HIRED AND FIRED

No worries, folks... I'm not going to rant about how unfair life in general and the movie business in particular is.But I'd like to share some of my experiences as a small-time actor & stunt performer, as some kind of a reality check  going out to all those guys that keep telling me that being a stuntman is so friggin' coooool....

Example: just this morning I got an e- mail from stunt buddy David in Berlin, telling me that my part in the German Disney production

GANGS got canceled. Just like that. No further explanation. To make this perfectly clear, I had signed an agreement with them already. In the film business, there are quite a few things you can do with the paper a contract like this is written on, if you catch my drift...

But don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining... just describing. I'm used to this sort of thing alright. I had similar experiences with far bigger & far better jobs. While in Hong Kong, I got booked as a stunt fighter for the movies ULTRAVIOLET with Milla Jovovich , Ronnie Yu's live-action movie version of BLOOD - THE LAST VAMPIRE, and - worst of all  -  Jackie Chan's

ROB B HOOD. With all of those projects I got the last-minute boot. In the case of BLOOD a single day before shooting. That's just the way it is. Part of the deal. Still think it's cool?

One of the darkest moments of my life was when I was getting ready for an acting gig in the Wong Karwai short THERE'S ONLY ONE SUN and the phone rang... it was my agent telling me that fickle Mr. Wong had suddenly decided not to use me in his film (contract signed and everything). That felt like a kick in the... you know where. I mean, it was just a tiny role... but hey, it was WONG KARWAI, godammit! Anyway, 2 days later Mr. Wong changed his mind again, and I got the part. But I found it pretty damned hard to feel grateful about it. Bottomline: A Kingda Ka rollercoaster ride feels like a floating tank session compared to life in the movie business.

So, all ya can do is count yer blessings, I reckon. And usually, for every job lost a whole bunch of new ones pop up. God willing.

So, yeah... being a stunt actor can be at times exciting, exhausting, painful, exhilharating, challenging, frustrating, thrilling... but cooool?

Get real!