Milla Jovovich's 'Resident Evil' stunt double sues over horror crash
Olivia Jackson, the stunt performer who doubled for Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, is suing the movie's producers after she suffered horrific injuries in an on-set accident.
Jackson lost an arm and suffered a host of other 'catastrophic injuries' in a motorbike stunt which went wrong while the film was shooting in South Africa in 2015.
Read more: Resident Evil stuntwoman sues for £2.2 million
She is alleging that the film's producers are guilty of 'elevating financial considerations over safety', when a scheduled fight scene was changed to a 'dangerous and technically complex motorcycle scene', because of bad weather.
Jackson was speeding towards a crane-mounted camera which failed to be raised in time when she struck it.
According to the suit, filed in Los Angeles, it resulted in the camera 'slicing through the bone of her forearm and tearing the flesh off her cheek, leaving her teeth exposed'.
Suffering other injuries to her eye socket, spine, ribs and shoulder girdle, she was placed in a medically induced coma.
Her arm was later amputated above the elbow.
Jackson, who is seeking unspecified damages, is also claiming that she was misled by producers as to the status of her insurance coverage.
After the accident, she was awarded just £26,500, as there was no additional liability coverage, while the movie went on to make over $300 million at the box office.
“Had such facts been known to Plaintiff, she never would have agreed to perform The Final Chapter, or alternatively, would have secured additional insurance on her own,” reads the suit.
“She had already secured the role of stunt double for a leading cast member in Wonder Woman, and didn't need the work.”
The suit claims that the provision for loss of earnings in the movie's insurance policy for her 'was a paltry $992' – just under £800, and that the producers of the movie also reneged on a promise to pay her medical costs.
Jackson is suing the film's director Paul Thomas Anderson, Bolt Pictures, Tannhauser Gate and producer Jeremy Bolt.
The suit also points out that another crew member, Ricardo Cornelius, was killed on the movie’s set, when a Humvee slid off a rotating platform and crushed him, while 16 other background actors were injured in another of the Resident Evil movies.
Prior to the accident, she had been a prolific stunt performer, expert motorcyclist and kickboxer, appearing in movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, Dredd, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Jackson said: “I miss my old face. I miss my old body. I miss my old life. It really hurts that I have to live with the aftermath of other people’s mistakes.
“I wish I had realised that there would be wholly inadequate protection for me before I ever took the role.”
Jackson also filed a lawsuit against the movie’s producers in South Africa last year.
She is currently filming a documentary about the accident and her recovery.