Expert: Peter Messaline - 11/30/2007

Question
i was woundering what skills do you need to be stunt artist.
i live in ireland so there is no stunt school.can you be stunt performer with out join the equity union.because they exams are really hard .i have 10 years of martial arts ,year of horse riding and i am learing how drive and may be learning how to swim.
because i need advice

Answer
I am going to guess that you are a teenager, and aim my comments at that.
If you're an eighty-year old granny, let me know.
;)
Stunt performers in film and TV start by working with stunt coordinators.
With some more training, *and some more years*, you could contact one who lived near enough to get to regularly. To start, you'd need some or all of high rankings in martial arts, very good riding and swimming, acrobatics, some acting experience, preferably a stage fight qualification, etc etc.
And even then you'd mainly be helping and cleaning up until the stunt guy thought he could trust you. It's the coordinators' reputation that's wrecked if you injure yourself.
Oh, and your broken leg and sprained thumb, of course.

I'm not sure what exams you are thinking of in connection with joining Equity. Look at their site:
http://www.equity.org.uk/HowToJoin/default.aspx

Being a stunt performer, from reading their books and talking to some, is a very serious business. Naturally, because they are doing things that look very dangerous, and it takes a lot of skill to be safe with danger all round. It's 98% slow boring painstaking preparation and a few seconds of adrenaline and controlled terror.

There are no young stunt specialists, for insurance reasons, and because a stunter needs a well-trained gymnast's body as well as a bunch of special skills. There are teeny tiny grown-ups who can play kids, but a film featuring kids will nearly always be written to make stunts unnecessary.

If I were you, I'd get as close to the acting world as possible, and really work on your physical skills.

Read about the life:
Stunt performers : life before the camera
by Turner, Chérie.
Rosen Pub. Group, 2001.

Stunt performers
by Hyland, Tony.
Smart Apple Media, 2006.

And read about the way all actors work, and the problems they all have to face. Ask your local library for the 792 area in the Dewey Decimal system.

Keep on dreaming big.
But plan in little tiny baby steps.