'Game of Thrones' performer sues makers for $5 million

‘Game of Thrones’ stunt performer Casey Michaels sued makers for $5 million in wake of the production injury.

As per the reports, stunt woman Casey Michaels is suing the makers of HBO’s fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones’, three years after the show concluded its final season in 2019, due to the career-ending injuries sustained during the production.

As per the details, Michaels suffered a ‘serious fracture dislocation to her left ankle’ while filming a sequence for episode 3 of the eighth and final season of the series in February 2018.

The incident took place when Michaels along with 27 other stunt performers, dressed as Wights, were instructed to walk off the 12 ft. high, sloped roof, ‘as if unaware of the drop, in keeping with the zombie-like nature of the Wights’.

As per the legal documents acquired by a foreign portal, all the performers had to “step off in groups of four to five, falling onto a box rig below, which was comprised 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 had alleged in her claim filed in January 2021.

Furthermore, in her claim worth $5 million, Michaels stated that she was the last one to step off the edge, and ‘landed feet-first’ on the rig sustaining serious injuries. She added to had undergone multiple surgeries and intensive physiotherapy sessions over the past years to treat the injuries, which further led to trauma and depression.

“Her range of movement and function has 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,” cited her doctors in the claim.

The producers of the series however had denied the allegations, claiming the box rig was ‘durable and was not compressed when a stunt performer stepped off onto the mattress and rolled away’. In their defense, the ‘Fire & Blood Productions’ also blamed the performer of not following the instructions and rather coming off ‘like a pencil’, in a ‘rigid and vertical manner’, which resulted in the fracture.