Netflix Crew Member Who Almost Died in 33-Foot Fall Pushes for Safer Sets: ‘We Want Things to Be Fixed’
Michael Oronoz doesn’t remember what happened on Sept. 14, 2021. But his life has been divided into everything that came before that date and everything after.
He was working as a grip on “Me Time,” a Netflix film starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Hart. That morning, he was sent up to the catwalks at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood to fix a motorized hoist that had gotten jammed.
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While he reached up to work on it, he leaned for balance on a gate. Unexpectedly, the gate swung open, and he fell 33 feet onto the floor below. He broke both femurs, his wrists, his jaw and the orbital bone in his face. He suffered a collapsed lung and a brain bleed. He nearly died.
“His heart did stop,” says his wife, Selina Oronoz. “They did have to revive him. It took them three times to get him back.”
Once he got to the hospital, Michael was in a coma for three weeks. In the years since, he has had 11 surgeries and has struggled to recover from the brain injury. His memory of the accident — and the 10 years leading up to it — has been wiped away.
But a few months ago, against the odds, Michael returned to work on set. He tires easily, can’t lift more than a few pounds and has to stay away from heights. When he first came back, a co-worker called his wife to assure her he was doing OK.
“They take care of me very much,” Michael says. “It’s a good job — a really good job.”
Now, for the first time, the couple has decided to speak out about lax safety standards on studio lots. Selina says she wants to prevent what happened to her family from happening to anyone else.
“We want things to be fixed,” she says. “The buildings are old.”
In February, lighting technician J.C. “Spike” Osorio fell through a catwalk to his death at Radford Studio Center in Studio City. He was working on the Marvel show “Wonder Man.” A Cal/OSHA investigation determined that the accident was caused by rotten wood that gave way.
“It broke my heart,” Selina says. “It hit home for that poor wife. … I feel like it’s becoming more common.”
Last year, the couple filed a multimillion-dollar negligence lawsuit against Hudson Pacific Properties, the owner of Sunset Gower. Alexander Eisner, the couple’s lawyer, pins the accident on a faulty gate. He says the soundstage was constructed in 1957, and there is no requirement for the owner to bring it up to current standards.
He argues the situation is symptomatic of a broader exploitation of below-the-line workers.
“These workers are often the backbone of productions but are repeatedly subjected to hazardous working conditions, all while studios turn a blind eye to basic safety measures in the pursuit of profit,” he said in an email.
Current OSHA regulations require that a gate next to a void space should either slide or swing inward, to avoid accidental falls. The gate at Sunset Gower swung outward. Additionally, a photo taken three months before the accident shows the gate was tied shut with a rope or a string — not a secure latch.
“Somebody who works up there probably used that piece of string to keep it shut, because it wouldn’t stay shut,” Eisner says. “It’s difficult to defend how you could let this persist.”
Netflix and Hudson both declined to comment for this story.
In a motion to throw out the lawsuit, Hudson’s lawyers said the company had delegated responsibility for the site to Netflix. Hudson also denied that the gate posed a hazard, and suggested that Michael might be the one to blame.
“The gate was safe when inspected by Hudson,” the lawyers wrote. “The gate was also safe thereafter when used with due care by the ‘Me Time’ production crew. The risk of harm only existed when used without care and Plaintiff decided to lean on the gate and reach up to the hoist motor.”
Netflix’s workers’ compensation insurer has covered about $5 million in medical bills. Michael is 41. Eisner estimates that future costs, plus lost wages, could run as high as $14 million. The two sides are now in mediation.
Michael’s recovery has been slow. He had to relearn how to walk and talk. He still struggles with short-term memory loss.
The couple has five young children, whom Selina homeschools.
“He’s definitely not the same person I married. He’s not the same person my kids remember,” she says. “It’s been really hard.”
She says she sometimes has to check herself when she gets irritated or frustrated with him. “We have to remind ourselves it’s not his fault,” she says. “He has this brain injury that’s causing these things.”
Eisner says that Michael has been able to work sporadically, two or three days a week at most, and it’s clear he will not be the same at his job either.
“It’s symbolic. He’s a mascot,” Eisner says. “He’s there to show the other guys you can get knocked down and get back up.”
Throughout the ordeal, the family has relied on their church community and on their faith.
“God is good for sure,” Michael says. “If it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead.”
Selina says she doesn’t understand why the studio owner wasn’t more proactive about bringing the facility up to date.
“They know this equipment is old, and after all these years they haven’t done anything about it,” she says. “That’s been the heartache. Knowing this could happen to somebody else we love is scary. We definitely want Michael’s story to be heard.”
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