Daniel Radcliffe
The documentary tells the story of David Holmes, who suffered a spinal injury while filming The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Wed 25 Oct 2023 3.32pm BST
Daniel Radcliffe has teamed up with his Harry Potter stunt double, who was left paralyzed after an accident on set, for an HBO documentary.
David Holmes worked closely with Radcliffe on the Harry Potter films until he suffered a spinal injury while filming The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in January 2009. The Essex gymnast, who was chosen to play Radcliffe’s double in the first film, broke his neck and was paralyzed from the chest down.
The upcoming documentary, titled David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, is executive produced by Radcliffe and will be released in November. Featuring candid personal footage from the past ten years, behind-the-scenes insights into Holmes’ stunt work, scenes from his current life and intimate interviews with Holmes, Radcliffe and others.
“The film is a coming-of-age story of stuntman David Holmes, a great teenage gymnast from Essex, England, who is chosen to play Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double in the first ‘Harry Potter’ film when Daniel was just 11 years old is,” reads HBO’s official synopsis.
“Over the next ten years, the two develop an inseparable bond, but in the penultimate film there is a tragic accident on set that leaves David paralyzed and sustains a serious spinal injury, turning his world upside down. As Daniel and his closest stunt colleagues band together to support David and his family in their time of need, it is David’s extraordinary resilience that becomes their greatest source of strength and inspiration.”
According to HBO, the film, directed by British filmmaker Dan Hartley, reflects universal themes such as living with adversity, growing up and forming identity in an uncertain world.
Holmes, now 42, previously revealed details of his tragic accident, which occurred during a flying scene at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden.
In an interview with the Mirror in 2014, he said he was pulled backwards “at high speed” by a high-strength wire in a “jerk-back” stunt that mimics the effects of an explosion. However, Holmes was thrown into a wall and immediately broke his neck.
He said the new HBO documentary not only tells the story of his successes in front of the camera, “but also the challenges I face every day and my overall outlook on life after a broken neck.”
“In the turbulent world we live in right now, I would like to quote Harry: ‘We are only as strong as we are united and as weak as we are divided.'”
Holmes also thanked medical staff Radcliffe and Harry Potter author JK Rowling for their support. Writing about Radcliffe, he said they were both “immensely proud of our time with the Harry Potter films and the joy and comfort they bring to audiences around the world every day.”
It’s not the first time Radcliffe and Holmes have worked together since the Harry Potter films – in 2020, the two co-launched Holmes’ Cunning Stunts podcast, which features interviews with other stunt performers from across Hollywood.
“I think there’s a myth around stuntmen that they’re just superhuman in some ways,” Radcliffe said of the podcast at the time. “When the public sees something really painful or horrible, they think it’s a visual effect or that there’s a clever, safe way to do it. Often that is not the case.
“There is no way to fake falling down the stairs, for example. If you get hit by a car, you’ll still get hit by a car, even if it’s going slower than it would be. They find the safest way to do it, but it can still hurt.”
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