Name pretty much any of the major action blockbuster Hollywood movies over the past 15 years and the chances are Wade Eastwood has had a hand in making some of the most impressive stunts ever seen.
He’s worked on most of the Mission Impossible movies with Tom Cruise, Men in Black, James Bond movies, Indiana Jones and many, many more.
We find out what it takes to create these stunts and how difficult it is to make the best possible use of one hour of being allowed to close the ridiculously busy centre of Paris!
So, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Wade Eastwood and I’m a 2nd Unit Director and Stunt Coordinator in the film industry. I’m also a racing driver in F3, Prototypes and GT.
How did you start working in the movie stunt business?
I was 19 years old and a film company came to town to recruit soldier types to jump out of a helicopter into a fairly dangerous river. As a fan of film, I literally jumped at the opportunity! From this they asked if I would do other things and I obliged!
How does someone become a stunt performer?
You train extremely hard at a variety of disciplines, so that you have versatility and are not a one dimensional performer. If motorbikes are your speciality and you are at a world class level, but don’t train to be proficient at fighting, falling from height and other stunt disciplines, then you will only get called when a bike stunt comes up, which will not be financially beneficial and you won’t make a full time career out of stunts.
What was the first movie you worked on and what did you do?
It was a terrible B movie shot in South Africa for a US company, but I gained a wealth of knowledge. I had to jump out of a helicopter into a river and then crash a boat and a car! Also lots of reactions to getting shot and landing hard on my back on concrete! You were the ‘grunt’ and had to do all the hard hitting jobs when you started back then!
When did you first learn to ride a motorcycle?
I was about eight-years-old. A neighbour in South Africa had an Italjet 50cc and I hit a jump in the garden with no real skill. I hit the jump with way too much speed and ignored the Dad running out waving his arms to slow me down! I received four stitches in my chin and fell in love with bikes!
What motorcycles do you have in the garage?
I am lucky enough to have a deal with Triumph so have some amazing bikes form them. I currently have a new Speed Triple RS (hooligan bike!), Speed Twin (this style of bike was never for me, until I rode the new Speed Twin. It’s unbelievable with its power delivery and rideability) and a Tiger 800 XcX. I then have my Honda CRF 450 Supermoto bike built by Gary and Greg Trachy and some smaller fun flat track bikes.
You have an entire week off, where are you riding to?
A track! If I had more than a week, I would plan another epic adventure like the one I did on my BMW 1200GS Adventure. I took a break after the film ‘Hancock’ and just rode south from my home in LA with no real plan. I ended up in Guatemala via Mexico and Belize. This was a trip I will never forget! People treat you differently when you are on a bike travelling like this. You are almost more accepted in every community. The people I met on the way down were fantastic. I had a few issues trying to follow the Baja 1000 route with my big heavy bike but the suffering was well worth the reward!
What’s been the biggest challenge in terms of the movie stunt work you have been involved in?
Trying to continually come up with new, creative action sequences that entertain audiences and bring real action to the screen. I want to be proud of my work and give people the fun escape they paid for and deserve!
What’s the one scene it’s hard to explain just how much work went into to get it right because to the untrained eye it looks ‘easy’?
There are so many like this! The logistical challenges alone to lock down streets and erect cranes and rig wires and so on can sometimes be exhausting. Getting permission to put Tom Cruise on the outside of an Airbus A400 and take off was pretty challenging and I had to deal with a lot of red tape and major time restraints as they needed their plane back! Also locking down the Arc de Triomphe for ‘Fallout’. They only gave us one hour and I had to get my 100 odd stunt drivers going around safely while Tom weaved through them, tracked by Kieran Clarke on the camera bike!
How has the increased use of CGI changed what you do with physical stunt work?
I love CG to enhance the action or the scene, but not to replace it! With the films I do, we stick to real in camera action and don’t cheat the audience!
How far ahead, generally, do you know what you are doing, considering movies are planned months and years ahead?
On a Mission film the goal posts are constantly changing as we don’t stop creating and developing the story and action. One drives the other and the end product has to be great! We could be halfway through filming a scene and then find a cooler idea and change everything! I will then go back to the drawing board and plan. I generally start a film eight months to a year before we physically start filming and help with developing the script and action.
We’ve seen a lot of motorcycle racers like Jenny Tinmouth, ex-motocrosser Rob Herring and superbike rider Kieran Clarke moving into roles within the stunt industry, are the required skills of riding motorcycles well enough quite hard to find?
There are a few stunt riders that are very experienced and amazing at what they do currently on the stunt register, but when you need a dozen or so riders that are at the top level and not just ‘weekenders’, I would rather take racers that have a high level of reaction time and peripheral awareness, that are also current in their riding and follow direction well. When I put Jenny and Kieran on the bikes they are at a different level completely, however the stunt riders have the edge of understanding camera and performance. They don’t ride like a rider and instead ride like a character. They know how to find the light and make the bike look cool in the lens. This was my challenge, to teach the likes of Kieran and Jenny, but they picked it up very quickly and the rest is history! Rob mainly operates the camera bike and will do whatever he has to in order to get the shot! He rides a very front heavy camera bike with amazing skills and I’ve seen him have some big wrecks and just pick the bike up and continue as if nothing happened! Kieran also started KIR tracking and has developed an incredible electric camera bike that is next level. I use this on all the films as they deliver incredible shots and his riding is world class.
What’s the most important quality you look for in a new recruit?
Versatility!
What’s the most impressive stunt work you have seen that you’ve not been involved with. Could be from any time period.
Buster Keaton era.
What’s the biggest misconception about movie stunt work?
That it is glamorous! It’s really hard work and I will average a 100 hour week on a big action film. Not for the weak, not for the clock watchers and not for the glory seekers.
