t aware of those changes.
Not long after they found out that the insurance policy for the movie excluded cover for injury to the cast and key crew.
The producers Jeremy Bolt, and Genevieve Hofmeyr promised her family that they would take care of her life-long medical expenses.
The production’s personal accident coverage gave her $33,000 to “take care of her life-long medical expenses”.
When she had another surgery schedule the producers offered her an undisclosed amount if she agreed to not sue them. She told them that she felt like they were bribing her, and knowing that she would need a lot more money due to the severity of her injuries and the constant need for medical assistance, she declined their offer.
After not being able to sue them in the South African courts, she decided to do it in the U.S and this year she finally saw some justice.
On the 1st of April, 2020 the court ruled that the stunt had been poorly planned and executed by the company that operated the vehicle with the crane and camera, and also that it was not Olivia’s driving that caused the accident.
I miss my old face. I miss my old body. I miss my old life. At least I now finally have a court judgment that proves this stunt was badly planned and that it was not my fault.
But it really hurts that I have to live with the aftermath of other people’s mistakes, when, aside from a short period of my hospitalization in South Africa, none of the people who made those mistakes or profited from this film that made $312 million have actually supported me financially.
It also astonishes me that they did not learn from the mistakes of my accident and the same team worked together only three years later filming Monster Hunters in 2018, due for release later this year.
Remarkably, the Resident Evil franchise had at least 15 stunt performers that had to be hospitalized with one of them, called Ricardo Cornelius dying, while also shooting Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, 2 months after Olivia’s accident.
While filming Resident Evil: Retribution, 16 background actors dressed as zombies fell from a collapsing high-wheeled platform, 12 of whom had to be rushed to the hospital.
Safety has never been a major concern for the producers and director of the franchise, and it is not only getting people hurt, but killing them.
One of the hardest things is I lost the life I loved.
I knew that I would never work again. I loved my job with all my heart.
A trial is expected to start within the next 2 years to decide the compensation she will receive.
Thank you for reading.