Motorcycle racer and stuntwoman, SJ Harris lost her life while shooting a motorcycle stunt sequence on the set of Deadpool 2 on Monday. It would have been her first project in a movie working as a stunt double.As per SJ’s website she started racing in 2014, a year later when she got her racing license. She was also known as the first African-American woman to compete in an AMA-sanctioned event.
As per a report published on Motorcycle.com, Harris already completed the stunt four times but lost control of her bike during the final take. Since she wasn’t wearing a helmet because of the character she was portraying on screen, the crash resulted in fatal injuries.
Deadpool 2 star Ryan Reynolds released a short, heartfelt statement confirming Harris’s death on Monday, writing that the cast and crew are “heartbroken, shocked and devastated . . . but recognize nothing can come close to the grief and inexplicable pain her family and loved ones must feel in this moment.”
We understand that audience love motorcycle chase scenes but is it really so important to film such scenes without the helmet on? Chances are that Harris would have survived the crash if the movie script allowed the sequence to be shot with the lid on. But it is clearly not the first time, remember the S1000RR chase scene from Mission Impossible 4? Or the epic Matrix Reloaded Ducati 996 scene, the similarity between all of these is that there was no helmet.
We hope that this tragic accident may help movie producers to better understand the uncertainties involved in shooting such helmetless movie scenes.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the lost soul.