The Mark Milsome Foundation is proud to include details of #CrewMatter on their website. Stunt woman Olivia Jackson suffered life-changing injuries on the set of ‘Resident Evil’ in September 2015. Olivia’s husband and fellow stunt performer David Grant set up #CrewMatter, appealing to production companies to put people before profit to take care of film crew, without whom action films would never be realised.
Olivia Jackson’s life-changing film set accident took place in September 2015, on the set of Resident Evil, Olivia was meant to carry out a fight scene that day but the schedule was changed on the day and replaced with a high-risk head-on motorbike stunt with an action vehicle. This change ultimately led to a life altering conclusion for Olivia.
Unbeknownst to Olivia, crucial elements relating to the stunt had been changed, this affected the stunt and resulted in the action vehicle not lifting the crane arm in time to avoid hitting Olivia’s head and upper body.
In a coma for 17 days and needing intensive corrective surgery to her head, face, and upper body, Olivia was also left with her the left quarter of her body paralyzed and she had to have her left arm amputated. Having performed numerous stunts in many multi-million-dollar box-office hits, Olivia suddenly found herself unable to work in an industry she loved.
While Olivia was in a coma fighting for her life it was discovered there was extremely limited medical cover in place by production. The production company promised that irrespective of insurance, they would keep paying for her medical bills until she was back to health.
They later backed out of this promise to pay for her lifelong medical bills alone.
On top of this Olivia’s legal team later discovered that the production company didn’t have employers’ liability insurance in place to cover Olivia or other key cast and crew in the event of an accident for which the production is liable.The film made over $270million dollars but the company that had contracted Olivia was now no more then an empty shell. This means that Olivia has been left with no recourse of compensation. Her current legal case against the production company, the complex corporate structures set up to protect all profits and the lack of adequate insurance policies have led her, and those close to her, to fight for change in the industry.
#CrewMatter was launched to raise awareness of Olivia’s battle, but it also aimed at the film industry, from production companies to actors and stunt crew. The goal is for production companies not to put profit before people and to take care of the crew that works so hard to make their films.
What we need is for people like you to support this important campaign to ensure that no one is left in Olivia’s situation ever again. Simply follow the campaign on:
• Facebook: @CrewMatter
• Twitter: @CrewMatter
• Instagram: @CrewMatter
You can make a difference too! Take a picture of yourself, like Olivia’s, and post it on your social channels. We don’t need you to say much, but if you have words of support, we’d love to read them in your posts.
Thank you.
#CREWMATTER