Tuesday 3rd Dec, 2024
On Tuesday morning in Vancouver, stunt performer Joi “SJ” Harris was killed on the set of Deadpool 2 when she lost control of the motorcycle she was riding, sending her crashing into a glass window. Harris, in keeping with the character she was doubling for, was not wearing a helmet.
The professional road racer was making her stunt debut on the film, and her death has prompted an outpouring of grief from her colleagues, including star Ryan Reynolds, who wrote on social media that the Deadpool team are “heartbroken, shocked and devastated” over Harris’s death. But, tragically, this isn’t a new story. Fatal or life-threatening accidents on film and television sets have become a queasily recurrent routine in recent years, sparking industry debate about the safety of below-the-line talent working in Hollywood.
Anonymous sources told Deadline that the Deadpool 2 crew is is being “run ragged”, with crew members working multiple 16-hour days in a row, including weekends. This was contradicted by another source, however, who insisted that wasn’t the case, and that there have only been two 15-plus-hour days… and those were weeks ago.
Prior to Deadpool, a rushed production was alleged to be a factor in the deaths of two crew members on the set of American Made, the Tom Cruise cartel comedy due for release this month. While shooting in Colombia in 2015, veteran Hollywood stunt pilot Alan Purwin was killed alongside pilot Carlos Berl in a plane crash, with family members later suing the film’s producers and production company for wrongful death.
Both Purwin’s widow and children and family members of Berl have alleged in separate lawsuits that Berl was not fully qualified to pilot the particular plane involved in the crash, but that his repeated warnings about his own inexperience were dismissed by the film’s production companies. The Berl family lawsuit also alleges that the film was behind schedule, and that the defendants were forced to rush back to set to make up for lost time despite unpredictable weather.
“Plaintiffs are informed and believe and thereon allege that defendants… were rushing to get back to Medellin, then continue on to the United States where filming would conclude, after scheduled travel time was reduced due to delays in filming,” the lawsuit reads. “This action compromised safety because the movie was behind schedule, and [producers] permitted unsafe and rushed flight operations to save money.”
Both suits are currently being examined in court, while the film’s insurance company, Great American Insurance, have asserted they have no duty to financially cover the accident.