Daniel Radcliffe and David Holmes' friendship blossomed on the set of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 2001. Aged 17 at the series' start, Holmes and the then 11-year-old Radcliffe formed a brotherly connection. Holmes was not only Radcliffe's stunt double, but also his gymnastics coach. "I was like Dan's P.E. teacher when he was a kid," Holmes recounted to Entertainment Weekly. "He would come into the stunt stores, and we would play and jump off things ... all the stuff that would make all the insurance companies and the execs have a heart attack."

Radcliffe shared similar sentiments, explaining that he was even closer to Holmes than he was to his famous co-stars, including Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. "I was so close to the crew, as much as I was close to the cast," Radcliffe explained to Entertainment Weekly. " ... But I was there all day, every day with the crew. So, those became some of the most constant people in my life, of which Dave was absolutely one."

The aftermath of Holmes's accident was deeply felt by the entire cast and crew. "Within a month we were meeting on the set and adjusting to this new norm, and it was horrific," former crew member and documentary director Dan Hartley told The Guardian. "I'd known Dave for almost 10 years and we were a very tight crew, and now he wasn't there ... We'd lost one."