There is a popular, studio-supported narrative this foreign born alliterate actress quit because she accepted the role without understanding the hard work involved.
That “don’t understand the hard work and what it entails” narrative was present in the production during the 1st season, used to excuse extremely lax safety protocols and a cavalier attitude toward cast and crew safety.
The show had its first catastrophic on-set safety incident involving hospitalization in its first week of shooting. Accidents, stunts gone wrong, special effects gone wrong, even injuries during location scouting occurred so reliably and regularly that “floating” crew were unofficially advised by local veterans not to take a call from anyone associated with the show.
Our actress was injured on the set multiple times, requiring multiple hospital trips.
For her major surgery production provided the shortest liability/legally permissible force major time off (6 shooting days).
After the surgery the medical and safety restrictions on her activity were not respected, putting her in constant risk of injury and long-term or permanent disability.
The pain from her cumulative injuries seemed substantial and was also not respected or accommodated.
The last injury came just before forced shut down for COVID19 when a PA was hit in the head by a descending lift.
They are facing possible permanent paralysis.
The actress quit a show with a proven record of taking extreme and unnecessary risks, showing total disregard for safety of cast and crew, and blasting right past all protocols or procedures when that production culture resulted in multiple, potentially life-threatening, injuries.
The timing of her stepping down coincides with the BC government announcing a fast track to bring back high-visibility film projects like this show with safety protocols almost entirely at the discretion of unions, productions, and parties of interest.
With the show’s safety record, and given that this record did not at any time provoke a production halt or a union-led stop work order, concern about work safety during COVID19 is well founded in general, especially so in BC, and extremely so for this show, a show on which injury, disease, dismemberment, and death are not possible, but matters of recorded fact.
Ruby Rose
Batwoman
Ruby Rose drops more details about ‘really terrifying’ on-set accident that led to major spine surgery
“I [basically] broke my neck on the show,” Rose said, recounting the full story. “I did this stunt for a very extended amount of time — like seven hours. We thought that I broke a rib or just fractured a rib, and that was like 6-12 weeks of healing. So then I had 6-12 weeks of chronic pain and just kept assuming that [it was a rib fracture] until I kept seeing these doctors and they’re like, ‘It’s your neck, it’s your neck. [The pain] just radiates into these places of nerve endings.’ So, I finally got an MRI, and I had to get it in Romania in the middle of a film where I was also doing stunts. I sent it to my doctor … he called and was like, ‘You could become paraplegic. Two of your discs have herniated and they’ve broken all the protective layers. You have this tiny amount of your spine that’s not severed, and if you don’t get back, you could become paraplegic.’ Even just sleeping wrong or moving my head in a strange direction. It was really, really terrifying.”
The entire experience gave Rose a different outlook on life, which included putting her health above work and a rumination over the state of modern healthcare in the United States.
On a lighter note, Rose also revealed that she was originally allergic to the cowl on her Batwoman costume.
“I’m allergic to the adhesive tape, so I had hives for a little while,” she said. “When I took it off, I was like in a horror film where people were like, ‘It’s gonna be okay, can you just stay back there? Just stay there, we’re gonna call someone. Don’t come near me.’ We had to take everything out of it and put something else like cotton or something in it.” – Source
‘Batwoman’ Production Assistant Paralyzed In On-Set Accident, Warner Bros. TV Cooperating With Investigation
A production assistant working on the CW’s Batwoman has been left paralyzed from the waist down after suffering an injury on the set of the Warner Bros TV-produced superhero drama series, which films in Vancouver.
Amanda Smith, 30, was working below the Georgia Viaduct in Vancouver during a location shoot setup on March 11 when “the bucket of a lift lowered onto her head,” according to a GoFundMe page created for Smith.
Smith had her back to the machine, and she was unable to hear the lift over the sound of traffic from above, her friend and colleague Tyler Mazzucco, who helped set up the GoFundMe page, told the Vancouver Sun.
“She was literally just sitting there and it came down on top of her,” Mazzucco said.- Source
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