There is no pre-requisite training for a stuntman or stuntwoman in order to get the job or the part. Most people have just grown up successfully around the business. You should get a Screen Actor’s Guild card though, and the best way to do this is to just be an extra in a movie and then apply for one. It’s also a good idea to have a wide range of experience like rock climbing, martial arts, and skydiving. Once you get a small part in a movie, you usually work your way up the line doing small stunts and then move on to bigger stunts. So, first be an extra, and it all goes up from there!

With the youngest stunt performers in their late teens and the oldest near ninety there is a wide range of people looking for danger. Of course the stunt industry isn’t limited to movies. Many stunt people get their start as part of a circus or carnival circuit, others start riding stunt bikes and find that the sense of danger invigorates them and commercials and television series use their share of stunt performers as well.

Other stunt performers are actors at heart, and begin their work in show business as stunt doubles as a way of professional “networking” with hopes that one day their talents as an actor or actress will be noticed by producers and directors. Other stunt performers simply enjoy being part of the filming atmosphere while keeping a certain level of anonymity while their names roll at the bottom of the credits.

Regardless of their reasons for going into the profession stunt performers young and old do more than their share to keep the public well entertained with their antics, as they continue to do just about anything imaginable.

Tequila Stuntman

• 2 ounces top shelf tequila
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 wedge of lemon (wedge, not a slice)

Directions:

1. Pour tequila in a shot glass
2. Line up salt on the back of your hand
3. Pinch off one nostril with your fingers and snort (inhale) the salt with the other nostril
4. Immediately down the shot of tequila
5. Hold one eye open with one hand, grab the lemon wedge with the other, and immediately squeeze it into the eye being held open

Stuff: Yep, it’s going to sting a little, but the blending of the three flavors through the various glands is said to produce a sensation that one doesn’t soon forget. Also, you should probably blow your nose shortly after doing this to remove salt residue from the nasal area.

1. Get connected: The best way to form connections in the world of Hollywood is to hire an agent. Your agent can hook you up with a stunt coordinator who casts stunt doubles, choreographs stunts, and fulfils the director’s creative vision. Directors usually hire the same stunt coordinators, and stunt coordinators tend to use the same talented stuntmen, so getting a good word in with a stunt coordinator is a surefire way to make it into a movie.
2. Know how to fight: Stuntmen are most commonly used because they possess skill sets that typical actors do not. Instead of training an actor to sword fight or throw a fake punch, stuntmen who are well versed in combat and fighting techniques are brought in. While it helps to have other skills (like falling or fire training), stage fighting is the most basic and necessary skill stuntmen should possess.
3. Gain valuable experience from live shows: Theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios that feature live action shows provide great training for beginning stunt artists. In addition to the training and experience, you get paid to learn and perform plus health insurance is included. Look into Disney’s Tarzan show or the Pirates Dinner Adventure.
4. Apply for the United Stuntmen’s International Stunt School: The only licensed and registered stunt school in the industry with a team of 12 professional stunt instructors who cover 15 disciplines. If you’re 20 or older and have 4000 dollars, the Stunt School will develop your skills and connect you to the world of onscreen stunts so you’re ready for the big screen.

1. Daniel Craig as Bond, James Bond: When Craig was cast in Quantum of Solace in 2008, he was faced with performing most of his own stunts. The mother of these stunts was a leap from a three-story building onto a moving busa big feat for someone with a fear of heights. Had Craig missed his cue or jumped too soon the auditions for the James Bond role would have reopened.
2. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne: The star of the Bourne trilogy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum) also does most of his own stunts. Despite his fear of drowning, he was in multiple scenes in the water and a scene where he jumps off of a bridge. Damon also performed in all of the car crash stunts of the series.
3. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman: In Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Bale performed all of the kicking, punching, and running stunts himself. Compared to his role as Dieter Dengler in Rescue Dawn when he swung from a helicopter in midair, the fight scenes were minor risks.
4. Jackie Chan as every character he plays: In Project A he injured his neck after hanging and falling from a clock tower, in Police Story and Police Story 2 he nearly paralyzed himself and got 2^nd degree burns from sliding down a giant pole covered in lights and jumping from the top of a moving bus through a window. In Winners and Sinners he slung from car to car in a high speed roller skate chase. In Armor of God he jumped onto a hot air balloon and cracked his head open. In First Strike and SuperCop he jumped to and from helicopters. While all the listed stunts were extremely dangerous, his 21 story slide down a building in Holland in Who am I was perhaps his most dangerous stunt of all time.
5. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt: In Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise saved the realistic aspect of the film by performing his own stunts instead of the initially planned stuntman. He did extreme rock climbing, dodged moving trucks, and got bombarded with 16 tons of water and shattered glass.

1. GoldenEye (1995): James Bond’s character, played by Pierce Brosnan with the help of stuntman extraordinaire Wayne Michaels, opens the film by bungee jumping 750 feet off of a Switzerland dam. The longest jump of all time, Michaels managed to execute it flawlessly and shoot a piton gun at the endall in one take.
2. Ben Hur (1959): During the famous chariot race, Charlton Heston’s stunt double Joe Canutt is thrown from the front of his chariot and manages to cling on and climb back up. The final stunt was completely unplanned, making it even more nerve racking and crazy to watch.
3. The Spy who Loved Me (1977): Stuntman Rick Sylvester performs the ultimate James Bond stunt when he speed ski’s his way out of a Soviet attack using his ski poles as guns before flying off a cliff and using his Union Jack parachute to safely land, all before the opening credits.
4. Police Story (1985): Jackie Chan fights off enemies with his well choreographed fight moves before lunging onto a pole wrapped in Christmas lights for 100 feet then crashing through wood and glass before landing on the hard tile dislocating his pelvis and fracturing some vertebrae. This stunt rivals his 21 story vertical slide down a building in Who am I (1998).
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): This impressive Indiana Jones stunt was started by Harrison Ford himself but finished by professional stuntman Terry Leonard. During the stunt, Leonard was dragged beneath a truck by a bullwhip before regaining the driver position of the truck. Surprisingly, director Steven Spielberg only directed a fraction of the stunt.
6. Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928): Buster Keaton went out with a bang in his last indie film. After being dragged around by a cyclone, Keaton stands up as a house collapses around him. The real wall that fell on top of him was impeccably measured to ensure the space where Keaton was standing would remain unscathed.
7. Safety Last! (1923): Harold Lloyd decides to scale a building to attract business to the department store where he works. He ends up dangerously hanging from the hands of a clock towera scene copied by Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future (to pay tribute) and also mimicked by Jackie Chan in Project A.
8. Stagecoach (1939): This John Ford western featured some of the most dangerous stunts of all time. In the thrilling sequence, ex-rodeo cowboy and arguably the first famous stuntman, Yakima Canutt, doubles for John Wayne as he jumps from his horse to a full speed six horse team pulling a stagecoach being attacked by Indians. He is then shot at and falls, forced to be dragged beneath the six horses and stagecoach and avoid being trampled.

• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry), partakes in multiple broom riding scenes. During one of the flying sequences, an explosion knocked Radcliff’s stunt double to the ground, causing him to lose the feeling in his legs.
• While filming Nicholas Cage’s new movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a stunt driver lost control of a speeding Ferrari in Times Square and careened directly into a pizza parlor. Two bystanders were injured, but the driver was unscathed.
• During the 1983 filming of The Twilight Zone, the tail end of a low flying helicopter exploded causing it to spin out of control. The horrible incidence, which was caught on tape, decapitated cast member Vic Morrow and killed two children actors who were only six and seven years old. Since then, there have been amendments to regulations regarding children actors and the pursuit of a decade long lawsuit.
• Top Gun may have been Tom Cruise’s claim to fame but it was also the end of professional air stuntman Art Scholl’s life. During one of the many airplane stunts, Scholl was unable to regain control of the airplane–he just spun and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
• The Lord of the Rings’ Viggo Mortensen (who played Aragorn), was constantly getting injured on set while performing his own stunts. At one point, he even knocked out one of his own teeth.
• Will Ferrell’s comedy Semi-Pro may have been a side-splitting comedy on the big screen, but the behind the scenes aspects weren’t quite as lighthearted. After Ferrell successfully completed his scene wrestling with a giant grizzly bear, Stephan Miller (cousin of the bear’s trainer Randy Miller) fell victim to an unpredictable attack by the 7 foot grizzly and couldn’t be saved.