“Deadpool 2” is shooting in Vancouver, Canada where a motorcycle stunt went horribly wrong on Monday, resulting in the death of stuntwoman Joi Harris.
According to several accounts, Harris lost control of her motorcycle, crashed into a post and was thrown into a plate glass window. And she was not wearing a helmet. She was standing in for an actress who does not wear a helmet in the scene.
Harris is a licensed motorcycle racer who seems to have been performing movie stunts for the very first time. She has no prior credits of any kind on the Internet Movie Database website.
Jordan Armstrong is a reporter based in Vancouver with the Global News TV network. He and his crew had witnessed Harris' four practice runs. He arrived back on the scene shortly after the accident occurred:
We could clearly see the motorcyclist who we had earlier observed in the rehearsal. At this point [she] was in full costume — no helmet. The stuntwoman was loaded into the back of an ambulance. It spent 45 minutes on the scene before leaving to the hospital and ominously left without lights and siren on.
The director of “Deadpool 2” is David Leitch. He was a leading action film stunt coordinator who co-directed “John Wick” and took his first solo directing turn on “Atomic Blonde.”
Leitch was on The Frame when “Atomic Blonde” was released last month, and at the time he talked about how his experience as a stunt coordinator informs the way he directs action sequences:
You always have to approach it with safety first. And having this vast experience with stunts and knowing what can be done, and knowing what's safe and what's not, and then also hiring the right people ... I don't take it lightly because I've been in the hot seat before where you're like staring down the big stunt and going, Wow, this is daunting. And so I'm empathetic to putting people in those positions.
Last month, a stunt person died on the set of "The Walking Dead." Leitch recalled the emotions that went through the stunt community at that time.
It's a really small community of people and I think that there's this ultimate respect for people who take up the profession and stand in those places that other people wouldn't stand. And so we do everything in this business as stunt coordinators and directors to make it safe. Accidents happen and ... as the stunt community, we all look back and [realize] there are moments where maybe that accident could have happened to them.
In a statement, Leitch expressed his regret and sorrow about the death of stuntwoman Joi Harris:
"I’m deeply saddened by the loss of one of our stunt performers. No words can express how I and the rest of the Deadpool 2 crew feel about this tragedy. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and loved ones in this difficult time."
Through a spokesman, Leitch declined to comment further today.