Near miss between Smits and stuntman
A fake fight nearly led to a very real death on the set of the TV show “Dexter.” Actor Jimmy Smits accidentally grabbed a real knife instead of a prop during shooting. He stabbed TV stuntman Jeff Chase.
He survived only thanks to a piece of plastic placed over his heart, which Smits managed to hit by sheer luck.
“For the scene, I was bound in Saran Wrap, duct tape over my mouth. I couldn’t say a thing as I saw Jimmy grab at the knife. He picked up the real one by pure mistake. It was a mean looking knife,” said Chase. “I heard fellow actor Michael C. Hall yelling at Jimmy to stop – but it was too late. I felt the thud in my chest. I didn’t have on a metal breast plate like a lot of actors do in a scene like that.
“Instead I had a piece of acrylic clear plastic about the size of a Post-it note over my heart. It was a quarter of an inch thick and not attacked. In eight out of 10 takes with the prop knife, Jimmy had missed the plastic. But by a miracle, an act of God, the knife landed at the very edge of the plastic.
“I really thought I’d been stabbed in the heart, but I didn’t have a scratch. Jimmy was devastated and couldn’t stop apologizing. I told him, I felt more sorry for him than me.”
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I feel that Jimmy Smits really meant to kill TV stuntman Jeff Chase with that knife because Jimmy Smits is having a torrid love affair with TV stuntman Jeff Chase’s voluptuous wife.