Olivia Jackson claims producers promised to cover her medical expenses "all the way through," but have fallen short.
Olivia Jackson, who worked as a stunt double for Milla Jovovich on Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, is suing the film's producers after an on-set accident that caused her arm to be amputated, along with damage to her spine, face and more.
Jackson, who was injured in a motorcycle accident on the South African set of the 2016 film, claims in legal documents obtained by ET that producer Jeremy Bolton and producer/director Paul W.S. Anderson -- who is also Jovovich's husband -- promised to take care of her medical expenses “all the way through,” but ultimately "abandoned" her, taking out an insurance policy that covered only $33,000, a "sliver" of the intensive medical procedures she would require in the ensuing years.
Jackson also claims the producers gave her only $990 in lost earnings, although the film was a success at the box office, grossing over $300 million. In the lawsuit, she alleges that the accident occurred because a last-minute change on set was made without her approval.
In a 2017 YouTube video about the accident, which occurred in September 2015, Jackson explains that the film's crew were meant to be shooting a fight scene that day, but producers changed the plans due to inclement weather.
"They decided just to shoot some motorbike stuff [instead]," she recounts, noting that she remembers the day of the accident up until just before impact. "We had to drive in a straight line, and coming towards me in the opposite direction, was a camera vehicle... As I went towards it, the camera coming in the opposite direction was supposed to start on the floor. And then as I come towards it, it lifts up and over me. But they just didn't lift the camera in time, so I went straight into it."
According to Jackson's lawsuit, "The force of the blow was so severe that it sliced through her forearm, obliterating the bone in the process (the bone was never recovered), before tearing into her cheek, pulling the flesh back and leaving her teeth exposed." Following the accident, the stuntwoman was put into a medically-induced coma.
“It’s a miracle that she survived,” Jovovich wrote on her Facebook page at the time. “All of us here have been praying every single day for her and her family and sending our thoughts out hoping some of the positive energy reaches her, because she truly needs it.”
In addition to the loss of her arm, Jackson’s injuries included, "multiple fractures to her spine, her eye socket, her ribs, her shoulder scapula and clavicle, her humerus and her forearm," according to her lawsuit, as well as spine deformity which has caused "one leg to be shorter than the other."
“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” she told the Daily Mail in a statement. “I wish I had realized that there would be wholly inadequate protection for me before I ever took the role.” ET has reached out to Anderson for comment. Bolton has been unable to reach.
On Thursday, Jackson shared her latest medical update to Instagram, after a procedure on the shoulder of her amputated arm.
"A big u-shape cut last week for a host of procedures," she wrote, alongside a photo of her bloodied, bandaged appendage. "It's been an absolute horror of a week with so much pain, swelling, insomnia, headaches, nausea but it's starting to settle a bit now which is good."
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