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What
got you in to stunt work in the first place?
When
you are a child at school you often show off. I found I loved showing
off and to get myself into a job where I am paid to show off is
wonderful - it's the only thing I can do really well. I used to
race motorbikes for a living. If there was a gap it was mine, if
there was a corner I was the first one round it but I was often
the first one into the wall at the other side or sliding on my backside.
I was good but not great and what I was good at was falling off
and getting back up again and carrying on but it's not much good
for winning races. One day I came off spectacularly and this guy
came out of the crowd a few hours later and said, 'You know you
would have made a good stuntman the way you did that fall' and it
did stick.
I was
living in London but I'm from Leeds and and Yorkshire Television
was just opening. I thought I'd go down and knock on their door
and see if they'd open the window and let me in although it was
a a good deal more difficult than that. I've always been good at
falling off no matter what it was - whether it's been a bridge,
a horse, a motorbike, a bicycle or anything. Even as a kid I used
to fall head-first over my handlebars just to do it for a laugh.
It was quite good fun and to find an occupation where some one would
pay me to have such fun has been great.
Is
there never that little moment of doubt when you make the jump?
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| A
super stun, perhaps |
Whenever
you go to a building and do a recce, you just would not go there
and jump off. You'd have a look and see what the script requirements
are and what my safety requirements would be. Is there a good purchase
where I can take off? Is there enough room to get an airbag below
or, if there's not, I'll have to put a box-rig below. What you are
actually doing is taking the absolute minimum risk, but the day
that you come to do it you get that tremendous rush and think, 'Oh,
my goodness, what if I fall.' I remind myself that's what I'm here
for and get on with the job and it's a strange thing, anyone who's
dived from the diving board and then wanted to go higher and higher
still, each time you go up that extra level the same feeling comes
back to you again and again no matter how many times you do it,
and yes, you do get that moment of doubt. You'd be a fool if you
didn't because you've got to be in control. You are making a hell
of a bet.
Most
people when they make a decision at work often bet their job, their
reputation, their wage at the end of the week…. In my occupation
the stakes are much higher. You bet your safety and stuntmen are
one of the rare breed of people who are fully prepared to accept
the consequences of their own actions… If you're talking of
jumping off a building and you are working with a director like
Michael Winner who I love dearly - a lot of people give him a bad
name but I find him quite good fun to work with - he would look
around and try and make as much out of the shot as he can, and ask
how he can make it more spectacular, and foolishly I'll suggest
that we do it backwards at night on fire so you've talked yourself
into an even more difficult situation but that's what it's all about.
If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
Is
there any time when you've said no to a stunt?
Never.
No-one in our industry should ever say no - nothing is impossible
on film. Superman can fly, we can go to the bottom of the deepest
ocean and we can go beyond the furthest star so when you say can
you fall out of the back of this building on fire, then of course
you can on film and it's up to the stuntman to devise a means of
doing this in a safe and repeatable fashion and that's wha it's
all about, reducing the risk to an absolute minimum. Crossing the
road is a risk which you reduce by looking both ways…
People
often say, 'Is there anything you wouldn't do, for a million pounds?'
The answer to that is money does not really mean a great deal. I'd
rather do a safe stunt for £100 than an unsafe stunt for a
million so I will do anything you can think off but I will do it
safely and I'll do it my way, where and when I'm ready. Some film
production companies haven't got much budget so they have only one
camera but they want two or three angles so they say, 'Do it again'
and I say, 'You'll have to pay again so If I were you I suggest
you pay for a camera, don't pay for the stunt, don't pay for danger,
pay for safety.'
The
10th Bradford Film Festival runs from March 12th to March 27th 2004.
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