We was trying to build on a wire stunt
that I'd done a million times beforehand
and it was just one of those things
that went wrong, unfortunately.
My chest folded into my nose,
my sternum winded me and my spinal cord separated.
I landed on a crash mat
and I was paralysed from that moment on.
I was born in Romford on the east side of London.
I was small, I had lots of energy
and my parents found a way of channelling that energy
for me and my two brothers in a gymnastics club.
So yeah, I was 14 years old and my gymnastics coach
was approached by stunt coordinator Greg Powell.
Greg was working on the film Lost In Space in 1997.
Five of us gymnasts went down
and it was me that was the right height,
height and size for the kid, and the right face shape.
So I spent the summer of my 14 years old
at Shepperton Studios
jumping around in rubber spacesuits,
flying on spaceships, riding robots
and having the summer of my life
whilst also hanging around with some of the coolest people
in the world.
[PRODUCER, ERIN] And that first time
walking onto a film set, what's it like?
Oh, it's amazing.
That's what made me fall in love with the machine.
You go through this giant stage door,
it's like an air lock into fantasy world.
That was, like, the first 'wow' moment in my life.
And what left a lasting impression was being a young man
that everybody treated me like a professional
and I was treated like an adult,
and outside my gymnastics club
that was the first time that had happened.
So yeah, I fell in love with the machine
and I knew from that moment on
stuntman was the career choice for me.
[ERIN] In the most simple of terms,
for someone that might have no idea what a stuntman does,
are you able to just kind of explain
what the purpose is in film?
Yeah, so we get to don the character.
We're obviously not playing the acting role,
but we step in for actors
and for other, like, background performance
and we risk our lives for the sake of storytelling.
So the things that they can't insure the actor to do
is what we get to do.
[ERIN] What qualities do you think you need
to be successful at that role?
You have to be flexible, willing to be challenged.
You have to be able to manage your fear, handle pressure.
You have to also want to constantly improve on yourself
and contribute into the giant machine
that is the movie-making process.
[ERIN] What was the first time
that you can remember hearing about Harry Potter?
I was doing another day's work
with Greg on the film Bedazzled with Elizabeth Hurley.
Now, when we were shooting that day on location,
nice summertime,
Greg mentioned that to take my phone number
and to keep on the phone
'cause there's a chance he might call me in
for a rehearsal on the Harry Potter films.
So then I was called in
and I got my first audition on the Potters.
We was trying to work out
how we was gonna create quidditch for film
and the suggestion of throwing a load of kids
out of an aeroplane with a broomstick between their legs
is kind of uninsurable.
So what we did is we drove down the runway
with me tied to a broomstick on the back of a truck.
Someone had gifted me a cloak from the costume department
and then yeah,
that's how we found out that quidditch was gonna be done.
We finished the test, Chris was whooping and hollering,
saying, "Yes, we've got it."
And then he said to Greg, "Greg, he was amazing.
David, thanks very much. You were really in it."
And then, "Greg, he's our guy."
So that's how I got the job.
[ERIN] That's amazing.
Yep, first quidditch player in the world.
[ERIN] You obviously became the stunt double
for Daniel Radcliffe.
Not just Daniel.
On the first couple of films, I doubled all of them.
[ERIN] All of them?
Yeah, first time you see me,
I'm actually in a wig on the floor
as the troll smashes through the bathroom cabinets.
That's me lying down as all of the explosion,
like, the doors explode around us.
So yeah, I doubled Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Malfoy
on the first two films.
[ERIN] Did you have a favourite to be double for?
It's obviously Harry.
[ERIN] And your relationship with Daniel Radcliffe
is a massive part of your story.
Yeah, he's my boy.
Yeah, like, he's one of my best friends.
He still is to this day.
We speak all the time
and everyone got to watch him grow up in front of camera.
I'm lucky enough to get to watch him grow as a man behind
and I could not be prouder of an individual.
His physicality on the early films
was something that needed to be worked on.
He'll openly admit that.
We first saw him swing the bat and the ball
up in Alnwick Castle
and it's when Greg removed his cigar out of his mouth
and he said, "We've got some work to do with him."
So Daniel would come into the stunt department twice a week,
maybe three times a week, and I'd be his PE instructor.
So I'd teach him gymnastics and then we'd do judo,
we'd do trampolining, jump off Portakabins,
and it was an environment that we could create for him
where he could just be a kid
without the pressures of a giant moving machine behind him.
I mean, the insurance company would've had a heart attack
if they'd seen what we was getting up to
but also it was a great place for Dan
to develop his physicality
and for our relationship to also develop.
So when I see him now and his physicality,
I can vicariously live through that, brings me much joy
and I always say if he gets the Wolverine job,
I'm going for Professor Xavier.
[ERIN] And when you started,
what was the age difference?
You were slightly older than him?
I was 17 and Dan was 11.
So 17 years old, given the freedom of a city
and a per diem to spend on alcohol was, yeah,
there was lots of adventures.
So I'd finish working, just go out partying.
[ERIN] And in terms of the stunt team,
the team you were working with and the other crew,
how did those relationships evolve?
I suppose that team,
you've gotta have the ultimate trust in each other.
Yeah, absolutely.
You have to build up that trust over, you know,
inside and outside of work.
If you are on fire
and you are waiting for someone to put you out,
then you wanna know they're gonna be there.
So yeah, it was really important
to build on those relationships.
And whenever you go away and work on a production,
the stunt department are always the most fun department
to hang around with.
[ERIN] The cool ones.
Always.
[ERIN] In all those films,
is there a stunt that you performed
that you're particularly proud of
or that is the most exciting?
There's too many stories to tell you.
I enjoyed the one, you know,
when Harry and Malfoy are doing the dueling sequence.
That stunt there was pretty cool.
I was doubling Malfoy and I was wrapped around a wire
and as the wire was pulled, I opened up, rotate, spin around
and then land split legs right in front of Alan Rickman.
I remember one take just nearly hitting Alan Rickman
and he looks down at me in an only Alan Rickman way,
you know, the best Snape delivery ever, and picks me up
and throws me back down the table towards Harry again.
And yeah, nearly kicking Rickman
and also just interacting with that man.
He was a very, very special individual.
And when he was in the Snape costume,
you knew he was in the Snape costume.
[ERIN] So 2009,
when you're filming Deathly Hallows.
Obviously that was a day
that changed your life forever.
Yeah, changed my life forever.
It was a stunt that I'd rehearsed many times before
and in stunt action, if you're not trying to develop
and build on what has already been done,
then you're not really doing your job properly.
We was trying to build on a wire stunt
that I'd done a million times beforehand
and it was just one of those things
that went wrong, unfortunately.
My chest folded into my nose,
my sternum winded me and my spinal cord separated.
I landed on a crash mat and I was paralysed
from that moment on.
My stunt coordinator went and grabbed my hand and said,
"Squeeze my fingers."
Realised I'd lost finger function.
At the time I had two arms.
Unfortunately I've had some, like, problems with my injury
so I've lost one of them,
but I couldn't squeeze Greg's hand.
I'd broken enough bones in my career
and as a gymnast to know that this was a very big injury.
So yeah, it was that moment on, I was a bit like,
"Ah, I'm not gonna be going back to work tomorrow."
Even though that was the thing I wanted to do the most,
I'll always say breaking my neck made a man of me.
I was a 25-year-old boy, all of a sudden
I was faced with a devastating life-changing injury
and it made me grow.
[ERIN] And what was the injury
that you had sustained?
So I had separated my C7 vertebrae, so C6, C7.
So two parts of my spinal cord in the clavicle region,
this part of my neck was dislocated
and so as that dislocated,
it caused a massive amount of bruising in my spinal cord,
which killed the nerve fibres.
So yeah, I'm here now though.
I'm alive and yeah, I lived to tell the tale.
And in life you're either a victim or a survivor.
I'm a survivor.
[ERIN] The support and the reaction
from the cast and crew
and your loved ones in those months, how was that?
Hard, of course it was.
Really, really hard.
But I learned very quickly that the hardest part of it
was seeing my pain in my loved one's eyes.
So being strong for myself and for them
helped me get through it
and everyone get through it with me.
I mean, talk about accountability.
One of my best friends, Tom, who's with me today,
he's one of my PAs
and has been working with me for 14 years.
I've been in his arms as much as his own son.
He's picked me up, carried me all around the world.
We've been on adventures together and he's been there
through the good and the bad times in my life
and I couldn't be more blessed
to have someone more committed to me in my life.
So that's just one of the men
that I'm fortunate enough to have in my life.
Surviving this thing
and building up to me being able to live my life.
It's not just my PAs, it's not just the stunt community,
it's not just the NHS,
it's a combination of my family, friends, everyone,
like, you know, all those people.
Like I say, it takes a village
to survive a spinal cord injury.
I'm very blessed to have a giant village
of a lot of people that love me.
[ERIN] I think that's a testament to you though.
I don't know.
You know, I can be cheeky.
[ERIN] Do you think your story has impacted
attitudes and practices within the film industry?
Big time, yeah.
There was massive changes across giant studio pictures
with regards to the processes of stunts,
the communication process, the actual technical side.
My best friend Mark, who went on to double Harry
after my injury,
he's then gone and forged a career
in developing new techniques,
safer techniques in performing stunts
like the one that happened that put me in this situation.
So yeah, it was a very unfortunate accident,
but to know that it was the spark for change
is a silver lining on a very dark cloud for me.
[ERIN] Where did you end up channelling
your focus and your passion?
For a while I was trying to rechase an old life, you know,
going to Ibiza and having parties
and taking friends away and renting villas
and all of that lot.
And then I went traveling for a bit
and I've seen quite a lot of the world.
But now I tend to focus
on, like, outreach to people within the disabled community.
Try and encourage young people
to follow their dreams in the creative arts
and yeah, just sharing perspective.
[ERIN] I think Daniel Radcliffe
said the story that mattered the most to him
from the whole Harry Potter making process is yours.
Why did you decide to tell it together now?
Daniel always wanted to turn the camera onto me
and onto my story and it took some convincing,
but I was also very conscious that Harry Potter
means a lot to a lot of people
and I never wanted to tarnish that.
You know, right now there are children in conflict zones
all around the world watching Harry Potter on phones
and it's making them feel safe.
So to bring a story like breaking my neck to it
was something I never really wanted to do.
But now the audience have grown,
they're rediscovering the films with their own children
and I think it's probably the right time
to just, you know, shed a light
on not just the stunt department but my story
and all of the other people
that contributed to me being alive to this day.
[ERIN] What can society do to be better
to individuals like yourselves that have disabilities?
Okay, we have a long way to go.
There are many instances
I'm made to feel like a second-class citizen,
on my travels, all the way around the world
and in this country.
I cannot get on the public transport system
from my home address in Essex and get through London
and navigate it on my own in a wheelchair
without having to call assistance,
without having to fight against the system.
So it's about time
that we start to see people past their physical challenges
and their physical fixtures
and actually see that there's a human being there
with all of the range of what it is to be a human.
Wants, desires, needs, happiness, sadness, all of it.
It's not just a life sentence, it is a life guidance.
[ERIN] What do you think over the years
has been the thing that you're most proud of?
Ooh, tough one.
I think the hold onto me, my sense of self.
Like, it changed my body, it didn't change who I am
and yeah, that's something I'm proud of.
[ERIN] And what have you learned the most
about yourself?
Can I swear?
[ERIN] Of course you can.
I'm a tough motherf**ker.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Despite all the challenges, the bumps in the road,
I still managed to always wake up
and want to look for the light.
And sometimes you have to ride the waves of life,
not get swept away.
And I have very big waves, extreme ups and extreme downs.
I mean, right now I'm at LADbible studios
looking at you fine people,
not many people get that opportunity.
So at the same time, a week ago I was stuck in bed
'cause my pain was so bad,
so I've just learned to ride those waves.
[ERIN] What do you want people to take
from hearing your story?
I don't know.
Take from it what you will, what you want.
Take it from someone that's lost a lot of feeling.
Anything that makes you feel as a human being,
don't run away from it, embrace it.
[ERIN] And how are you now?
Alive in some capacity.
Still smiling, still got a thirst for life, still got hopes,
wants, dreams, desires,
and, like, wanting to tell more stories,
keep working in the creative industry, build businesses,
help support other people
that are going through spinal cord injury.
Like, just...
It's not what you take from the table in life,
it's what you bring to it.
I wanna bring a lot to the table.
So watch this space.
[ERIN] Honestly, on behalf of everyone that’s ever watched Harry Potter,
like it's been such a big part of my life,
so just thank you.
That's cool.
There is a lot to be learned
from the perspective that people like me
can bring to your platform.
So embrace all aspects of what it is to be human,
the good and the bad in yourselves and in others.
So the stunt coordinator was gonna fire the arrow
so it had a lead with a button going to him off set.
When he does fire the button,
I'm virtually in line with the ground.
So he fires the arrow,
which fires straight onto the back of my neck
and literally I'm lying on the floor
and I can't feel my legs.