A Game of Thrones stunt performer is suing the production company for almost $5 million due to an injury she sustained to her ankle.
Casey Michaels was working on the final season of Game of Thrones when she was injured in Episode 3 during The Battle of Winterfell. She was involved in a stunt in which 28 stunt performers were instructed to walk off a roughly 12-foot rooftop in groups of four or five people at a time. The performers were instructed to walk off the rooftop, “as if unaware of the drop, in keeping with the zombie-like nature of the Wights.”
The stunt workers were to fall onto a box rig below them, which was built up of cardboard boxes and mats.
“By their nature, however, the cardboard boxes are not durable and become damaged as each stunt performer lands on the box rig and also as each stunt performer climbs off of the box rig after landing,” Michaels alleges in her claim.
The Fire & Blood Production company defended against this statement and said the box rig was, “durable and was not compressed when a stunt performer stepped off onto the mattress and rolled away.”
They claim the injury was “caused either by the Claimant’s failure to execute the pleaded stunt properly and/or with the skill and care of a reasonably competent stunt performer or by pure accident.”
However Michaels was wearing shin, knee, elbow, hip, and back pads, and was the last performer to step off the roof.
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In the last four years, she has had multiple surgeries on her foot, which has also required a plate and screws to be inserted, has undergone “lengthy, intensive” physiotherapy and has been treated for depression and trauma.
Her range of movement and function has, according to doctors cited in her claim, been reduced and Michaels can no longer ski, skydive, do gymnastics or run and still struggles with basic tasks such as shopping, cooking and gardening. Michaels, whose parents Wayne Michaels and Tracey Eddon are also both legendary stunt performers, has been unable to return to work since the incident.
Fire & Blood Productions says Michaels did not walk off the roof as instructed by the stunt coordinator but rather “‘like a pencil,’ in a rigid or vertical manner.”
Michaels’ representatives declined Variety’s request for comment and HBO did not respond to them by publication time.
