Additional Information
There are no direct routes to becoming a stunt performer. It's a very difficult
business to break into. Most stunt workers either come from within the business
-- show business, that is -- or have special skills, such as race car driving,
skydiving or horse wrangling.
In order to get work in the movies, you have to network. You have to get
to know the people in your business. They have to get to know and trust you.
Reputation is everything.
Johnny Miller says he came to California from New Jersey with no experience
and no contacts.
"I didn't know a solitary soul when I got here," says Miller. "But I had
a tremendous amount of tenacity, determination and I wasn't worried about
rejection."
Tenacity means sticking to it against all odds. That's what it takes in
this business. Miller says you have to be able to handle a lot of rejection
in order to survive without giving up.
If you still want to pursue life as a stunt person, Miller suggests you
start in your own neighborhood. Don't head for Hollywood just yet. Learn about
your local talent, production houses and film commissions. Try to get some
experience working for them.
If there's not much film or television work going on in your town, you
might want to go where there is.
Nancy Thurston is a stuntwoman and vice-president of the Stuntwomen's Association
of Motion Pictures, Inc. She says Hollywood is no longer the filmmaking hotbed.
Many of her colleagues have found work in other countries, where production
costs are cheaper.
"A lot of stuff's going to Canada, Australia and Mexico. The little quote
is, 'Bring Hollywood home!'" she says.
Some stunt performers are engineers. Take the Kockelman brothers, John
and Peter. They founded the first bungee-jumping company in the U.S. in 1988.
Today, the two university-educated engineers design, coordinate and perform
in special bungee stunts.
They've bungeed themselves in TV commercials. In another, they bungeed
a truck off a bridge!
A technical education can prove valuable if you want to get into coordinating
stunt work.
There are stunt courses you can take. But watch out for the fly-by-night
scams that ask you to pay thousands of dollars up front. The reputable programs
will be known to the industry pros.
Another option is taking a three-week workshop offered by the United Stuntmen's
Association. It runs the workshop each summer for aspiring stunt performers.
The workshop usually covers working with horses, stunt driving, stunt falls,
on-screen fighting and working with fire.