Daniel Radcliffe serves as the executive producer for the documentary David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived. The documentary will explore the life of David Holmes following the horrific accident he endured on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s a tribute to Holmes, a man who refused to let his disability define him and instead took control of his life.
In the trailer which dropped on YouTube, Holmes, Radcliffe, and their circle of friends discuss that fateful moment and how life changed around for Holmes after the accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Daniel Radcliffe Pays A Heartfelt Tribute To His Harry Potter Stuntman David Holmes
David Holmes, a gymnast and stunt performer, played the body double for Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter films. When performing an explosion effect stunt called “jerk back” at Warner Bros. studio in Leavesden, Holmes, suspended on a harness, was pulled back at speed by a high-strength wire, slamming him into a wall. Holmes broke his neck and became paralyzed from the waist down, confining him to a wheelchair.
Radcliffe, deeply shocked by this horrific accident, tried his best to help the stunt actor at the time and has since remained friends with him. After becoming disabled, Holmes took to automobile racing, never putting an end to his thrill-seeking life. In 2020, he launched the Cunning Stunts podcast alongside Radcliffe, shedding light on the risks faced by stunt actors in films.
The documentary about the stunt actor is not a mere retelling of the tragic events, rather it is a tribute to the life of Holmes, whom the title fittingly calls “the boy who lived”. In the trailer, people close to Holmes, including his mom and dad, his stunt coordinator, Radcliffe, and others, narrate his life story alongside him. The Kill Your Darlings actor shares:
“It is unfair, he shouldn’t have had to do any of that. […] This terrible thing happened to Dave, but I don’t want to talk as if his life is a tragedy. The way his life has affected the lives of people around him means that it is the furthest thing from that imaginable.”
After the accident, Radcliffe hosted a celebrity charity auction and dinner to raise money for Holmes’ treatment. The Escape from Pretoria actor had earlier shared that he wanted people to see Holmes as an important person in his life, rather than a person in a wheelchair that he knew.
David Holmes Had Earlier Opened Up About His Horrific Accident
Holmes was part of all Harry Potter films until his accident in 2009. He was discovered by the stunt coordinator for the films, Greg Powell, who also appears in the documentary. Holmes impressed the crew with his skills when asked to perform a broomstick test. He also played one of the Slytherin Quidditch players in the first movie. When the horrific accident happened, Holmes recalled to Mirror U.K. that his first thought was, “Don’t ring Mum and Dad, I don’t want to worry them.”
Holmes spent six months in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. The doctors informed him that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life from the chest down, with limited movement in his hands. The stunt performer told Mirror:
“I remember slipping in and out of consciousness because of the pain levels. I’d broken a bone before, so recognising that weird feeling across my whole body from my fingertips right down to my toes, I knew I had really done some damage. […] My first thoughts weren’t about not being able to walk again. It was all the other stuff, like not being able to dance again or have s*x.”
David Holmes collaborated with his two tetraplegic friends to launch a new production company, Ripple Productions. The company is behind his Cunning Stunts podcast. David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived is set to premiere on HBO Max on November 15.
