20 Iconic Movie Scenes That Nearly Killed Their Stars
11. Daniel Radcliffe: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The cast and crew look back on it fondly, but the hours were long, the schedules were tight and stunts and effects got riskier as the films went on.
Daniel Radcliffe suffered through some major stress as a young actor trying to make one of the most popular characters in literary history come to life.
He narrowly dodged tragedy while filming one of the series’ last action scenes, though his stunt double was not so lucky.
David Holmes had been portraying Radcliffe’s stunt counterpart since “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, always without issue. That all changed while filming a scene for the series’ two-part finale, “Deathly Hallows”.
The scene called for Harry to fly through the air on his trademark broomstick. Holmes was to whip through the air on wires in front of a greenscreen to achieve the effect. A wire snapped and Holmes was smashed into a wall face first before plummeting down to a crash mat.
He remained conscious but could not feel his legs, a condition which was later confirmed to be permanent. Radcliffe was devastated upon hearing the news, offering his friend and coworker plenty of emotional and financial support.
