NEW YORK (AP) – There are two things to keep in mind while being burned alive for a movie scene.
The first, said stunt performer Ben Jenkin, is not to breathe in a flame. That would be bad.
Jenkin was reminded of that over and over before doing his first fire burn (and then seven more) in David Leitch’s The Fall Guy, an action extravaganza that affectionately celebrates the rough-and-tumble lives of stunt performers.
The other thing: Keep moving.
“Moving forward and keeping the fire behind you allows you to breathe and to control the fire,” Jenkin said. “Movement is your friend.”
That would make a decent slogan for stunt performers who have, since the early days of Hollywood, fueled the mayhem of movies. Since at least when the facade of a house fell around Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr (stillness can also be your friend when it comes to stunts), stunt performers have played a vital role in sustaining the illusion of countless car chases, fights, rooftop leaps and, yes, guys on fire. By its nature, it’s nearly anonymous work, with stunt performers doubling for daintier stars.
But Leitch, a longtime stuntman before he became a director, and The Fall Guy, which opens in theatres on Friday, hope to redefine the role of stunt work in Hollywood.
The Fall Guy which features nearly every kind of stunt imaginable, arrives as a growing chorus is calling for a new Oscar category for stunt performance.
“It was never really about: The individual stunt performer needs to be recognised,” said Leitch, who spent years as Brad Pitt’s double before transitioning to directing with John Wick. “It was more about the contribution of the department. We create these sequences, whether it’s for Paul Thomas Anderson or Adam Sandler or James Cameron.”
The most eye-catching stunts come in big-budget action movies like The Fall Guy, but nearly every studio movie involves some stunt work. Take Chris O’Hara, head of Stunts Unlimited and the stunt designer on The Fall Guy.
He’s not only a veteran of innovative, stunt-heavy films like The Matrix and the Jason Bourne series but he was also the guy who caught Saoirse Ronan when she leapt out of a (seemingly) moving car in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird.
With The Fall Guy, O’Hara is the first person to be credited as a “stunt designer,” a designation that’s been approved by SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild.
To O’Hara, that credit better represents what’s usually called stunt coordination.
Conceptualising and crafting elaborate sequences requires more than making sure everyone stays safe.
“To be seen by the film community as stunt designers hopefully brings more light to what we really do,” said O’Hara. “Back in the day, stunt guys were the cowboys. Now we are creative. We create amazing things, just like a production designer does or a costume designer does.”
THE FALLS LEADING TO ‘FALL GUY’
When they were starting out in Los Angeles, Leitch and O’Hara lived together. Their garage was stuffed with mats and air bags.
They dug a hole in the backyard and put a trampoline in it. “The landlord never caught us,” said Leitch, grinning. They, along with four other stuntmen including Chad Stahelski, set out with big ambitions to make their mark on Hollywood. While cutting their teeth on TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they trained. Some were gymnasts, some drivers, some martial arts experts.
“It was a nonstop circus of skills you need but it’s fun to learn them,” said Leitch. “Hard on your body, but fun.”
They became masters of their craft – or at least mostly. Leitch never got driving down. On The Mexican, he crashed an El Camino into its only back-up, another El Camino.
But eventually, filmmaking seemed like one more skill to hone. Leitch had become adept at pre-visualising sequences as a moving storyboard to show directors how an action scene would move and fit together.
Plus, he was accustomed to keeping a cool head in extreme circumstances. How scary could directing be compared to standing on a ledge as a production raced to get a high fall in before the day’s light went? “When you’ve had life and death stakes, what’s the worst that can happen in a scene?” said Leitch. “I have to cut it differently?”
Leitch has since become a sought-after action director, helming films like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train, in which Pitt starred.
That was a full circle moment for the former star-stuntman tandem but The Fall Guy might be more so.
Based on the 1980s Lee Majors TV series, it’s a comic, behind-the-scenes ode to the nature of stunt work and on-set life. – Jake Coyle
