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October 8, 2024 10 mins

How To Make It In W.A went next level today as Clairsy & Lisa welcomed stuntman Sam Desmond who told them how he got into the industry, some of the things he’s had to do as a stunt man and how some of those huge stunts we see on TV and in movies actually happen.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Clearsy and Lisa's how to make it in wap in
this Sun and I'll make you a start.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, we're very excited in you today because we've got
Sam Desmond, who is a stunt man.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Good morning, and you just came in through the door.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm not going to say I was disappointed, but maybe
you'll leave through the window. I had to know, Sam,
it's very exciting to have you in here as part
of our series that we've been, you know, diving down
a rabbit hole because so much is happening here recently,
and you've been in the heart of it up in
York being in runt But I've never met a stunt man,
and I thought, what it must be such a conversation starter.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
When you're at a dinner party or whatever.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
What do you do cool gig?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm in film, which is already a really cool answer,
and then I'm a stunt man.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
That's right, it is. My missus usually takes over the
conco that's right. You just back off a bit exactly.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
I always get what's the most dangerous stunt that you yes,
full body, fire, burned with no mask gel.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
You get a ready made answer. That's pretty much the.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
Most dangerous, and my favorite is a four story header,
which is headfirst into an airbag.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Yes, story is high. Yeah, so they are my two favorites.
What do you like with heights? You're okay? Yeah, I'm
pretty good. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
Well, when I was younger, I used to have a
bit of a fear, so I went skydiving.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, and I loved it. So I sorted it out,
solved it. Yeah, face the fears head on, Yeah, head on.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
As you said, when you did that head on out
of a four story do you remember who it was
you were doing that on?

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Behalf of Oh that was for the training actually really yeah,
exactly at the Stunt Academy in Queensland.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Okay, you want to go to get most of your training.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, because that's what they do with the shows, you know,
if you're going and see those shows in Anaheim or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
They used to have it at the Wild West in Yes, yeah, Queensland,
the studios there.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'll tell us about the Stunt Academy then, what I mean,
what was it like a day in you know, stunt school.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
All sorts of stunts. You get a taste of everything.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, car hits to basic body control, high falls, fireburns. Yeah,
how to land. How to land, that's the main main
thing you learn. Yeah, stad hurting yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
There was a time in the seventies and eighties it
was a guy called Buddy Joe Hooker was he was.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
He was doing stunts for everything in Hollywood. He's still around,
he's still going though.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, so did you have Was there anyone like him
that you saw and I thought I would love to
do that?

Speaker 5 (02:31):
Well, Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise obviously they do, so
they're they're out there. But Buddy Joe, Yeah, he's great
at car crashes absolutely.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Death Proof was one of his movies with Quinton Tarantino,
and he did a multiple car rolls and landed on
the roof into the frame.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
You see him on the credits on almost everything that
was coming out with legend for sure?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Was that your favorite thing to do? Like car? Because
you're a boy so I on a farm in so
you were already doing it.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
I was cars, bikes, horses.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
My sister always chucked me on a horse if she
couldn't couldn't break it in, so stummy for that.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
My dad, Yeah, that's right. Dad taught me how to
drive a car. Backwards before I could even kettles.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Really yeah, yes, what are some of the things that
you've been in?

Speaker 5 (03:19):
Well, most recently runt in cinemas right now doing quite well.
So I was actually lucky enough to get a call
and come back home to start as location scout on
the job, right, and then went into production assistant for
a few weeks into construction. I have a backgrounding trade,
so I was able to use that in the industry

(03:39):
as well, and then once filming started I went on
to stunt assistant, safety assistant, and also a couple of
cameos on the film as well.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
So yeah, that was very exciting.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
But I mean building stuff, You just build stuff and
then jump off with at the.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
End of the day.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Had a big part in the windmill that right. Tell me.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I read once where Bert I read Burt Reynold's autobiography
and he had really bad damage to his face and
he had to reconstruct his jaw and his teeth because
they used to hit him.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
With the bird's face.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
Ye, Bert's face.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
What he's taking a lot of those movies and the
eighties and that smoking the band and stuff, but from
those stunt chairs they used to use. That's what they
called them meant to be collapsible breakaway people used to
get really damaged by those, and he his life changed
because of it.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah. Well, safety has definitely changed a lot since.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yeah. It was almost like they're a bit too tough
to chairs.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah exactly, so yeah, okay, yeah, exactly unless their phone
made now they right, Okay, he can make props out
of foam, and it looks.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
You're going to be hit the right way by these things. Exactly. Okay,
that's right.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Sure is it a silly question to ask if you
have been injured?

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Most of the injuries I did was before I became
a stumper.

Speaker 5 (04:49):
Oh okay, freestyle moon across and I broke my wrists
andcated on my kneel at the same time. And yeah, even
when I was a fencing contract to him perf Yeah,
off the top of the fence when I finished, broke
a couple of ankles.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
Most have happened before my stunt career, which is kind
of interesting. So just shows you how safe it is
in the industry.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
And most people on set, I mean, Tom Cruise is
the exception, of course, he loves to do his own,
but most people on set more than happy to just
say you take it from here.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
That's a big partly back out. Yeah, that's right. If
anything happens to them, then the film just stops completely. Yeah,
So we step.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
In and take the hits and especially yeah, take the falls,
and yeah, we're trained to do it so well.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
If I've been working on funding for ten years on
something on a project, which often happens, or five years exactly, I.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
Wanted to fall.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, actually, you probably hurt yourself less than the average
person because you do know how to fall over and
things like that.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, definitely helps in every day life.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
It does help it every day life. Home from the pubs.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
I have a profession. I said.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
It always makes me overways curious because I'm a nerd
and I'm watching shows to see if you can pick
the stunt man and things or a stunts point.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, there's a movie.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Called Face Off with Trevoltera and Page right and the
stunt you can in the boats you can pick the
stuntman almost every time. But they're very careful to make
it to blend and look perfect, doren't they. You get
critical when you're watching other productions you're not in.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
You're watching so much now I've always been a film lover,
so I caind of get sucked into whatever I'm watching.
But there are times when it's like, ah, that's a
stunt man body size or the way they move. Yeah,
there's a lot of things. There's a lot of acting
that goes into stunts. Actually you have to when you
are doubling someone, you have to move like them and

(06:41):
obviously look like them. Is up to wardrobe and makeup.
But yeah, you know, but also with stunts you also
get an opportunity to to act.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
And do your own stunts, not just double other people.
So yeah, it was just what I did on Ront
was I was my own character doing even better.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
I'm a continuity nerd.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
I like to watch the glass, you know, go up
and down in its liquid, or the ice cream that's
stripping and then it's not, And that would apply, I guess,
apply a lot to the scenes where you come in
because they've got to find that moment where the swap
happens exactly.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Well, one of my recent films was Late Night with
the Devil, which is a great Australian horror movie Kahnes Brothers. Yeah,
and I doubled one of the actors who was the
first death and his head spun around backwards.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
And as it happened. Yet so I had a green
sock on my head and I was the moment.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
When you do watch it in the film, it's like
you can't tell it's completely seamless.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I've heard of a green screen for a green socke
screen exactly what was a green screen?

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Was?

Speaker 2 (07:49):
How excited are you for what's been happening in w
way with the and we've got the Malaga Film studios coming,
so a lot of that post production stuff that might
have had to go elsewhere can all be done here.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
The industry is this is the happening time.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
So hopefully it'll attract a lot more people back home
that have had to leave because a lot of us
stunties have to go over East and training over there,
and then we make our contacts in the East, so
most of the work happens over there for us. So
unless we can get our foothold in here, you know,
the work is fairly slim picking.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
And we're making all genres of movies now too, which
of course is you know, where are you coming?

Speaker 5 (08:29):
Definitely, lots of comedy that usually has the most stunts
in it.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like a car chase from some of
the classic movies out of Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Particularly car chases. Yeah, they're the best.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
The other thing about Malaga unless I'm in to Alagon,
it's very exciting. But Sounds Studios a great, big structure,
that building out there, and that adds to it the
versatility of the venue.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
Oh, definitely, there will be places for us to train
and versatility. Yeah, it'll attract more people and more productions
and yeah, hopefully they'll use more local cruise and yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Want to see car chase Alexander drive into my lagger
like the Blues Brothers.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I saw one recently, but I don't think it was sanction.
Are there a lot Is there a lot of work
for stunt people, if you know, for people are going,
I'm going to get in here into this industry somehow.
Is this a good angle to.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Go Definitely yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
I mean if you're willing to put in the hard
yards for the training, get the grading, and then it
definitely pays off anything from driving cars to fighting and
stunts on film. Big stunts like yeah, going through a
glass table, weather green sock with a green sock in
your head.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So what's your advice to someone thinking I'm going to
I'm going to make my move today.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
The main thing is you need twelve months worth of
body control, so some sort of fighting, martial arts, gymnastics. Okay,
that's definitely going to help you go towards your training,
and then six months with a stunt coordinator, which is
where most of us end up in Queensland training with
a coordinator. And then once you've got your grading, then
you're able to work on films.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, okay, have you seen the Dev Patel movie that
came out this year called Monkey Man?

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Monkey Man?

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Oh my god, that's brutal. It's like one long flight
scene for two.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Hours, one long fight.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Incredible, but it's like the raid.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Right, Okay, pretty full on definitely, But some of the
sequences in that obviously choreographed, but it is quite at
times ridiculously on for sure.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, Sam, thanks for coming in today.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'm going to be I'm looking for you out out
of the Green Sock now every movie that I see
how to make it in w way as a stunt man.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Thank you, Thanks for all the best. Cheers,
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