Featured Image Credit: Sky/HBO. Warner Bros.
Topics: Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe
Stewart Perrie
Daniel Radcliffe is executive producing a documentary that looks into the life of his Harry Potter stunt double.
David Holmes was a teenage gymnast from Essex when he scored a role that no one would turn down.
He was cast as Radcliffe's stunt double in the first six films, and was tasked with doing all the risky moments that the main star couldn't do.
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However, his life was changed forever during a freak accident on the set of Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
There was a planned stunt for an explosion but from the force of it, Holmes fell to the ground in a bad way.
He ended up being paralysed from the chest down and now lives his life in a wheelchair.
The Sky and HBO documentary will chart his life before and after the accident and will be called David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived.
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“Over the next 10 years, the two form an inextricable bond, but on the penultimate film a tragic accident on set leaves David paralysed with a debilitating spinal injury, turning his world upside down," a synopsis for the documentary says.
"As Daniel and his closest stunt colleagues rally to support David and his family in their moment of need, it is David’s extraordinary spirit of resilience that becomes their greatest source of strength and inspiration.”
The documentary will use 'candid personal footage shot over the last decade, behind-the-scenes material from Holmes’ stunt work, scenes of his current life and intimate interviews with David, Radcliffe, friends, family, and former crew'.
"The film also reflects universal themes of living with adversity, growing up, forging identities in an uncertain world, and the bonds that bind us together and lift us up," the statement added.
Radcliffe appeared on Holmes' podcast called Cunning Stunts and the two discussed how much stunt doubles go through on film and TV sets.
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The Harry Potter star was amazed at how these performers pull off some of the things they're meant to do.
“I think there’s a myth around stuntmen that they are just superhuman in some way,” Radcliffe said.
“When the public see something really painful or horrible, they think it was a visual effect or that there’s some clever, safe way of doing it.
"Often that’s not the case."
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He added: "There’s no way of faking, for example, falling down stairs. When you get hit by a car, you’re still getting hit by a car, even if it’s going slower than it would.
"They find the safest way of doing it, but it can still hurt.”
David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived will premiere on November 15.