How to be a Big Budget Stunt Performer with Adam Basil - To be a Stuntman or Stuntwoman

#stuntman #hollywood #thelastofus

Want to be a professional student performer and work on big films and TV shows? Well, this week I’m talking to Stunt Performer Adam Basil.  Adam’s been in blockbuster movies like Fast X, Mission Impossible Fallout, James Bond film No time to die, Justice League and Wonder Woman. 

He was Tom Hardy’s stunt double in both Venom movies and even played the Bloater in  HBO's The Last of Us TV series. 

I talked to Adam about how he got into the industry, tips for stunt performers just starting out and of course we chatted about what it was like working on some of those massive productions.

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Transcript

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[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm talking to stunted performer Adam basil Adam's been in blockbuster movies like Fast X Mission Impossible Fallout James Bond film no time to die Justice League and Wonder Woman he was also Tom Hardy stunt double on both Venom films and appeared as the bloater in HBO's Last of Us I talked to Adam about how he got started in the industry he tips for new stunt performers just starting out and of course we talked about what it was like working on some of those massive Productions enjoy so I want to start by asking you uh how did you get in the into the industry so um I started as an actor who couldn't pay his rent you know I was um doing theater I was doing profit share theater and things like that and you get paid at the end of it and your your share of the profit was not enough to pay for your petrol yeah so I was doing that around you know I was doing that around East Anglia and places like that so I was doing that and then um later on I heard there was in 200 2011 they were doing um they were making film Tom Cruz film called it h edge of tomorrow but I think they changed the name to Live Die Repeat yeah um later on and it was so they needed people to wear these these EXO suits and they made the EXO suits for sort of actors with like physical presence so they were all built for kind of people like six' four and the these things if youve seen the movie they're quite substantial they have their own shock systems on them you screwed into them but if you weren't 6'4 you ended up hled over carrying your own weight it was they were awful so but anyway they sort of exhausted a lot of people and were looking for people so I I heard about this and that's where I I got into it and then I started then I then I um started working on that project and that kind of went on to other things and I became part of the British stunt register so I qualified as a stunt man you know got these six qualifications that you need to Mar martial art I did a rally driving high diving scuba diving mountaineering and I was I always remember five and not six but it'll come back so range of skills and then you apply to equity um to to go forward to the panel and then they pick the people and then you start again then it's like okay you're part of it you can then start communicating with coordinator stun coordinators and then you kind of start from the level up again of hello my name is Adam I just got into the stunt register this is my page this is my CV and straight away I've got people first day on there I got called into go to um some big projects and was Chuck stra deep end you know R scarily yeah that's that was it really and then just built from there wow because I was going to ask about those skills because I wasn't sure if that was still a thing but it is you've got to have all of those skills to be on that register and is that that's a UK register is it or is that like an international thing it's UK only yeah so we're lucky Canada has a stun register America doesn't and it's a little bit more of a uh you have to prove yourself on a on a on a different basis so we're very lucky that gives everybody the opportunity in the UK If you qualify then you could be considered um whereas if the other ones you just have to kind of Wang kind of get in there somehow yeah so yeah we're very lucky and are there any particular skills a stump performer has that are more desirable than others if you're good at something particular or yeah I think um the guys do really well the kind of uh these wooo guys do very well uh um like high level of gymnastics they really well but also anyone who's we got people that have come out of the you know um Moscow uh se s people that have come through or Marines have come through from that so you've got people that very high levels in each each area very useful but also anyone who's a bit different so you know it's it's kind of like if you're really tall or you're really small or that something that sets you apart because there's a lot of guys who are very high level that are really already out there my Niche was like just bigger yeah wasn't the best I wasn't acrobatic but I was bigger than a lot of other people so kind of put me into a smaller you know uh group of people yeah I was was funny I was going to ask that whether that because how tall are you I'm I'm 64 on a good day when the moon is a good day and it and I wondered if that had been a disadvantage but it sounds like it had been a way into certain roles you might not have been up for totally yeah got me considered for Beauty and the Beast uh to be the be the body of the Beast the monster Venom and blue in Jungle Book The Last of Us which I just did you know and uh C characters so you won't necessarily you don't always get those roles where you're you know there'll be a call on a movie and say like Avengers and they'll bring in 60 stun but there want people that are like 58 to to six foot or something so they could be formulaic soldiers you won't get those roles but you might be this sort of General at the door who has a bit of dialogue and gets thrown out of window or something so there'll be you know the roles can be more interesting but yeah it's different yeah yeah yeah yeah and just just for people who aren't in this industry how does the pay work do you get a standard fee does it get do you get more money if you do more dangerous things how's that work yeah so we all have a TV contracts different the film contracts they'll have a different thing for Netflix but then we have an equity standard minimum so really we're really lucky in that the equity and the stunt committees have worked really hard to to do that but on top of that you would get um for example if you did a stair fall the stunt coordinator would say well it's you've going to have to go down the stairs backwards it's 25 steps you know it's concrete you're wearing Bermuda shorts and a short sleeve shirt so there's hardly any protection then you might get paid x amount fee per take so it varies but they'll make an assessment on that so every take you might get and that's actually a stunt I did falling backwards doubling Greg Davis on some steps in heing hospital and they I got paid per take so um yeah so but yeah so the more money the amount of money represents the danger yeah yeah yeah that's interesting um so then when you started out were you earning enough to live on or were you still sort of ducking and Diving and kind of making things happen yeah um I think uh let me just think about it I was um I was pretty lucky I was straight into it I was straight into it and I was I was been able to go kind of fulltime fulltime relatively quickly um and that's I say because I had a niche so any any Niche helps you know and I was able to get in and do a really good job work some people like like the work you did some people when never use you again that's what it's like when you're trying to figure out how it how it works because the thund register doesn't doesn't doesn't necessarily teach you it teaches you a group of skills but it doesn't teach you the other to negotiate the the other things around being a stun performer on movies on TV yeah and then what would you say so apart from all those super the fighting and the cars and the horses and all that stuff what personal attributes do you think you need to to succeed in that industry um I think you need to be resilient you need to be you need to be I mean I I sort of joke before that our job is a we are we're basically paid to not complain so I'll be under a lot of jurass I'll be hot I won't have any air I could be a lot of pain you know and um and um you know you choose your moments because if you are in a lot of pain you chose say can I just change these shoes or is it possible to do this it's kind of a negotiation but sometimes that's just the job you know if you have to I was just on a a film just on Miss imp possible recently I don't think they mind me saying and you know I had to dive through a window smash through a window smash through a window I mean there was no window in it because we was still rehearsing but every time boom hits hits hits hits but you're like y let's go let's go that wasn't particularly bad at injury but but if you're wearing like a creature suit or something you got a huge head on you you've got layers and layers of fur you've got five servos control One controls the ears One controls the nose One controls the smile and all you can hear is and you're hot and it's dripping into your eyes and when they say to you can you do another one are you okay you're just like yeah cool brilliant no problem no problem that's what I think you're paid to do just not well actually my back is a bit sore can I you know what normal people would probably say you know good for them do do if you're in that position to say it do say something because production comp they won't stop for you yes yes oh that's interesting and um talking of those sorts of roles you've done because you've done a bit of a mixture so the one that there's a few that really stick out the most recent one that really sticks out is the bloater in The Last of Us now that I'm assuming that's just like a full suit is it like a big rubber suit how on Earth do you maneuver because there scenes there's all explosions going off and all sorts what are you completely blind how does that how did it work so yeah the suit you nailed it that suit was different it wasn't like seven hours of Prosthetics or anything like that there was you get the whole thing on within an hour Barry G and his team are the best incredible but the team the legs go on the the legs go on the body goes on the the arms go on they put the head on last the eyes can be removed you pop out the eyes HBO having the endless amounts of money that they do having the the skills that they do they could then put the Eyes on later so unless the camera was right on me they would they we'd ask every time do you need the eyes in do you need the eyes in because when the eyes are clipped in then all I can see is a small Gap and often that would be the case you know come on to set we put this thing in I'd have to climb out of the ground then I'd have to smash one guy and it's a stunt gu a wire he' fly over to the left into the fence and to smash another guy who's been propelled into what we call a g which just double ends him uh flips him up and the then there'd be another guy had to smash then I had to run across the thing all limited V visibility so um yeah and you'd always say to them look just to let you know it was clear in filming just to let you know as soon as these eyes go in I won't be able to hear what you see or hear what you're saying they're like yeah yeah no problem no problem get them on get get them on and then they put them on they go right what we want you to do is we want to run across smash that guy do this like and he's like okay sure it's good to be clear but they won't listen yeah and and is that because so you you were there for it did it all did it live up to what you thought it was going to be did it surprise you at all you actually saw the sequence cut together um it did so much of that production surprised me so much of that production because they started prepping for it really early you know which is very unusual so we started prepping for it in January February I was brought for body scans um and then I think we shot it in September so they they kind of locked me down for this the the one quarter of the TV show so we don't know when it is but we're going to B from here to here we started building they started building the creature and then eventually we was shot in Calgary in Canada so we went over they were already there the team was already there because they were doing all the other um the clickers and all the other creatures so um but the final the uh the um the final product the final shoot the final what they finished with in the TV show looked great I thought it was brilliant I thought it really good and um what surprised me was how much traction the character got because you know J I've done a lot of different characters and and people generally kind of interested but it's never got that kind of momentum where you're getting contacted by you know ABC News wanted to do Phil TV with me and Entertainment Weekly and Men's Health and all this what is going on doing radio interviews in New Zealand you know it's just crazy what as well what a character to be do you know I mean what you're going to be uh eating off of that conventions aren't you surely when you've retire from stuntman you'll be that'll be what your life will just be traveling around yeah you know what the Yeah well and I have done some of those you know what the conventions are they're great place they're really great but the thing is with conventions now people like Jason mimo are doing them so you got stiff competition haven't you like it used to be like Doctor Who and Sylvester McCoy and these lovely people and then all of a sudden you're like you've got the whole cast of of the latest Avengers movie there you know you're kind of sitting there with your pen and people just walking past you oh God I was the bloater the bloater it's a good character it's an awesome character and it's such a visceral kind of horrific character as well brilliant um the other one obviously I've got to mention is a Death Trooper in Rogue one yeah so obviously that was second Star Wars film to be made new of the new sweet Star Wars films my one of my favorite if not the favorite Star Wars film um what was that like putting that armor on and being in something so different to what we'd seen before the uh the thing is with the any kind so so the the you know the death Troopers are as we know Storm Troopers had problems shooting things yeah were they were almost conscientious objectors in their in their in their accuracy right they didn't they just can't kill things right so so the this one we for the first time we see a Death Trooper Death Trooper is like your SAS your Navy SEAL they're all six fo4 they're all just mean when they turn up everyone's like oh dear the death Troopers here but they know how to shoot so um the the thing about the Death Trooper is it's even more com uncomfortable being a stormtrooper there's more stuff yeah on it um they are you can't sit down they're very they're very they're very the opposite of what you would think there Elite Stormtrooper actually in reality you can't even sit down or go to the toilet on your own so um and the things fly off the whole time but they look great so the this that particular scene we had to come off a drop ship a drop ship but we couldn't look down because death troop don't look down because there it's a sign of weakness why would you look down on the ground right so we had to walk off step off boom like that and then so step down and then keeping our body up and our eyes forward and then March forward into water without really looking so as soon as you actually in reality if you do do that ever you generally fall over because it smashes you you'll completely throw your balancing so all these rock hard death troopers were just falling over So eventually once we did get a take where we all managed to stand then you're running across the the the water right just shooting and and it looks great the the thing is how do you know a real so if you ever come across someone offers to sell you a real Stormtrooper mask or Helmet or a real Death Trooper uh helmet how do you know the real ones between ones you buy a shop the real ones are very unsafe they CH them out they would never pass any sort of C safety certificate they got screw sticking out they missed up within 15 seconds they're missed it up we tried everything spraying doing all the scuba so by the time you make it across the water 10 ft you're running blindly now so people are tripping over uh dead Stormtroopers people are you know and eventually we get to the side and now we we've made it right we've done this for days this shot you know how they work on these movies it's days you know days and days and days So eventually we get to the thing and then there's another scene with um with the atis on the cast and I remember I my character's now dead after this big explosion I'm laying there it's 600 or 7 a.m. when we start this scene I'm already laying there I just fell asleep I completely fell asleep I woke up I don't know four hours later surrounded by dummy dead St Troopers going where is everybody so I stood up I take my helmet off they'd moved on they' changed location so I was oh my God I'm in some of trouble I took my helmet I ran around the side and I rejoined them and nobody noticed so um yeah I got away with it nice nice and um so you've been on a lot of films with big famous people on do you get Star Struck ever what's who's like the who who stands out for you someone you've met and you've been like wow yeah well there's there's certain there's certain people I mean we generally leave them you know leave them alone but as I've as I've got more into it longer in the tooth I was talking about the other day is you trying and find an excuse to talk to them yeah so we do my friend Dave was here he's visual effects artist on uh visual on Ready Player one we were talking about the other day when Steven Spielberg he's great film obviously a legend we'll grew up watching Steven Spielberg so I was trying to find an excuse to just just at least if I could just say hello to him you know and I did hello how's it going oh you're my stun guys are you like yeah yeah we your St guys good work guys good work you're like um so there's a lot of people I would like to to work with but there you know there's a lot of people I like I love to be Jack Nicholson or you know these the real Legends yeah yeah but I suppose you've got to just keep your head down hav't you and get on with it and no one wants to be bothered while they're filming even though it must be hard sometimes when you meet those iconic people to keep you cool because they're generally Americans and if they're filming in England there's always a really good in and that in is something British people are very good talking about it's the weather weather yeah so so oh how you oh you how you finding the weather oh God it's shitty isn't it I know I know it's terrible isn't it like yes I've spoken to Mamoa yes I've spoken to you know someone else so yeah that's a good tip what's the what's the weirdest job you've had there uh I mean I remember there's these these commercials I did and I remember I got called to do this commercial and they said Adam to Lotus commercial you're gonna be flying to South Africa I was like great I said brilliant said um hang on a second Lotus don't really do commercials they do magazines and I said I can't fit in a Lotus because I've tried I'd love to own the Lotus they're T they're tiny so they said no no no Adam it's not Lotus cars it's lotus toilet roll like oh so okay so lotus toilet roll and you're going to be playing like a graffo but we call him a graffo for legal P purposes so basically looks exactly like a Gruffalo he's not got any horns but yeah so then I I found myself next thing I found myself is in South Africa not a bad place to find yourself dressed as a as a as a large ruffano running around the the Wilderness um sweating with with a yeah with a blue face because it was so hot that's pretty nice nice um and the other sorry the other role I was thinking of which is in contrast to your bloater one was Doctor Strange where you're doing rra the big Minotaur thing running through seen that everyone's seen it in the making of and you you must have felt like naked in that uh you know motion capture suit you got no protection in there and yet you're running through you know explosion what's that what's that like that is real I mean that is that's that's that's someone actually running for their life in that in that in that moment yeah there there there's you're in it you're right in the back you're the furthest so you're deepest into the where the the detonators are um they're going to completely destroy the set so it was quarter of a million just to for the explosives and the damage to the set was a quarter of a million a take right so not including everyone's time and blah blah blah so also you got five of my friends stunt guys are on wires so they're all they're all getting ready to be detonated as well which is going off my timing so I don't want to mess it up because they're G to have to do the stunt again so they're getting jerked 20 feet he's getting into a wall so I've got all that added tension of okay I need to be here by here here by here and then I've also got the other don't mess up because they they can't they can do maybe one or two takes of this also if any of the stunt guys do go into my legs it's not great for them it's definitely not good for me and you've got the explosives so and you don't we don't in what we do right there's no real rehearsal time there's no real you know you are for sure but in that sense like Adam we're gon to start you here we're g to come back that would never really been rehearsed right we spoke about it on the day and and and um we went for it you know I knew that guy was going there I that guy was going and we did uh I think we did two takes of the whole thing it was you it was incredible it was incredible it's been thick of that explosion was really all you can see is fire and rubble and and bodies as you sort of evade them in in a kind of rugby esque style as you kind of ducking around one guy wrote is it one of my favorite ones I've done yeah I was gonna say and also I guess it's it's it might must be rare for you to see footage of yourself you in a stunt and that because you it's just you in that motion capture suit I can actually see you and laugh at you jumping over bodies and running for your life in that shot whereas normally it's kind of you see it after the visual effects have had had time with it and you know it's not you but yeah that was that's really really awesome scene you can tell they put a lot of time into that um and the other one I was going to ask you about was Aladdin so what was your role on that how did that work so they needed so what they did was um Will Smith's a pretty in shaped guy but he wasn't the body body uh type they wanted for the genie so they um they they took a they took took uh scans of my body they blue dotted me and then that's the Aladdin's body became my body became uh the the genie body so yeah so it's effectively based on my body I'm not actually 507 tall and blue but um that was yeah that's that's how it worked I've had it done before in other films on Wonder Woman they did the same thing they just use a body that they like and there was other parts where I had to carry some of the characters as as as as the genie but that's essentially it they just grabbed my body and then uh manipulated it to be the the character they wanted yeah and do you recognize your body when you're watching it or not um I mean um I guess so A bit yeah I guess so yeah he's quite he's quite um yeah a bit a bit a bit so I'd like to say so I mean he's pretty pretty ripped wasn't he um oh so I was going to ask you about injuries so you mentioned injuries earlier that's obviously comes with the job um how how much of a big thing is that for you how regularly do you actually get injured and if you got long lasting injuries you have to look after so uh the worst injury I've had a few injuries nothing too bad um I did on Doctor Strange actually at the end of that sequence I was um I detached my bicep and I smashed my collarbone so that was that was the worst injury I've had um I've had a few things Aquaman I I I tore my groin when I did a well a dead man when you're attached to the wall you just have to run till you go into tension uh I've currently got an injury from Bowling there you go don't go bowling yeah yeah that's that's a real niggly BP thing so yeah so stunts is quite dangerous but apparently uh bowling is is potentially life ending so be careful out there who' have thought it who thought it um and just fin to finish up up so say I'm a firsttime director making my first feature film I'm working with stunt people what would be your advice for me in how to communicate with them what tips can you give me trying I'm desperately trying to not say any jokes and be PC but um I would say um I'd say kind of ask them let them get on with it what do you guys think what have you decided with this shop and then decide how and they' even say well you know if you're unsure it you know you can even they'll have a good idea how it could be shot as well so and that's what um you know you have you know it's like you have your main director you have main unit and you have a second unit and the second unit director is uh usually stunt of the stunt background and they know exactly the best way to shoot the action and and then of course so for example we'll rehearse it we'll present the director with a uh finish previs and he'll sign off here and not necessarily he might say no I don't like that I don't like the fight don't like the angle do it again or he might be like yep love it guys so I think it's like trusting in their knowledge because is all they do whereas the director is doing the whole he's picking the music he's picking the location with his with his team he's uh P the whole vision of the movie but these guys are specifically their vision is the action so it's always good to just go okay I've got the guys I wanted in the first place what do they want and and I think that's often where it goes wrong also with the editing so they'll they'll shoot this thing be brilliant and then they'll send it off to a regular movie editor who will shoot it very fragmented uh if that's a word instead of just saying get the stunt guys to edit it as well so they'll pick the best the the longest shots the The Continuous shots and you'll get a really nice Vibe often Hollywood I I think you see it it's very actions very disjointed as they shoot every angle and then put it all together so yeah trust in your trust in the stunt guys you pick pick the guys you want and then trust that they can deliver the best um best for you yeah and you often see now in those Marvel movies they've already the stunk guys have already shot it themselves while they're practicing and then you see the final version it's very similar to that because they know how that stuff translates really well on screen um and just to finish up last question is and this might be difficult for you to answer because obviously you're you've got a niche and people must know you as a certain body type and we can get him for that he's perfect for this say I'm uh stunt performer I've got all my qualifications where do I get work how do I get my work do I need to befriend stunt coordinators what what do I do so um so the thing about becoming a part of the British stunt register is that you then uh your your privy to the contacts so anyone could email a anyone could email a stunt coordinator say hello I'd like to be in stance um this is my show real and and and and and that might work for you if you're world class or something if you're you know but being part of the British stunt register which the stunt coordinators are part of that they qualified for they work for for decades you say hello my name's Adam I just became part of the UK stunt register here's my stunt page um if anything comes up please let me know also they then have Sometimes some St coordinators will do a um um what do they call it it'll be a help out day so you can come out you can observe the stance you can get to meet the team you can help clean mats drags things around bring people Cups of Tea see how it actually works on the day the whole production works so um the British stt register does that for for for the new um the new people to get onto the stt register so yeah that's that's really it's a nice little system for that thanks for listening if you want all the behind the scenes information that's going to help you with a career in a creative industry then please do[Music] subscribe[Music]