http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/he ... ed-1031814When casting a stunt performer based upon race and gender was more important that casting one who had experience with the stunt, the predictable happened.
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“She was improving, but I was watching her and, oh my God, I thought, ‘It’s just a matter of time before she crashes into a wall or runs somebody over,’” says one stunt performer who had been training Harris the day before the crash that killed her. A member of the stunt team alerted the movie’s producers to these concerns but was ignored, according to the source who trained Harris.
From a technical perspective, the stunt was relatively straightforward. It called for a rider sitting astride a Ducati 939 Hyperstrada motorcycle to exit a building, descend a ramp over three small stairs and stop on a nearby landing. For a stunt professional, it would have been a cinch. But Harris had never even been on a film shoot before.
And the crash occurred on the first live take. The accident has drawn outrage and tough questions from the Hollywood stunt community.
“The producers put pressure to have somebody of the same sex and ethnicity in a position she wasn’t qualified to be in,” says Conrad Palmisano, a veteran stunt coordinator and second unit director with 47 years in the entertainment industry, including credits on Sleepless in Seattle and 21 Jump Street. Palmisano says he has been in close touch with several people who were on the Deadpool 2 set that day. “The stunt coordinators caved to the pressure. All the stunt people could do was take it to their higher-ups. They’re going to follow their chain of command.”
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