Being a professional stuntperson is never a job to take lightly, but following the injury of a stuntman on the set of Fast & Furious 9, series vet Jason Statham thinks the profession needs to get a bit more respect. The Hobbs & Shaw actor says that he always has a great relationship with the stuntpeople he works with and he clearly feels for the family, and the man, that recently suffered a serious injury. According to Statham...
It is awful. It’s an unpredictable science... You do every measure that you can to eliminate these things from happening. It’s just a real shame that accidents happen. It’s awful for the families… when someone gets really hurt. On set, the stunt people are and have been for my whole career the best relationships I have and the most fun I have ever had on a set, always with the stunt guys.
While we frequently see actors like Tom Cruise, or Jason Statham for that matter, doing their own stunts, there are almost always cases when actors are simply not able to do them for one reason or another. This is where the professional stunt people come in. People who have the literal job of doing the most dangerous things on the set, all while hoping the audience won't ever notice they were there.
Earlier this week it was reported that stuntman Joe Watts took a fall while working on the set of the currently filming Fast & Furious 9. Watts is in a medically induced coma following what is being described as a serious head injury.
Frequently, actors use the same stuntman over the course of their career, leading to real relationships forming between actors and stuntmen, as Jason Statham described to Extra. The actor clearly has respect for the profession considering how much they do and how little they get for it.
I feel they are the unsung heroes in some ways. They put themselves out there to make other people look good without anything back.
Certainly, stuntmen aren't getting paid as well as the actors that they are pretending to be on the screen. There are also few awards given to this important part of the filmmaking process. There have been multiple calls over the years to award Oscars to stuntpeople, but as of yet, the Academy has declined to recognize them.
Safety is always of paramount importance when filming stunts, still, accidents happen. In addition to this head injury which sounds quite serious. Other stunt people have lost limbs and even died as a result of injuries sustained while filming our favorite movies and television shows.
Hopefully, this stuntman will pull through. And hopefully investigations are currently ongoing to figure out what went wrong in an attempt to be sure that it doesn't ever happen again.
