{"id":521343,"date":"2026-04-09T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:45:17","slug":"harry-potter-stunt-co-ordinator-still-blames-himself-for-incident-that-left-actor-paralysed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521343\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter stunt co-ordinator \u2018still blames himself\u2019 for incident that left actor paralysed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Potter stunt co-ordinator \u2018still blames himself\u2019 for incident that left actor paralysed<\/p>\n

A stunt co-ordinator who worked on the Harry Potter films has admitted he ‘still blames himself’ for an accident that saw an actor left paralysed. <\/p>\n

Greg Powell was the stunt co-ordinator on all eight of the movies<\/a> in the popular franchise but it was during the filming of Harry Potter <\/a>and the Deathly Hallows that a stunt double’s life was changed forever. <\/p>\n

In 2009, David Holmes was left permanently paralysed from the chest down after he was hurled into a wall and broke his neck during filming. He underwent several surgeries and spent seven months in hospital after the incident. <\/p>\n

In a Sky documentary, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, the story of the former stuntman is explored, including the aftermath of his accident and the start of his career. <\/p>\n

Powell emotionally reflected on his guilt about being the coordinator behind the stunt that caused Holmes’ injuries, saying: “Seeing him really pains me, it really does. I do struggle, I hate it knowing as he was, climbing and jumping.”<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Holmes suffered a spinal injury after breaking his neck while working as a stunt double (SKY)<\/p>\n

Powell, who has also worked on Avengers: Age of Ultron, reunited with Holmes for the documentary, which also featured Harry Potter star<\/a> Daniel Radcliffe. <\/p>\n

Reflecting on the reunion, Powell told the documentary’s director: “I hate seeing him like that, in the nicest way I wish I’d never met him when I see him like that because he wouldn’t have been like that if hadn’t met me. <\/p>\n

“I was the last one to touch him when he could walk and the first one to touch him when he couldn’t walk, and that’s an awful feeling.”<\/p>\n

When asked if he could see what happened as an accident and ‘cut himself some slack’, the stunt co-ordinator admitted: “I try to, I still blame myself because I was there. <\/p>\n

“But he still talks to me, he still loves me I think, so that’s the main thing.” <\/p>\n

Holmes’ friendship with Radcliffe<\/a> also features heavily in the documentary, with the actor opening up about how the former stunt double helped him forge his path after Harry Potter <\/a>came to an end. <\/p>\n

“I’ve been doing this thing really consistently and I had all that structure, and then all of a sudden that was gone and I very quickly went into free fall.<\/p>\n

“It was something that I talked to Dave about and he was, as he always had been, a really good guiding star in all of that. He said ‘I’m not going to let you throw the opportunity you’ve got away’,” Radcliffe<\/a>, also an executive producer on the documentary, recalled. <\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Radcliffe and David Holmes worked together on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (SKY)<\/p>\n

Following his accident, Holmes has carved out a career as a podcast host, author and activist. He released his memoir, The Boy Who Lived, in 2024. <\/p>\n

He and two friends, who are also paralysed, are the co-founders of Ripple Productions and host the podcast Cunning Stunts, along with Radcliffe. <\/p>\n

The podcast sees the group interview other stunt actors to raise awareness of the dangers they face. <\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit: SKY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Potter stunt co-ordinator \u2018still blames himself\u2019 for incident that left actor paralysed A stunt co-ordinator who worked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[44008,96,2332,1635,2839,14913,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-521343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-daniel-radcliffe","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-harry-potter","tag-movies","tag-tv-and-film","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}