- I couldn't think what else to do or say,
the most awkward, embarrassing moment of my career
in front of the whole "Lost" cast and crew.
(upbeat music)
Hi, this is Alina Andrei,
and these are my stunt horror stories.
I got casted to play woman at food truck,
but it had stunts involved.
I had a couple lines, then I was supposed to get beat up
by the lead actress.
I do my first take, great, they loved it
and they wanna do it again.
On the second take, the actress was supposed to,
after I slapped the fries out of her hand,
she was supposed to take my head and headbutt me,
and then me fall to the ground.
Well what happened was, we rehearsed it a couple times.
She headbutted me, but she headbutted her leg
right into my face.
Kicked me square in the face, square in the nose,
but that wasn't the best part.
The best part was afterwards, in the scene,
one of the extras wanted to help me up,
and as he was helping me up, he stepped on my hair,
and about this chunk of hair got pulled out.
He saw it, 'cause it happened.
As it was being, I felt it being ripped out of my head
as it was being pulled, I was being pulled up.
And you can't, I don't wanna mess up the scene,
so I just rolled with it, obviously.
This much hair, on the ground.
And it was this thick.
And I sat there, and I was like, my eyes went big,
and they were like, "Cut!" and go,
"Yeah, the best take ever, blah, blah,"
and I was like, "Let me, I need, I need couple minutes."
You know, in the moment, when you are doing stunts,
or any kind of action acting,
you're officially getting slammed and getting beat up,
whatever, that was what I expected,
but I wasn't expecting my hair
to be pulled out of my head (laughs).
I took two minutes, I breathed, I came back,
I was like, "Okay, let's do it again if you want."
But, man, it was being on set for almost 20 years
that helped me get the composure I had
to not lose my (beep).
And it wasn't getting punched in the face by the actor,
I expected that, 'cause (beep) gone wrong before,
it was my hair being pulled out,
and in the next take, I told the extra, I'm like,
"Listen, next time could you step wide?"
He was, he felt so bad, and of course
I'm not gonna get mad at him, but next time,
I helped myself out.
But that's why they pay stunt actors,
or action actors like me, stunt performers, the big bucks,
because when that stuff goes down,
you can't get all dramatic and throw a hissy fit
and be like, "Medic!"
and like, whatever, even though I got my face
slammed into your thigh.
(gentle music)
- Hi, I'm Steve Rizzo,
and this is my stunt double horror story.
I was doubling my actor on a TV show called "Life on Mars",
and I was tackling another stunt guy off the back of a boat
to the dock below, and we take a lot of precautions,
we rehearse and we practice, and we knew what we were doing,
and it was just one of those fluke things.
This particular stunt, I had never done before.
You can rehearse, and you can practice,
and you can run it a million times in your head,
and if something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen.
And we went for it, and we went over the railing
and our feet got tangled, and we didn't separate,
and instead of landing flat on our backs
we landed headfirst into the pad,
and my neck took the brunt of my weight and his weight.
Heard some cracking.
(bones snapping) - Ow!
- My life was flashing before my eyes.
I have actually lost a few friends
in the 30 years I've been doing this.
I didn't know what to expect,
I was 3000 miles away from home
and thought I was gonna end up in a hospital,
and my left arm went numb and my left leg went numb,
and I was kicking my feet,
because I wanted to make sure stuff was working.
So I laid there for a good three or four minutes.
The stunt coordinator came over, he saw what happened,
and he was immediately in my ear,
and we finally stood up, and I kind of shook it off,
then I finished the rest of the fight on the dock,
the rest of the day, and went back to work,
and ended up having to go to the hospital
later that night.
I was having a lot of pain in my neck
and running down my arm, and into my leg.
So they took MRIs and they took X-rays,
and everything was intact,
it was just a stressing of the nerves
and the nerves got real angry.
A few years after that, the top of my left arm
and into my fingertips was still numb.
That went away after about two or three years.
The thought of it will never go away,
and that's perfectly normal 'cause I still have a job to do.
So it was the scariest time of my life, in my career.
And that's my stunt double horror story.
- So I was in Hawaii and I had to back flip into the water,
but apparently, I did not know the human stomach
cannot be upside down more than 20 minutes, or 18 minutes,
and that morning I had a burrito for breakfast.
(Mexican music)
So in the scene I just pulled the red handle
and then that's when they let go of the wire,
and I just took my body and did a back flip into the river.
And they had me on wires,
because if I would've fallen free fall,
woulda hit my head and died,
'cause the river was like, this shallow.
But it's like never fails, you know, I have a scene to do
in a jerk vest or in a harness,
and then they always say it right after lunch,
when you just wanna eat, and you're like, "Mm-hm!"
They're trying to position the shot
and I guess they lost track of me over there,
and I was hanging, my feet were just like this,
and I had to hold myself up with my core, and you know,
staring up at the tree, 'cause if I went back down
I would just see, you know, the river.
Just, they forgot I was there, and.
(melancholy music)
About 15, 18 minutes in, I just had a barf,
(person vomiting)
and you saw the, you saw me barfing the burrito
into the water where I had to go down into,
and everyone just stopped and looked at me, like,
you could hear a record go.
(record scratching)
Had everyone cracking up and laughing,
'cause I couldn't think what else to do or say.
The most awkward, embarrassing moment of my career
in front of the whole "Lost" cast and crew.
And of course that day they had B camera rolling,
so it was a behind-the-scenes camera of that day,
and of course they happened to show up on the day
that I did that (laughs), and I'm sitting there,
just like, embarrassed,
but they thought it was the best thing ever.
And then, they were like,
"Alina, we need it a couple times,"
like, "Yeah, sure, let's do it again."
And we did the take a couple more times,
going back flip into my own burrito vomit in the river.
To this day I've never, ever bought the "Lost" DVD
of that season, 'cause I am afraid to see what's on it.
One day, if I do become famous, you'll be like,
"Oh, are you the girl that threw up in the river,
"on that one scene?"
I'm like, "Yeah, that was me, and I went in it, so boom!"
I like empowering women on film,
empowering athletic action women,
and I love being like a role model for women
to grow into just embracing their femininity
and their strength.
That's my mission in life, is to empower and impact people
in a positive way, and just knowing everyone is amazing
in their own right.
And those are my stunt double performer horror stories.
(upbeat music)