May 13th marked the 25th anniversary of the release of the supernatural revenge action film THE CROW… and sadly, March 31st was the 26th anniversary of the death of the film's star Brandon Lee, who died due to a tragic accident on set involving one of the many firearms used on the production. During the filming of one sequence, a dummy bullet became lodged in the barrel of a .44 Magnum. The next time that gun was used on set, it fired a blank round that propelled the dummy bullet out of the barrel with such force it was basically like the Magnum had discharged a regular round. The gun was pointed at Lee when this happened.
THE CROW was nearly completed when Lee was killed, and he only had three days left to work on the production. Eventually, with the blessing of Lee's family, director Alex Proyas finished the film. A pair of stunt doubles were brought in to stand in for Lee in the filming of some scenes, and one of those stand-ins was Chad Stahelski, who has gone one to direct the JOHN WICK trilogy.
Stahelski has been doing press for this weekend's release of JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM, and Yahoo Movies UK asked him about his friendship with Lee and his work on THE CROW. They said he "opened up" about the situation, and that is a very accurate description, as he gave a very thoughtful and in-depth response.
Brandon was quite the guy, very charismatic. We met through martial arts at a place called Inosanto Martial Arts Academy, which is really famous for martial arts stunt men and all that kind of stuff. It was founded off his father, obviously, that’s how we all met. Great guy. … I knew Brandon for five years before the accident, we were good friends inside the gym. It was very professional. We worked out at weekends, and there was a small group of us that were always interested in that. So we were good friends. We were within a clique.
I remember at the time, The Crow was one of my favourite novels. And it’s something Brandon and I had discussed a lot. I was unaware he was going for it, and then when he got the job he came in with a copy signed by James O’Barr. And I was like ‘What the f**k? Where did you get that?’ He’s f**ing with me. He said, ‘Actually, I’m going to be The Crow, I’m going to be Eric Draven.’ I was like ‘You’re s***ting me!’ You know, he was keeping it low-key, because at the time it was his biggest career bump ever. He came into the gym and he was just beaming, and I was like, ‘Motherf***er!’ It was so awesome, I couldn’t been happier for him.
Cut to two months later, I was still competing at the time, I was on the UFC wrestling team – a predecessor of the UFC. I was going to do a bout in Japan with my teammates, and I was getting ready for a fight. We got the call, it was a weekday morning. There had been an accident that evening, and Brandon was in the hospital. We start working out, ‘Ah, this f***ing sucks, is he okay?’ ‘Ah, it’s all right, he’s gonna be okay.’ We didn’t know the depth of it. And then we kept training, we do a three hour workout. About half an hour later, Brandon’s in a coma, it’s not good. ‘F***. Okay, f*** it, we’re just going to keep training, and just push through.’ We’d just finished the workout when we got a call that he had passed away. It hits you. You’re like ‘f***, dude, he was 28.’ Two years older than me at the time. It f***ing rocks your world, it hits you. And then you deal with it. We do stunts, we had lost people before. I was a professional fighter at the time so we had all lost friends at a very early age. Death was something that was, at least in my world, had already happened. You deal with it.
Then it wasn’t until three or four months later that I got the call. Jeff Imada, the stunt coordinator, called. He said ‘Look we know you’re really tight with Brandon, we’ve seen your reel, your move, your walk, you look like him, would you be interested?’ I get that there are people who would have said ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I just knew how happy Brandon was to do it. I was never in that private family world. I just knew Brandon professionally, in the gym. So I got out there and I met Alex Proyas who, to this day, I think is a great director. I literally sat in a basement of the studio in North Carolina, and he wanted me to watch all the footage of Brandon. To Alex’s credit, he took me down there, and he was destroyed over it. He seemed noticeably destroyed. I’d never met the man before but he was very emotional, and very open. He goes, ‘Okay, look, I’ve struggled with this for months, I didn’t know if I wanted to finish, but here’s the deal. I love Brandon. We had a great working relationship. I firmly believe 100% that he would want me to finish this film, if you’re on board with that, I’d like to work with you.’ For the next two days, it was just him and I in a room, teaching me how to walk and talk, showing me the footage and saying ‘This is what I need from you.’
I’m not an actor, I was a performer, but not a professionally trained actor in any way. So he decided to see if I could do the physicality needed to move and act like Brandon. At the end of the weekend he must have had the conversation with the studio. They came back and asked me ‘Is this something that you’re okay with emotionally? I said, ‘Absolutely.’
The first day, I put the makeup on, and I walked onto the set where the accident happened and, yeah, you get hit. But you’re young, you have these ideas, you talk yourself into, ‘This is what he would have wanted.’ And who knows, right? But, to this day, I still believe that Brandon would have wanted the thing done, and done well, and today it’s still a cult classic, it’s still one of my favourite films.
To be honest, I didn’t know how I’d feel about it. I was a little emotional at the premiere when I was invited to see it. But, years later, I still watch it. I have that reserve, but I have good feelings. I’m proud of the work. That situation, obviously, it’s unchangeable, so at least it came out the way it did. It was a good testament to who he was."
I still remember the day Lee passed away. I was a fan of his from previous films and was shocked to hear the news. Just over a year later, I was there to see THE CROW on opening weekend. It's a shame that he died as a result of a series of bad decisions and oversights made during the production, but I'm glad the film was finished, as it does serve as a wonderful, touching tribute to him.