Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@davidholmes83
Topics: Harry Potter, TV and Film, Documentaries, Daniel Radcliffe
Jess Battison
Topics: Harry Potter, TV and Film, Documentaries, Daniel Radcliffe
The Harry Potter stuntman who was left paralysed after an accident on set still chats to Tom Felton regularly.
David Holmes was a stunt double for Daniel Radcliffe in the film franchise right up until the penultimate movie.
In 2009, the stunt man was involved in a tragic accident while filming a ‘jerk-back’ sequence (designed to replicate the effects of an explosion) for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
After being rushed to hospital from the film studios, Holmes was told that he would be paralysed from the chest down and would have only limited movement in his arms and hands.
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Radcliffe has been ‘like family’ to 42-year-old since they met as youngsters and is the executive producer of the upcoming documentary, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived.
Holmes and the Harry Potter actor are particularly close as the former stunt man tells LADbible that the pair ‘grew up together’.
Speaking ahead of the documentary’s release, he adds: “It wasn't just as his stunt double but I was his PE teacher, we've shared holidays together, and now I get to watch him grow as a man.
“One of my greatest pleasures is having him in my life.”
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And it’s not just Radcliffe that Holmes keeps in touch with.
While on the Harry Potter films, he also doubled the likes of Ron, Hermione and Neville – working closely with the young actors.
On the day of chatting to us, Holmes says he’d been texting Tom Felton (who played Draco Malfoy) that morning.
“He’s currently in Kazakhstan on a film,” he explains. “I’m a bit worried about him because he's out there on his own with armed guards.
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“So, I was just checking in with him, I send him a little playlist now and again, and just remind him to reach out and ring his friends when he feels lonely.”
Each year since his accident, Holmes hosts a cricket tournament to raise money for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
Teams Gryffindor and Slytherin compete for the trophy, and Felton has regularly taken part in The David Holmes Cricket Cup over the years, alongside other members of the Harry Potter cast and crew.
“I’ve built relationships with all of the cast,” Holmes says. “Some I speak to more than the others, but I absolutely speak to all of them.”
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David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived is available on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW from 18 November.