Incidents rare, but performers know risks
Industry puts safety first when filming action scenes, stunt performers say
TORONTO Monday’s deadly crash on the set of Deadpool 2 in Vancouver was a rarity in an industry that takes extreme precautions to ensure safety, say stunt professionals, who nevertheless accept there is always an element of risk involved.
“Most of us know each other and everybody was shocked, because this stuff just doesn’t really happen, in Canada, anyway,” says Neven Pajkic, a 39-year-old Toronto-based stunt performer whose credits include Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film The Shape of Water and the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. “It just doesn’t happen and it’s heartbreaking.”
Joi (SJ) Harris, a 40-year-old stunt driver from New York, died after her motorcycle crashed into a window of a building during production. Details have not emerged as to exactly what happened, but some witnesses said she appeared to lose control of the vehicle.
The incident came about a month after the death of a stuntman on the set of The Walking Dead.
“It is a rarity, but the possibility exists that it can happen,” says Rick Forsayeth, a Toronto-based stunt co-ordinator, noting in his 35 years in the industry — working on films including X-Men, Resident Evil: Extinction and AVP: Alien vs. Predator — there’s never been a fatality on set.
Adam Winlove-Smith, a 34-yearold stunt performer from Toronto whose credits include the upcoming Code 8 film starring Stephen Amell and Robbie Amell, agrees that catastrophic accidents “are super rare” but professionals accept there are risks.
“It is risky but everybody knows that going into the industry, so you have to have that personality to deal with that risk that may occur.”
Stunt performers hail from various backgrounds, including martial arts, boxing, motorsports, mountain climbing, gymnastics, circus arts and swordfighting.
Pajkic got into the industry after being a professional boxer and has since taken various industry certification courses, including one for rappelling.
Meanwhile, Winlove-Smith says he was trained in extreme sports growing up, including freestyle skiing, martial arts, knife fighting and acrobatics.
Both are members are Canada’s performers’ union and say stunt co-ordinators research the background of all talent in order to ensure they have the proper skills.
Pajkic can’t speak for the industry in British Columbia but says in Ontario and Quebec, where he’s worked, “it’s an utmost controlled and safety-oriented place.”
Both he and Winlove-Smith say they’ve never been seriously injured on set, or felt unsafe.
“Most of my friends who are stunt performers tend to get injured when they’re doing their own training,” says Winlove-Smith
“There’s only a few people I’ve known that have actually got hurt on set but it hasn’t been to the extent of career-ending. You get bumps and bruises, but that comes with the territory.”
Pajkic says the one time he felt uncomfortable with a stunt he was asked to do, the stunt co-ordinator found someone more specialized. Pajkic was still paid.
“They’re never willing to take risks with lives,” he says. “When there’s a high-speed chase, there’s always a risk. When there’s a stair fall, there’s always a risk.
“We take precautions ... This is very extensive training to get into the industry. But you get killed walking a doggie nowadays, a car runs you over ... You can only control so much.”