- A while back, we made this sick video
about creating Hollywood stunts.
(tires squealing)
- Yo, Tann, nice angle, dude!
Way to hang it out!
That's how we talk to each other.
- In that video, we talked about
how stunt drivers do their job.
But we never actually covered
how stunt drivers got their job.
I mean if, starting today, I wanted to dedicate my life
to becoming a stunt driver, where would I start?
How long would it take?
And could someone like me,
a total novice with almost no connections,
actually be able to break into the industry?
To gain some insight, we talked to these guys:
professional drivers Dan Brockett and Tanner Foust.
They've worked on TV shows like "Better Call Saul,"
and films like "Need for Speed"
and "Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift,"
and of course, some videos on this very channel.
They were generous enough to share their stories
of breaking into the industry.
And honestly, it's given me hope.
Stunt people are badasses.
They can take punches,
they light themselves on fire,
they jump out of buildings,
and they can drive pretty dang well too.
So if you wanna get hired as a stunt driver,
you have to be better at driving than those people are.
And nowadays, it's harder than ever.
Obviously there are a bunch
of different skills and qualities required
to become a professional stunt driver.
But before we get to those,
let's talk about the way most stunt drivers
break into the industry in the first place.
- My first movie was "Dukes of Hazzard."
I'd been racing for about seven years,
club racing, rally racing, and drifting.
But it just happened to be that the director
who was doing "Dukes of Hazzard" was doing a rally race,
so he wanted rally racers to drive the cars.
You do get a little bit of a side door in
if you have a Motorsports background
or you have a car control background,
because it is exceptionally difficult
for traditional stunt people, who have all the contacts,
it's very difficult for them to get to be experts at it.
- So having some racing background obviously helps,
but is there any other way?
- The most common by far
is by family introduction into the industry.
One of the reasons is because of your parents,
and the second reason is because you start off
with the stunt mentality of training,
literally three-year-olds.
Stunt people that can jump off of buildings,
light themselves on fire, are martial arts experts,
and can skydive off of buildings and stuff,
they have been training since they were
three years old or two years old.
- Now before you get all worked up
about how unfair this is,
let me remind you that this is nothing new or unique.
Think about the NFL with the Mannings and the Hasselbecks,
or Hollywood with the Hemsworths and the Culkins out there.
Or the Hanks, shout out to Chet Hanks.
Greatest rapper alive.
So what if you don't have any family connections
and only a small amount of racing experience?
Something like a couple of seasons in Formula Drift perhaps?
It's not like you can just be
on set one day working as an extra
and all of a sudden the director is like,
"Hey, can you drive stick?"
And next thing you know, you're a professional driver.
Oh wait, that's exactly what happened
to our friend Dan Brockett.
- Signed up for my first season of Formula Drift,
and it's way more expensive than I thought.
So to pay the bills in the in-betweens,
I responded to a Craigslist ad asking for extras
to be on this show called "Manhattan."
They're filming a scene where I'm sitting
in the back of a World War II Jeep.
They flew in an actor from LA.
He's out there, he was rehearsing his lines all the time.
And he was like, "Dude, I don't know how to drive a manual."
And I was like, "It's easy, just think of it like a see-saw.
You're balancing the clutch with the gas pedal."
He was like, "Oh, cool, yeah, I can do that."
They call "action," and the guy stalls. Cut.
The director's yelling at this poor actor.
Like, dude.
And one of the hair and makeup ladies was like,
"Well, let him do it, he's a professional driver."
'Cause I told her I was doing Formula Drift.
And the stunt coordinator comes over and pulls me aside,
and he's like, "Well, what's your background?"
And I gave him my little spiel, and he was like,
"All right, cool, you're in. Do not (beep) this up."
I go up the hill, hit the mark,
the dude delivers his lines, we all drive off.
The stunt coordinator pulled me aside again,
and he was like, "Good job, if we come back next season,
I want you to be in one of the vehicles all the time."
- Now at this point in time, he was only
what the union refers to as a "vehicle driver,"
not as a "stunt driver."
And I think it's important to know the difference.
Vehicle drivers are like an extra who gets to drive a car.
A stunt driver is more...
Well, it's all of this stuff.
(engines roaring)
But Dan did eventually work his way up.
- End of the season two rolls around.
He says, "You did a fantastic job.
You didn't kill anybody, you didn't hit any cameras,
you didn't hit any actors."
He calls me nine months later, and he's like,
"I got you three days
to be on a movie called 'Just Getting Started'
with Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones."
Three days is basically what you need
to become eligible for Screen Actors Guild.
Three days on set as a specialist for something.
That's what's called a tart taffley?
Tart halfly? Tart taffley.
- Taft-Hartley,
which is a voucher to join the union,
the Screen Actors Guild Union, and get your SAG card.
And that makes you eligible to do future jobs.
- I cannot tell you how lucky I got with that happening.
- This is mind-blowing.
Dan's career as a stunt driver
started as him just being an extra, making some side cash.
I mean, it's clear that luck
definitely plays a role in this career path.
So let's say you manage to do it.
You went from background extra,
to precision driver, to stunt driver.
Or one of the many other paths
have landed you with your first call to set.
Now what?
How do you turn that one day of work into a career?
The first and most important tip,
just be a nice person to be around.
- How well can you get along with people,
how well can you follow directions?
Because there are guys that are really good at what they do,
but they don't click with anybody else on set
or the coordinator or the other stunt people,
and they never work again.
- Getting along with everybody
is the biggest part of the job.
If people don't like hanging out with you
when they call wrap, or even on set, then...
You just gotta be likable, friendly,
and have a good attitude,
and understand that you're really lucky to be there.
- Second, no matter how skilled you are,
be ready to face a ton of pressure
and constantly be pushed outside of your comfort zone.
- Most Drift guys are like,
"Dude, I could totally be a stunt driver.
I'm really good at drifting,
and I'm a badass behind the wheel."
Put him in a Toyota Camry
with no hydraulic e-brake, with no 800 horsepower.
Will they still be able to perform
the exact same thing that they want you to do
at half the speed with 1/16 the car?
- Sliding a car's nothing new, but doing it with precision
and having one or two cars to work with for a whole movie
that are really set up right is tricky.
- Sometimes the director will be like,
"We need you to do this reverse 180 in this parking garage,
"but you're gonna be leaned over to the side
and ducked below, so you can't see anything."
So then you have to do the whole stunt blind
off of a count in your head, 1001, 1002, 1003,
and do your stunt, and hope that it works.
- But what really surprised me when we talked to Tanner
is that safety is your own responsibility.
- You know, when you get in a race car,
there's a rule book that says how safe your stuff has to be.
You get in a car, they're like,
"Okay, is that what you're gonna wear? You got a belt?"
And you bring your own belt, actually.
A lot of people don't know stunt guys bring their own belts.
Sometimes you can wear a helmet.
If it's a really bad one, they'll make sure
that your head is not gonna ruin the shot.
The way they used to do it, when they rolled the cars,
they literally had a strap connected
to the other side of the car,
and when the car started going over,
they just wrapped their arm around this rope over here
and just grabbed it and pulled themselves
down into the seat.
But it's responsibility.
It's called taking responsibility for your own life.
- And finally, expand your skills, never stop learning,
and make yourself valuable.
- Be really good at something, and have something to offer.
That's the bottom line.
- Realize that you need to be a sponge on set.
Just like your attitude as a racer,
you need to always be learning something.
Then people will take you under their wing,
and they love that energy.
And they'll build you up and help you stay in the industry.
It's a lot of people just listening,
not really talking about themselves,
but just listening to what other people have to teach 'em.
- So let's recap here with a quick checklist
of what it takes to become a professional stunt driver.
You need to be expert level skill at driving,
have access to cars and tracks for training,
you gotta be a fun and likable person,
have balls of absolute steel,
understand the ins and outs of film production,
and work under pressure.
Freaking go for it. Follow your dreams.
If they can do it, guess what?
They're human too, just like you. So do it.
Big thank you again to Dan Brockett and Tanner Foust
for helping us make this video.
Could not have done this without them.
Thank you very much, guys.
Follow Dan Brockett @officer_dan.
Follow Tanner @TannerFoust.
Be kind. See you next time.