WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1097 - Brett Smrz

Episode Date: February 13, 2020

Some people are born into stunt performing, some achieve it, and some have it thrust upon them. For Brett Smrz, it’s all three. He was born into a family of stuntmen, including his uncle who died doing a stunt. Brett was given his uncle's name, but instead of following his namesake into the family business, Brett wanted to become a race car driver. Then he lost his leg. Brett tells Marc the story of how he rebounded from that life-changing accident to become an elite Hollywood stunt driver, with work in movies like Ford v. Ferrari, Ant-Man, and Michael Bay’s 6 Underground. This episode is sponsored by Duncanville on Fox, SimpliSafe, and Zoro.com. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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T's and C's apply. Lock the gates! Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fucking ears? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron.

This is the podcast, WTF. Welcome to it. I'm the host. It's my show, broadcasting from my new studio next to my house in my garage. Nicer garage than the old garage, for those of you who've been around a bit. I've got the panels up. I've got panels bolted into the ceiling. It was very hard.

It was hard to let the drills enter the drywall, you know? I mean, you get this. I put a lot of money into this joint in the sense that I had no choice but to make it an apartment. So if somebody needed to live in my studio, they could. But I was wary. I thought maybe we could just Velcro the shit up top, the panels. But I got my guy Julian. He made smaller boxes boxes it's cozy in

here the sound is good i'm thrilled to be out here it's nice it's exactly what i wanted it to be when i when i conceived of it when i bought this house before i had to build another house next to it within the garage that was a garage had to build a house. Fuck, man. Tomorrow night, folks, Friday, I'm in Orlando, Florida, at Hard Rock Live. Then Tampa, Florida, on Saturday at the Stras Center. Then the final four dates, Portland, Maine, at the State Theater on February 20th. That's a Thursday. Providence, Rhode Island, at Columbus Theater, Friday, February 21st. Newidence, Rhode Island at Columbus Theater, Friday,

February 21st. New Haven, Connecticut at College Street Music Hall, Saturday, February 22nd. And Huntington, New York at the Paramount, Sunday, February 23rd. You can go to wtfpod.com slash tour for links to all the venues. Today on the show, I talked to a kid named Brett Smurs. Pretty sure that's how you say it. Smurs. Now, look, he's a stunt driver primarily, a stunt person. He's also a one-legged guy. Lost a leg in a, oddly, not a stunt accident, but we'll get into that. And the reason I'm having him on is that my interest was spurred by Shauna Duggins, who is the stunt coordinator for GLOW, told me about this mythic family, the Smurfs family. They're like stunt royalty. And we reached out to Brett. He's the guy named after his uncle, who I believe was killed during a stunt. But it's just, we're dealing a little bit occasionally when we can with these people

that are behind the scenes that do other type of work than act or direct or be funny or write. Men and women putting their lives on the line for that drive in Fast and Furious 5 to look authentic. They're putting their life on the line for Jason Stratham to look good. Who, by the way, I saw at the Vanity Fair party. I saw. Yep, I did. I will tell you more about that momentarily. And I do want to say that I thought all the Oscars were solid.

I enjoyed the show. There were some funny bits in there. I thought Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig were genius. Very good. I mean, you got to look at the ceremony with a grain of salt. It is what it is. But I thought most of the awards were right on the money. And I thought the show itself was fine. Some of you may not know, I enjoy watching the Oscars.

I love the folly of it. I like looking at the celebrities. I never thought I'd be friends with them though. I never thought I'd be going to the Vanity Fair party in my life. Then I look at them and I talk to him right to their face i talk to him in here too but i still like watching it on tv i like seeing how people dress that's i guess that's my my my guilty pleasure my soft spot it just is so yes i decided to go to the party even though though, oh, man. I think when I, you know what, my new suit, some of you have been through this with me before. And I'm just going to be, you know, transparent about this stuff.

This isn't, like, I'm not star fucking and I'm also not name dropping. This is just a life I'm living right now. And believe me, I did not think I would be living this life. That I will tell you. Now, many of you know I have one black suit that I spent a lot of money on and I have I've only worn it maybe a not even a dozen times and I noticed my Tom Ford suit has a little hole in it and I investigated I looked closely I had a little smudge on it looked like a burn hole and I think you know I don't want to point fingers but like it's a little burn hole and it's

noticeable and that suit was a fucking fortune so now I got to figure out what to do I haven't even taken it to the cleaners yet I cannot have nice shit anything I have that's nice a guitar I'll fuck it up I'll scratch it up within days a car I'll fucking wreck it within weeks of having it shoes fuck them up pants whatever This suit cost a fucking fortune. I thought I would have it for life. I could wear it forever for any occasion instead of a tux or any fancy thing. And now it's got this miniature burn hole in it.

And I'm pretty fucking sure Joaquin Phoenix burnt it when I was at the premiere of The Joker. He was smoking and he hit me with that cigarette and he fucking burned a hole in my Tom Ford suit. Now, I know he only wore one suit for the entire award season. And I'll tell him right now, I only own one suit and it's expensive suit. And I'm pretty sure he burnt a hole in it. So I'm not saying he owes me, but it's just a little hole.

It's like an ash hole, but I'm pretty sure it's his hole. And I'm just putting that out there. Now, my one suit, not wearing one suit, my one suit is fucked up because of his bad habit. I'm pretty sure. I was trying to think who else I've been around smoking. I'm pretty sure before we went on the red carpet or right around that area, he was fucking smoking one. And that's all I'm saying. I'm not looking for money.

I'm not looking for a handout, though I do need to get that fucking thing fixed. And apparently there are weavers that can do that kind of work. Now I get to learn about that, about the meticulous micro weavers. That's what I get to learn about. So very happy about all the awards. I told you and i went to the vanity fair party and it was pretty exciting i was kind of like as many of you heard i was not feeling great after the uh indie spirit awards whatever but then i go to this party and i didn't go last year because i thought like i had nothing to do with the oscars but it turns out no one at the fucking party even went to the oscars except for the people that were on the oscars for the most part everyone else is just invited i saw a bunch of fucking people I knew there a bunch of friends

there a bunch of celebrities and a lot of this the big stars came later we went over there like 9 30 10 o'clock we were there for like an hour and a half which was enough I met Kerry Washington because uh Lynn just worked with her on a little fires Everywhere. I rubbed up against, not in a weird way, but just trying to get by Marty Scorsese, but I did not talk to him because he was talking to Patty Clarkson, who said hi to me after Martin Scorsese walked away. She's been on the show. I met Will McCormack, who's an actor and a TV producer that Lynn's working with.

Michael Keaton and I chatted a bit about the movie that he's in that I have one line in, barely, but we talked a lot about that and about his appearance on WTF with Judd Apatow, who was standing there. Dave Spade was there, but I see him all the time at the Comedy Store. Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, was there and I said, thank you. Thank you for your service, Congresswoman. She goes, we're going to keep doing it.

We're going to keep giving it to them, sticking it to them. Whitney Cummings, who I did not recognize because she was so stunning that night, was there. Ray Romano, of course, the funny man and turned actor, very good actor.

Pete Berg, the director man and turned actor, very good actor. Pete Berg, the director of Spencer Confidential, which is a movie and the creator of Friday Night Lights. But more recently, Spencer Confidential, which I'm in, and it looks like I made the cut on that. I'll also be talking to Pete on the show here. Daniel Levy. Now, as you know, I spoke to Dan Levy who is not daniel levy from schitt's creek dan levy is a comedian and showrunner of indebted uh daniel levy eugene levy son and schitt's creek creator uh talk to him i said come on the show we got to even it up i need to i need to end the confusion. Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yeah, talk to him. Mark Maron fan, we go back. Hamilton, lovely man, we chatted. This is at the Vanity Fair party. This is what was going on. This is a community shindig, man. Taika Waititi said, Maron, and I walked by him Butkarsh

Ambudkar is a big fan of the show I enjoyed his work in Britney Runs a Marathon and I'm going to have him on this show Nick Kroll saw him, his girlfriend Lily Kwong I met her for the first time

who claims the show helped her out a lot which I'm happy that that happened. Ray Sehorne, who I love, who I should probably have on the show. Ronan Farrow, I met and talked to a bit. He's going to be on the show soon. John Lovett, who I've done shows with him. He was with Ronan Farrow and is with Ronan Farrow. Joni Mitchell was there, did not talk to her. She was just sitting there and no one seemed to bother her. Sarah Silverman, of course. Bill Maher, I tried to communicate with for a moment.

Very difficult. You're dealing with a fairly weighty curtain of weed between his face and his brain. But he locked in. He remembered me. He knows I did his show. And then he wondered if I had worked together with him on the road. I have not. James Corden, very pleasant. Love him. Was there. Patton Oswalt and his wife, Meredith, very pleasant. Joanna Newsom and Andy Samberg, both been on the show. Not really talking to me much. Friends of my ex-girlfriend. Bob Odenkirk, always there to be parental. So

what have you got going on now? What are you working on, Odenkirk? Connie Britton, Keegan-Michael Key and his wife, they were talking to her and I get it. Yep. Tony Hale, great. That was the best moment, Tony Hale. And I'll explain that to you in a minute. Someone that we talked to is not i is not on this list now i'm trying to remember who i oh uh elizabeth um banks yeah it was an amazing night oh and um griffin dunn was running around a lot of uh past guests friends new people to meet people i asked to be on the show and oh jason stratham i watch at this party they have people women in from in and out burger dispatched from in and out burger walking around with fucking full cheeseburgers whole cheeseburgers just walking

around with with um trays of treat of of in and out cheeseburgers i fucking inhaled one and then we were out back i was outside i was getting ready to leave and i watched um jason stratham just eat a cheeseburger should have recorded it he didn't do it quickly it was not complicated it was not menacing there didn't seem to be any real sort of, it was not exciting, but I saw it. I watched it. I watched the whole thing. So maybe it was compelling. I watched him eat the whole cheeseburger.

He didn't notice me, but I was watching. So as I was waiting to leave, we were on our way out. Brad Pitt and his crew come walking out. His mom, I believe, is with him and some other people. And they're walking out. We're about to leave. We're waiting to get the car. And Brad Pitt comes bounding out. And I look at him like, Brad, he's like, Marin. And I said, congratulations, man. That was great. I'm proud of you, buddy. Good job. He said, thanks, pal. And then a Vanity Fair photographer

comes running up picture. And I'm like, hell yeah. And Brad was like, yep. We took the picture. And he just ran off. And they had his escalator, big limo. It was right there, right down the stairs. Mine, we had to walk over a thing and under a thing and across the way. And that's where we saw Tony Hale, who I think we saw him.

I'm like, what's up? He's like, I'm leaving. And he's like, I just got here. I can we saw him. I'm like, what's up? He's like, I'm leaving. And he's like, I just got here. I can't do it. So I think Tony was there for like three seconds and just was leaving. I thought that was very, very Tony Hale of him. So that was that evening. Great evening.

Had In-N-Out Burger. Had some fancy pizza there. Had a bit of a fancy corn dog thing. Some bad desserts. But these are all bite-sized things. But the In-N-Out Cheeseburger, to be honest, really the best moment of the night. Even after meeting and hanging out and talking to all those lovely people,

I met Joel Silver, the big producer guy from way back in the day. And he was brusque, brash, brash. I had a realization about that, though. He was talking to Whitney Cummings. And I'm like, I thought the show was good. He's like, no, I thought it was fucking terrible. I'm like, really? He's like, yeah.

I'm like, there were some funny bits. He's like, whatever. I'm like, well, when was the last good one in your mind? He's like, good question. I don't know. And then I realized, realized like these guys who were a little older than me or 10 years older than me 20 years older than me the boomers the real boomers you know it's like they but it's not for them anymore their generation is gone

there's no Jack Nicholson sitting up front there's not that whole generation they're not even there anymore hardly any of them I remember them from when I was a kid that was something you look forward to but there's a whole new bunch of people now you know and it's like they their judgment weighs so heavy that generation because they still dictate a lot of culture and they still refuse to go away and I know I'm the tail end of it but I'm I'm exiting yeah I'll be gone I know when to I know when I've overstayed my welcome but the point is it's like my mother's boyfriend. It's always just sort of like it was a different time. It was a different time.

Yeah, it's over. That time is done. Like any other time for any other generation of old fucks, it passes. And you just got to suck it up, man. Instead of raining on the goddamn parade for every other generation. But yeah, yeah, it was a different time exactly it's over and this is the new time adapt or die right dig it yeah okay so this guy that i talked to right now brett smurs has been doing stunts in dozens of movies and TV shows over the past decade.

A lot of Marvel movies. He's Paul Rudd's double in Ant-Man. He was a stunt driver for Ford versus Ferrari. When we talked, the Michael Bay film Six Underground had just come out. Brett did some pretty spectacular driving stunts in that film. And you can check it out on Netflix if you want to see what this guy does. It's crazy. This is me talking to Brett Smirs. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no,

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go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business. So, I just watched the beginning of Six Underground. Now, you're driving that car. Yes. The green car. The green Alfa. And that's really Florence, Italy. Yep, it was.

All the streets of Italy. Florence, Italy was most of it. They went to Siena and they went a few other places, but all the driving scenes that I did was in Florence. Now, see, I don't make movies like that. I don't really act in movies like that. And it seems to be completely, the entire pace of the film is driven by stunts and driven by the driving, so it has to look pretty real.

But they could just do it another way, couldn't they? Yeah, of course. I mean, there's always ways around it to make it look fake and stuff, but most of the stuff that we did was practical. I mean, there was some CG spots. Practical meaning that you're hands-on, like real. Yes, real. That's what practical means.

Exactly, yeah. So there was a few shots that they added hands-on, like real. Yes, real. That's what practical means. Exactly, yeah. So there was a few shots that they added, you know, some CGI, but not many. Most of that stuff was all real, and we did it all for real and practical. Well, I mean, when you're driving through, which museum was it? Well, we did the Ofizi Museum. That was pretty crazy. So you did that, but when you go into that thing, it's not the real museum, is it? So here's the thing.

So we broke into the door, and there was a museum. And it wasn't, when we broke through the door, it wasn't the Uffizi specifically. Right, right. But we did drive around the Uffizi, and we did go through a museum. When I came through that door, it was all real. There was a real statue, and I had to avoid it. And if I didn't, we were in big, big trouble. Right, yeah.

And it was a very tight spot. Like it was like a real historical statue? It was. i can't remember exactly which museum that was right for that shot but it was it was very old and they they made very very sure that we were not going to hit that but it seems like that's uh you know that uh like most of italy is like that yes that in terms of like destroying historical artifacts the possibilities were endless yes i there was actually i did um i drove a few other cars and other than the green car there was a crash sequence in the very beginning uh and i did a flip and i was crashing the car and they didn't want us to touch the grass and unfortunately it didn't all go to plan and we went over the grass and that was that was a big

the grass was a big deal grass was a big deal so every like you said everything in italy is very historical they love everything they don't want anything ruined so it was very much like we had The grass was a big deal? The grass was a big deal. So, like you said, everything in Italy is very historical. They love everything. They don't want anything ruined. Right. So, it was very much like we had to take care of everything. But that's such a gamble. It's such a risk. So, you're working, like, Michael Bay's directing the thing.

Is he out of his mind? No. You know what? I really like Michael. I don't know anything about him, but, like, it's just like I just see the hierarchy. Like, there's a guy at the top who is him who's used to doing these type of movies, and then it just sort of goes down from there. And he's saying, like, I need this car to spin and these guys to fly into a van,

and I need blood and everything else. And then there's a whole army of people under him that make that happen. Absolutely. So the way he operates is he'll go on set. He knows exactly what he wants. He'll think about what exactly what he wants, and then he'll go on set and he'll tell everyone, hey, this is what I want. And if people don't listen and they don't do what they're

supposed to or they're not paying attention, that's when he'll get into his mode and he'll get really serious. But otherwise, if you're doing your job and you're paying attention, you do what he wants, then he's really like, he's a good guy. He's a good person to work for and I enjoyed it, honestly. He was very serious. Well, I mean,

you sort of have to be. You have to feel safe. Like, I've only talked to one other stunt person I talked to uh Sean and Duggins okay who uh who is the coordinator for GLOW which I'm on and you know I talked to you know how she came into stunt work and just you know the care that has to have anything you have to trust the situation you have to make sure the situation is sound right absolutely before you go into something but like with her she just like she just found out that she she she didn't plan to be a stunt person for her whole life she wanted to be an actress and she came into these she had a certain skill set and she met a certain bunch of people and she ended up in it but you're like your whole family's in it that's right right. Yeah. My dad, my uncle. Now your dad is Brian or Brett? My dad is Greg Smurs. Greg Smurs. And your uncle was Brett?

So I have my uncle, Brian Smurs, and he had a twin brother and his name was Brett Smurs, who I was named after. So he ended up, he had an accident in, I think, 1987 or 1988. It's very hard to find your IMDb among all the other Smurs. Yes. And there's also his, Brett Smurs' IMDb is also still there. So some people get it mixed up. Right, right. I mean, I genuinely couldn't find yours.

Is that possible? That's terrible. I need to work on that. Well, I mean, there didn't seem to be enough options. So, okay, so your dad, he's a big stunt guy. Like, he's like one of the main stunt guys. He is. He's up there.

I mean, he's done a lot of stuff. He's worked with Tom Cruise a lot. He's done a lot of Mission Impossible. Didn't he climb that building in Dubai? He did, yes. What's that building called? It's called the Burj Khalifa. So I went up there with him.

We got to sit up on top of it, and that was a pretty wild experience. Oh Oh my God. Just sit up there? I got to sit up there. With a rope? No. We were tied in. We had a little harness on our waist, but we were going up there to scout it and make sure it was safe. Tom Cruise was going up there to do a photo shoot for, I think it was Time Magazine. Yeah. So we went up there and just scouted it and make sure it was okay. And it was a wild experience. I mean, it was half a mile in the air, just sitting up there and you look down and it's like insane. I'm getting freaked out just hearing about it.

I mean, but no fear? I had, you know what? I'm not the greatest with heights, but I got over it after about 10 minutes. Like sitting up there for 10 minutes. The thing that was really tripping me out was that it sways left and right because it's so windy and so skinny and it's high up in the air.

Right. It moves like 10 feet back and forth. Oh, my God. So that was really what was tripping me out. And your dad's name is, what is your dad's name? It's Greg Smurfs. Greg. With two Gs and don't forget the second G.

Right. Are there going to be trouble? There will be trouble. Now, like, okay, so you grow up in this, but was your grandfather in show business? No, so my grandmother was an actress and a model, so she was in that kind of industry. And then my dad and his brothers wanted to do stunts, so they moved to New York, and they started off in New York. They grew up here? They grew up in Philadelphia.

Oh, in Philly. in New York. Did they, they grew up here? They grew up in Philadelphia. Oh, in Philly. So they were East coast boys. And then they, they moved to New York, started off there. And then they realized that Los Angeles was like the spot back then in the, in the eighties, when they were seventies, when they started LA was the spot to be. So they all moved. So they, do you know how they got started in stunts? I mean, do you, I mean, do you know the story? I mean, outside, so they're in New York, they're in the film, probably the TV industry, or maybe they're doing shit for like some of the sevents movies that were being shot there. Is that how it worked?

Yeah. I mean, so I think what they ended up doing is they went out there. They bought a bunch of like equipment and they learned how to do rigging and fire safety and just all this stuff. And then they would go out. On their own? On their own. Yeah. I mean, they would meet other stunt people and they'd learn things and then kind of practice on their own.

So they'd go out and they'd go meet stunt coordinators and show them, like, hey, this is what I can do. And eventually, back then, the business was really super tight. Yeah. Like, it was hard to break into. But the three of them together, they helped each other. And it was a lot of work back then to get into the stunt business. You had to be very talented, very well-rounded. You had to do everything. Really? And nowadays, it's almost-

You mean like you had to be able to drive a car? You have to be able to roll a car and ride a horse kind of deal. Exactly. It was well-rounded. So they would do fire burns, high falls, car hits, motorcycle jumps, car crashes, anything you can think of. They were crazy. I could never do all that stuff no they're wild but when you're growing up in that though right yeah yeah like your dad's friends because i i mean i read this book uh about sam peckinpah and about that crew there used to just be and also yeah if did you see once upon a time in hollywood i have not seen that yet no well you know brad pitt plays a stunt guy but i just got the feeling that back in the 70s and the like even fifties and sixties that, that the stunt guys were kind of the Yahoo's like the test pilots and the right stuff. Just these crazy dudes that used to drink

hard and hang out with each other and, and kind of live on the edge. And I guess by the time your dad was getting into it, they were probably a little more responsible. A little bit. Yeah. I, I think it was still a lot looser than it is now. Yeah. Back in the fifties, I'd say they got away with anything. Like it was anything goes. And then when my dad broke in, it was still a lot looser than it is now. Back in the 50s, I'd say they got away with anything. Right. It was anything goes. And then when my dad broke in, there was still a lot of really loose rules. They could get away with a lot of things. Now it's very, very like you can't really get away with anything these days.

Everything's recorded. You can't, you know. Recorded, what do you mean? Well, just everything's, you know, it's all, you know. There's only one, you know, they're recording every take, you mean? Just everything's, you know, it's all, you know. Oh, there's only one, you know, they're recording every take, you mean? Just everything's, you know, everyone's got a cell phone, so everything can go on. Right, right. But people used to, like, go up in airplanes.

If they're going to jump out with a parachute, they'd, like, take some cocaine and jump out. Like, it was wild back then. There was no rules. And obviously, I don't do any of that stuff. No more pre-jump bumps. No, yeah, no. Definitely not. But all right, so when do you start being cognizant of your dad's job?

What's your mom do? Is she in business? No, so my mom was a secretary, and that's how they met. She was a secretary, and she worked at a motorcycle shop. My dad used to race motorcycles, and that's how they met. So he was a motorcycle racer as a hobby. Yeah. Well,

he used to do it professionally. He used to race against like Wayne Rainey and all those guys he raced. It was the called formula one AMA racing back in the seventies. So he was, he was trying to do that professionally before the stunting. Yes. So he was doing racing and stunts at the same time. Yeah.

And when he came to the point where he had to make a decision, it was, it was kind of taking over each other. So he had to make a decision. It was kind of taking over each other, so he had to quit racing and do stuff. Was he making money racing? No. But he was very fast, from what I heard. He was very quick.

Does he still ride? He does. He actually works on the show Ride with Norman Reedus, so he does all those, and he still rides all the time. He's a big cross-country rider, and he doesn't do any track day stuff anymore, but I think he's still got it. When I follow him in the canyons, he's pretty quick.

Yeah, you ride too? I do, yeah. What kind of bike do you get? I have a GS700 BMW. Yeah, nice. You're not a Harley guy? I like Harleys. I just never owned one.

Really? I'm sure if I rode one, I would really like it. But big bikes, you're not out in the dirt. You're a street bike guy. Yeah, I mean, I've never done any dirt experience like I'm I'm all like canyons just go out have fun and right right draw on the street exactly not jumping over things I'd love to go do a track day or something that would be cool which is what like go out to a racetrack and take a bike out and you're not gonna go fly over mountains and stuff no no no I mean I would go

have fun with it but I like there's a stunt race called the Hooper Classic. That's coming up next month. I won't enter that because I'll probably go out there and kill myself. Right. So you don't do any motorcycle stunts? Not really, no. I'll leave that. So that's the thing. That's what I was getting at. Now the stunt world is kind of you have your talent. There's

some guys that are very well-rounded and they can do anything, but there's, say you need a motorcycle sequence, they'll purposely seek out who's the best motorcycle rider oh right sure pick them oh i see right i don't want anything to do with it that's like dude you can hire a driver i'm a driver i do all driving all cars that's no jumping no flying off of buildings no not not in my body i'll jump off a building in a car no problem but but But not me personally. But your dad will jump off buildings. Yeah, he would. I don't know if he would anymore.

He's directing and moving on in the world. Oh, really? He's not doing any more death-defying stunts? I mean, he'll do some stuff. He'll do driving. He'll crash a car. He'll light up on fire and get fully lit, stuff like that. It's not as crazy as it looks.

Like when you see someone fully lit, they got three layers of fire protective gear, they got gel, so it looks scary, but it's pretty safe. You know, we try and keep everything as safe as possible. But you still gotta do it. Yeah, exactly, it's still in your brain. So do you have brothers and sisters? I have a sister.

Is she in the racket too? No, she lives in Texas, she's married, she's got three kids. No stunt, no. No stunts, no. She kinda had the bug for a little bit. Oh really? Yeah, she really wanted to be like a stay-at-home mom

and all that stuff. Right. Her husband's in the military, he travels a lot. Okay, so regular life-ish. Yep, yep. All right, so now you're growing up. When do you first start to realize that this is what your dad does? Was there any, like, growing up in a stunt family,

was there any, like, did your uncle or anybody come to your birthday parties with flaming suits? Was there any sort of? I wish. That would have been awesome. Any stunts at home? But, I mean, when do you start realizing this is the gig? So I started racing when I was 12 years old,

and I was racing go-karts and open-wheel cars, and that's what I really wanted to do. I wanted to be a professional race car driver, and that's what I was pursuing, and I was doing that until I was. Yes. I was racing go-karts nationally against people that were from Colombia and everywhere. So you had one of those fancy go-karts. Yeah.

Real fast ones. Yep. It was like the pro circuit in the U.S. How fast did they go, those go-karts? Those karts would go 100 miles an hour, and they were about an inch off the ground, so it felt like you're going way faster. That's crazy, man. Yeah, they were moving.

They were definitely not slow. So this was just something you wanted to do? You just had it in your blood to kind of go fast and do dangerous shit? Well, so my dad bought me a cart for Christmas. And he had the bug brought back to him because he quit motorcycle racing. And then when he bought the go-kart, he was like, oh, man, let's go racing. And then once we started, I was like, we're not stopping. This is way too much fun.

But did you go to sets with him and stuff? Did you experience that stuff as a young person? I did, yeah. I'd go to a few. My dad was always traveling when I was a kid, so he was gone probably 10 months out of the year. Yeah, he'd be on a movie for a long shot. So we'd go out and travel with him.

So I went to Vancouver, Canada when he was working on Paycheck. I went to Australia when he was working on Paycheck. I went to Australia when he was working on Mission Impossible 2. So did he do all those Mission Impossibles? He did, let's see, he did the second one. Yeah. He did Ghost Protocol and he did Rogue Nation. Yeah. Wow. I'm just looking at his credits right now. I'm going to find yours in a minute. Yeah. He's got some pretty serious credits. He's been around for a while and him and my uncle, between the two of them, they've got a pretty good resume. They were the guys. Yeah, they're pretty up there. They do second

unit directing now, and I think they're both trying to break into the actual first unit directing realm, and they've gotten a few. Is that first unit is like right under the director director? No, that is the director. The guy who directs the movie. Exactly. Yeah, so Brian has directed a few movies.

He did one with Cuba Gooding. I think it was called Shadow Boxer. So he did that one. He's done a few others. He's still trying to break into it and get more of that. But I think for the most part, they're doing second unit directing. And honestly, I think that's pretty cool. That's all the stunts and it's like a fun unit.

Yeah. I mean, it makes sense after a certain point to graduate to something. Right, absolutely. You know, like you're going to age out of throwing yourself off buildings and driving cars into walls, right? Right, absolutely. So when you were younger,

was there a point where you saw your dad do something either or was told that he did it and you were watching it where you're like, holy shit, you know, that's what I want to do or that's my dad or like, do you have a recollection of that? No, I don't. So it's kind of funny. My dad's very humble and he's very quiet and he doesn't really boast about stuff that he's done. So I don't even know a lot of the stuff he's done. Like I've seen photos of, you know, things, but there was photos that I saw and I was like, damn, that's really cool. Like he's, that's,

he was jumped, like he has a photo of him on a motorcycle jumping out of a subway and he's like five feet in the air. It's sick. Such a cool photo. So that kind of stuff made me want to get into it, but I really wanted to race and I didn't really think about doing stunts at all until racing was not an option anymore. What happened? Well, it just got too expensive. It's such an expensive sport. Go-kart racing? Well, go-kart racing in general it's expensive but i was moving on to open wheel cars and i was going up the ladder open wheel cars what's that so do you know what like an indy car or a formula one car is sure yeah it's it was like that but way slower like they would go 140 150 and like not and you're right speed slower 15 or 16 how old are you when you're doing

that i was 14 15 uh and those are those are real cars. Yeah. Okay. So we moved to Idaho. And in Idaho, you can get your driver's license at 14. Right. And you can't drive anyone in the car, but you can legally have your driver's license. And that was all it took. And I could just go race. Yeah. Now I have a driver's license and I can race anything.

Right. So that was kind of a bonus to living up in Idaho. How long did you live in Idaho? Five years. Why did you go to Idaho? My parents moved there for real estate purposes. They wanted to invest in real estate and it didn't end up working out, but we stayed there for five years and then moved back to California. And you got your driver's license. Yeah, and I have my driver's license.

So you're driving race cars at 15. Yep. And it became too expensive because you have to buy a race car? No, you can rent the car and and you can go through a team, and they'll prep it and bring it to the track and everything. It's honestly better that way. It's a lot of work to buy the car yourself and have to prep it. I mean, unless you know what you're doing, then it's a lot of work. Right.

So I'll put it this way. If you were racing Formula Fords for one season, it would cost about $150,000. That's grassroots. That's as low as it gets. Wow. Then you move up to Formula Ford 2000s, and it would cost about $150,000. That's grassroots. That's as low as it gets. Then you move up to Formula Ford 2000s, and it goes up to $250,000. Then you go up to Indy Lights, and it's now jumped to

a million dollars. The price range just jumps drastically. So once you get to a certain spot, you could keep racing that, but it's not going to get you anywhere. And you could get your name out there, kind of, but you really have to move and have the money to move up the ladder. Otherwise, it's not going to get you anywhere. Right. And you can get your name out there, kind of, but you really have to move and have the money to move up the ladder, otherwise

it's not going to work out. And especially with Open Wheel, it's a young man's game. Yeah. So right now, I'm 28. That's way too late for Open Wheel. I mean, I could jump into it, but I would have to go up the ladder slowly again, and it would take four years. And I'd be 32 by the time I got

to IndyCar. Wow. It's a tough business, but the sports car world is very open. I mean, you can race that until you're 60, 70 years old. Oh, that's good. And there are guys out there doing it. So you get out of the racing racket and you're 14. I was actually 18, so I continued that until I was 18 years old. Now, your uncle passed away before you were born?

Yes, I never met him. You just heard about it. I heard about it. What was the stunt that did it? So remember I said they moved to LA, they were practicing stunts, trying to get their resumes up and stuff. So they used to just go out and practice things.

So they took an airbag and they went down to Los Angeles and they were practicing high falls. Where? Los Angeles? In Los Angeles, like on 6th Street sixth street or one of those main streets. Yeah. And they, they set the airbag up and they climbed the fire escape and got up on top of

the building. And they both Brian and Brett did a jump. And I think it was just, he went off backwards and just miscalculated and just missed, he missed the airbag and he ended up dying. And, um, I wasn't born yet.

So my parents decided to name me after him. And so I'm continuing his legacy. So you were sort of destined. Yes. Yeah. When did you actively start trying to do stunts? At 18. So 18 years old, I realized that racing was kind of,

it was going to be very difficult to continue on. My parents were helping me fund it until I was 18, and when I turned 18, they dropped it, and I was on my own trying to find sponsors and everything, and it's really, really tough, especially with the racing is not televised, so you can't really get their name out without people being there watching.

There's not a lot of spectators. Now, were you winning? Yeah, I was. I was winning a lot. Actually, when I quit, I won this scholarship called the team usa scholarship yeah and that was the most prestigious open wheel prize that a young person could win right um so i did that i raced in england and i did this race called the formula ford festival which is the one of the biggest races that they have in eng. Yeah. A lot of famous racers, Formula One drivers, have raced that and done well.

And I had a horrible, like, heat races and stuff, so I started the main event in last place, in 28th, I think. Right. And I ended up getting third. So I came all the way through the field and got third, and that was one of the best races of my career. Yeah.

And then I ran out of funds, and that was pretty much the end. That was the end. Okay, so how do you decide to give? What happened to your leg? What happened? I don't know. It's gone.

I don't know where it went. Someone took it and stole it. Because it seems like we're talking about racing and stuff. But at some point, there's a story where you lost your leg. Yes. And clearly, it wasn't stunts. There was a lot of stories that went around. A lot of people made rumors of how I lost it.

Like what? How it happened in a car accident. Oh, really? It didn't. Because you're a stunt guy. Yeah. So you figure you must have lost doing a stunt. So when I was younger, I did gymnastics from like three years old to 13.

I was very into gymnastics. I loved it. I think Shauna was into that too. It's interesting. Shauna's really talented. She is an extremely talented woman. Yeah. But it seems like gymnastics is sort of a launching pad for the type of disposition that might lead to stunts. Oh, 100%. Yeah. No, gymnastics is such great training. It teaches you body positioning and if you're falling, even if you're not doing anything gymnastic-y, if you're just taking a fall,

it helps because you know where your body is, how to fall properly. Right. So it really is a good stepping stone, and I think that's why my parents put me into gymnastics. So you'd know how to fall correctly, just in case? I think my dad really wanted me to do stunts. He did.

He was trying to get me, you know, prep me for it. You never asked him? He never told you? Not really, no. I think it was one of those, like, if you want to do it, you got to show me and you got to do it. All right, so they just want to make sure if you wanted to do it, you had everything in place.

Right. But he never did gymnastics, your old man, right? No, I don't think he did, no. So, okay, so you're into gymnastics until you're like 13 or 14. Yep. So I quit gymnastics. I hadn't done it for probably two years. Yeah.

But I was still able to do things, and I still had good body sense, and I could flip on trampolines and stuff. So I was over at my girlfriend's house at the time, and we were in Idaho, and my buddy was like, hey, let's go off the balcony. Let's jump off the balcony to the trampoline Idaho and my buddy was like hey let's go off the balcony let's jump off the balcony to the trampoline yeah it was a pretty big jump I mean like this is a regular size trampoline yeah yeah okay and it was right under the balcony and it was probably a 12 13 foot drop drop to the trampoline yeah so he gets up there and he climbed up and you could either stand up on the railing or climb over and then jump off and if you climbed over it that made

like five feet less. Sure, yeah. So he did that and he jumped off. And he was all fine and dandy. And I was like, man, I want to do a flip. I've never done that before, so I'm doing it. A flip before or after you hit the trampoline? So it was before.

So I flipped off of the balcony on top of the railing. It was a good, it was a big jump. Oh, man. And I landed it. I landed on my feet, but I was twisting. And when I landed, it just snapped my leg. And the rebound just completely jammed it. And it was all mangled.

It didn't look bad, but internally, it was really screwed. Oh, my God. So I ended up cutting the artery. I damaged some nerve, cut the muscle tissue. My tibia got shoved up into my meniscus, my knee, and it was jammed. All kinds of problems. I had compartment syndrome, which is when blood's coming in, not coming out. So my leg was just swelling, swelling, swelling. And that's why I was like, I got to go to the hospital.

What do you mean? You didn't go to the hospital right after it happened? No. So I was 16. I was young and dumb. And I had a race coming up in a week. So I didn't want to tell my parents, Hey, I just broke my leg being an idiot. You know, they were, they would have killed me. Right. Um, and so I was like, man, maybe I just sprained it. I'll just wait it out. What? I didn't, it honestly, I think I was in shock and I didn't feel any pain at all. Right. Until about an hour. And then it started really hurting. The cut artery does not feel good. Yeah, terrible. But I called my mom.

She got me to the hospital. I was in the waiting room for probably an hour and a half. And then when they x-rayed me and realized how bad it was, I went and did an immediate surgery, and that led into, I had nine surgeries in 13 days. To try to save it. To try and save it. Yeah.

Let's see, The fifth surgery, they ended up taking it off. But they didn't even realize that I had a cut artery for three days. So it wasn't until the fourth surgery that they even tried to save my leg. Right. So my leg was already toast by then. Oh. You only have six hours to save an artery. Oh, okay. And it took them three days. Right. So my leg was completely dead by the time they got to it. Oh, my God. They were just cleaning it, fixing the broken bone, and then they gave it to that as is. So it was kind of a mess.

Yeah. But it ended up working out. I left that place, and I went to another hospital, and that guy ended up fixing me, and his name was Dr. Smith. Fixing you post-amputation. Yes. So when I finished in Idaho with all those surgeries, all those nine surgeries, it was so mangled still

that I couldn't even put a leg on. I couldn't wear a prosthetic leg. What part of it was mangled, beneath the knee or at the knee, like they couldn't? Beneath the knee, so what ended up happening is on the day of the amputation, my doctor left town and he went and did a marathon in California and he left it to his assistant

to do this operation and he's never done, he'd never met me before, never done an amputation. So I had people operating on me who'd never done an amputation. So my leg, by the time it was over, it was pretty mangled inside. Like it was not. The guy, your doctor who was supposed

to cut your leg off split. He split down. Because he'd been preparing for a marathon. Yes. So he let the doctor on call or the guy who worked with him do it? Correct. And he had never done it before? Correct.

It was a mess. So when it was all said and done, they got it all casted. It was all finished. They got me casted. And they casted my leg bent, right? So usually if you cast someone on the joint, you want to have it straight so that, at least for a leg, because if I take the cast off and it's bent, I can't wear a prosthetic leg.

If it's permanently bent like that, you can't wear a leg. But if it's straight, you could at least wear it and hobble along. Right. So they casted it bent, and when I took the cast off, my leg was stuck. And I had this guy trying to help me get the range of motion back. But when I got... Oh, because you still had the knee joint? I do. I still have my knee.

So I was trying to get that range of motion back in my knee, but he spent three weeks trying to, and I never got more than like three degrees of motion. And he was like, man, this is bad. Like there's something wrong. Right. So I went and got a re-X-rayed, and there was bone fragments from when they took the leg off

that floated into my meniscus. And it was jamming. It was like, imagine sticking a bone into it, like a gear jamming it. Yeah. So I had that. And then my fibula, uh,

the bone on the side of your leg was dislocated. It wasn't even in the socket. So it was just floating in there. So it was, you weren't in pain. I was, if you, if you touched my leg with the slightest pressure,

even like just like the lightest touch, it hurt. It was bad. So I, I went to like the best guy in, it hurt. It was bad. So I went to like the best guy in the United States. He fixed me up and now it's, I'm all good. So. So like at that moment though, coming from the family you come from and being as athletic as you were, I mean, was there a moment or a week or a year where you were just sort of like, I'm fucked? And. No, to be honest with you, when I was in the hospital it was really strange like

events I read this book called uh Alex Zanardi is my sweetest victory uh it's this race car driver named Alex Zanardi and he lost both of his legs in a racing accident so you read this when you after you lost your leg I only read it before like like a few months before I lost it it was very bizarre like someone told me about this book I read it and then all of a sudden this happens so it was very weird but I it was honestly good that I read it because that was very bizarre. Like someone told me about this book, I read it, and then all of a sudden this happens. So it was very weird. But it was honestly good that I read it because that was in my brain that this guy lost his legs, re-came back, and he's killing it now. Yeah.

So that was one. And then two, I visually remember when I was nine years old in Vancouver on Paycheck, they were also filming Inspector Gadget, I think, at the time. Your dad's movie, Paycheck? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I might be mixing this up. It might have been Inspector Gadget, I think, at the time. Your dad's movie, Paycheck? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I might be mixing this up.

It might have been Inspector Gadget. Yeah. Because when I was there, there was a guy named Casey Peretti, and he has a right leg prosthetic below the knee. Yeah. And I still talk with him to this day. He's an awesome guy. Very, very talented stunt guy.

Yeah. But he was wearing stilts, doubling Inspector Gadget with his prosthetic running down the street. So I visually remember that from when I was young. And I thought that was so cool. That he could do that. That he could do that. And I thought his leg was really bitching.

I thought it was so cool looking. And then when I'm in the hospital, that's all I was thinking about was how cool his leg was. And I'm like, I'm going to have one of those. So I honestly, it bugged me a little bit, but it was more so my mom that was bugged. Like it bugged her bad. She freaked out. She was freaking out. But it was all good.

I told her it's all fine. As long as I can race, I didn't really care. In the car. As long as I could race a car, I didn't care. Yeah. So that was all I was, I kept asking the doctors, will I still be able to race? How can I, you know, how will we make this work? You just weren't going to be able to jump off balconies and do flips anymore.

Right, but I honestly didn't care because I knew my passion was cars, and as long as I could get back into a car and drive, it didn't bother me. Yeah. But are you able to do physical stuff now? I mean, at this point, you are, right? I can.

I choose not to. Yeah. I just want to take care of it as long as I can, and I don't want to mess up and break it and then be screwed. So you were 16 when that happened? I was. And then you raced for a couple more years

in the cars until you were 18. So you got, which foot is it? It's my left foot. So it's my clutch foot, which is very, I'm very thankful for that was my left one. Yeah? Yes. Because you had to figure out how to punch a clutch.

Which honestly, so usually you use your ankle when you're using a clutch. Sure. Yeah, you're pushing down. But now I use my knee. So I just use like a straight leg motion. Oh, I see. And I'll push the clutch down with a straight leg kind of deal. So I'm very thankful that I have my knee,

and I'm very thankful that it's my left leg. If I go above my knee, I'll be in trouble because then I have to move my hip to get it. And if you're strapped down in seatbelts in a car, it's very difficult. You're strapped down very tight. So you just had to figure out how to work a clutch with your whole leg. Yeah, I had to teach myself to move way closer to the steering wheel and the pedals. I moved my seat way closer and then I could reach the pedal without modifying it.

Since I lost like 10 inches of range with my ankle being gone. Right. So I just moved closer and now I'm used to it and I love the seat position. And are most of the cars that you drive when you do anything clutch cars? That's a good question. It really depends. Stunt driving is very, sometimes you get a really good car, sometimes you get a really bad car. But most of the time they're automatics. Yeah. Especially with these new cars these days.

A lot of cars aren't going. They're getting rid of manuals, which is kind of sad. I would honestly prefer to drive a manual. They're just much more. You can get away with a lot more. Really? As a stunt driver? Yes.

Why? So, for instance, like if you wanted to do a standing burnout, you'd get the wheels spinning. Yeah. If you're in a manual car, you can use the clutch and just drop the clutch and get it going. Right, right. But if you're in an automatic, sometimes you can't even do it because they have- You got to punch it?

Well, you could sit there and you put your foot on the brake. Oh, right. And then you give it full throttle. Right. But some of these new cars have sensors where if you're on the brake and the throttle at the same time, it'll kill all power. Right. It won't let you do it. Yeah.

So, you have to really work around these things. Isn't that part of the budget of the fucking movie to where they can fix the car so you can do what you need to do with it? That would be nice. Come on. You're just getting cars off the assembly line? No.

So for Six Underground, all our cars were prepped. Everything was prepped very, very well, honestly. We went and tested the cars for a few weeks. We told them what we wanted. We had the alpha technicians come out. They worked with us on it, and we had them disable everything that they could to make the cars work what we needed to.

And there was some things that they couldn't disable, but we got it working pretty well, and we were able to do some cool stuff with it. So when you start doing this, you could drive fast, and you could handle a car, obviously. Now, was your dad a stunt driver? No, but he's a good driver. He doesn't specifically do driving.

But he was mostly motorcycles and jumping off things? That's when he first jumped into the business. He was in motorcycles, and he would crash motorcycles, jump them. He was the motorcycle guy, and then he was learning other things, and then he was just turned into a well-rounded stuntman. And you have an uncle who's doing it now too as well. Brian, right? Yes. What's his specialty?

Right now it's directing. Right, but before. He would do everything. So the Smurs brothers, Greg and Brian, they were very good at rigging. So by that I mean if you see superheroes flying through the air and they're on wires, they're very, very, very smart and they can look at that situation and figure out what to do.

Okay. And that's what they did. Like my dad did it on ghost protocol with Tom Cruise on the Burj Khalifa. Yeah. They had to have all these cables and cranes and it was, it was wild. I mean, it was. How would you, how do you get a crane a half mile up? They had, they had like, they had truss inside and they had all these it was i i

don't know very much about the rigging and stuff but there was all kinds of safety almost like uh you have to be like almost like an engineer yes all right so here you are you're you've got you know you've got the leg issue you're coming out of racing your dad's a you know one of the most successful stunt dad and uncle stunt guys in Hollywood. And you're like, I want to do stunts. How does that start? How do you get your start? So I was very fortunate that my dad was a stunt coordinator at the time when I jumped into it. And he hired me onto a movie called The Surrogates. It was a Bruce Willis movie. And I worked on it for a couple of days. And after like the fifth day my my dad walked up

to me and he pointed to a truck and he's like go get in that truck you're crashing it and he's like are you cool with that I said yeah he's like okay go get in it you're you're setting up to do it yeah so he's like I'll have Russell help you get your belt sorted and you're gonna go in about 20 minutes the seat belt seat belt so you put like these special you don't wear the regular seat belt you put like racing harness so this is't wear the regular seatbelt. You put like racing harness. So this is a big opportunity. What were you doing on the set before that? Just driving?

Just driving. It was called nondescript driving, ND driving. So I was doing some of that, watching other people do cool stuff. And then when I got- Did you know how to like spin a car out and all that other shit?

Well, so I was a good driver as far as racing and stuff and driving quickly. But as far as stunt driving, no, I was very new and it's very different. And I thought that I was a good driver as far as racing and stuff and driving quickly. But as far as stunt driving, no, I was very new. And it's very different. And I thought that I was a good driver, a good stunt driver, but I wasn't. And I would go in and I would try something and it would be scary. I could do it, but it was very out of control. Now it's to the point I've learned that stuff and I can do both.

But when you get off the racing circuit, you think you're really good. Right, right, of course. So when your dad says you're going to crash a truck, you didn't know really how to crash a truck. No, but there was some very talented stunt drivers and stuff on set. They gave me some pointers. How do you crash a truck? So I only had a lap belt in for this one.

So when I was going into it, I kind of braced my arms. Big truck? It was a Chevy Avalanche. Okay. So I braced my arms on the steering wheel so I had something to, you know, push off. And then I tucked my chin to my chest. Yeah. And it helps

with the whiplash once you actually hit the car. Yeah. So if you're ever gonna get into a car accident that you know you're gonna crash, duck your chin. It helps. Yeah. Okay. And, yeah, the thing was with this one was it was a blind intersection so we couldn't see each other we were behind each other like buildings yeah so we had to have someone do a

countdown of five four three two one bam yeah so and we had radios and we were listening to that while we were driving up so it's it was just one of those things with racing i had good timing so that helped yeah um but as far as hitting it something like that, doing a T-bone it just kind of takes balls. You just kind of got to man up and do it. So I think that was the test. You were getting T-boned or you were T-boned? I was T-boning. Which was good.

So that was good. I ended up doing very well. Did it three times. They messed up on one of the shots with the effects. Is that three different trucks? Let's see. I think I went through two trucks. Okay. The second angle, they were looking differently.

They were able to do it twice. That was the thing I talked about, Shauna. She really had to learn or teach herself how to be fearless. I mean, is that something you had to reckon with? I think racing helped a lot with the, with the fearlessness. Um, I don't know if it's fearlessness or stupidity, you know what I mean? But like the racing I was doing was very serious.

There was a lot of very competitive drivers when I was racing. Uh, and they're all racing IndyCar and everything right now. They're killing it. They're winning everything. So I was racing very fast company, and we were all very aggressive racing. So as far as driving quickly and being around things that are moving very tight spaces, I was used to that. Right. But as far as fearlessness, like crashing a car is completely different.

Yeah. I don't really think about the crash at all. Personally, I feel like I've lived a pretty cool, good life and stuff, so if something happens, it happens. But we take all the safety precautions, and I don't really think about that. What I'm thinking of, what's going through my brain when I'm about to do it is, where am I going to hit my mark? What's the timing?

I don't think about the crash at all. Right. I just think about where I need to go, where I need to hit my mark and it all works out. The requests that happen that I guess the common requests for, or, or, or direction. So you can crash cars, you can roll cars, you can, you know, do the peeling out business. You can spin them around. You can weave in like what, like when someone says you've got to roll a car, how do you do that? So there's a few ways. There's these new pneumatic arms that they're using.

They're electronic arms. Oh, they just pump you right up? Yeah. So they have these. It's like a battery or whatever. I don't know how they operate, but there's like an arm underneath the car. Yeah. And you'll press a button, and it goes out, and then it retracts immediately.

So it'll flip the car, but it'll disappear on camera. You won't even see it. Oh, right. So they have these pneumatic arms. The old school way, which they still do it, is a cannon roll. So they actually have a bomb sitting next to you, and you'll press the button, and it'll blow this pipe into the ground, and that pipe is completely loose, and it'll fly wherever it goes. Right. And that pipe is completely loose and it'll fly wherever it goes.

Right. But that's what gets you up and flips you over. I haven't done one of those personally. I've only done the pneumatic arms. It's kind of the new way that they're going about doing things now. But that's how you do it. And you just have this button and you got to time it right and flip at the right time. If you hit the button at the wrong time, you'll flip over and it won't look good.

It won't look good. You'll flip in a straight line and you have to hit it at like a 45 degree angle. You hit the e-brake and you slide the car and you get to a specific angle and you hit the button. And then it makes it flip. So you just feel the angle. Exactly. Now, what's to stop

the cab from crushing? So we have roll cages in there. Okay, right. And we'll have hopefully it's a good roll cage. Usually I'll always go in and inspect it and look at the cage, see how the welds are and everything. And I have never personally seen a cage break. Yeah.

I've heard stories and stuff. So I'm very, very precautious of those when I look at them. Sometimes I've seen a few cages and I'm like, eek. Really? I don't know if I want to do anything in that. But that happens? So whose fault is that? I mean, how do you determine that?

Well, so this one I'm talking about in particular, we were in India. So they didn't have really any specialists as far as welders and stuff. It was kind of very cheap, low budget. Movie? Movie. But it's India.

It's kind of everything goes over there. Right, but it was an Indian production's india it's it's kind of so everything goes over there but right but it was an indian production wasn't an american film shooting in india it was it was an american film shooting in india huh and you would think so the same rules don't apply because you're in india yeah it's just it's a funny business you know there's there's they try and save money as as best they can sometimes and that's you know they don't think about it you didn't get in it? Well, no, this was not for me. It was for someone else who was doing the stunt.

I was just looking at it. I was like, man, yeesh. Did you say that to the guy? Yeah, he knew. He was like, yeah, I know, man. But he did it? Yeah, it's just the stuntman's mentality sometimes. You see it, and you're like, well, I'm here.

We're doing it. That's a little crazy, right? It's just the way it is? It is, yeah. Now, when you drive cars off of things, how do you control? I know this is just practical stuff, but I mean, so what have you had to do? What's the most risky thing you had to do with driving a car off of a thing? Do you say off of a ramp or something?

Cliff or a building or whatever. I haven't. When a car is airborne, falling. Yeah, I haven't had to do that yet. Oh, you haven't? I've done car't. When a car is airborne, falling. Yeah. I haven't had to do that yet. Oh, you haven't? I've done car jumps. Yeah, car jumps.

What's that like? Like three-foot ramps or something. Oh, okay. And that's pretty fun. Again, it's like you have your mark and you just make sure you hit your mark and you hit the right speed. Because it's the same with the roll. Once you cut that angle and you hit that thing, you don't have any control over it.

Right. There's nothing you can do in the car to make it go a certain way. Totally. And the thing with jumps, too, that you have to be worried about is you can jump the car and the suspension could break. And if that happens, I've heard stories of that where the front wheel is just completely pancaked and the guy is completely out of control, can't do anything about it. And he's just along for the ride at that point. Yeah. So usually for stuff like that, we'll have catch cars with stunt people in them.

So if the car is out of control, they'll try and crash into them to stop them from hitting camera people or buildings or stuff like that. So they're all just there on set. Just safety precautions. And we'll have stunt people with the cameraman. So if something happens and they're focused on the camera, they yank him out of the way stuff like that so do you when you is your idea when you think about what you do because i mean on some level it's obviously life like death defying stuff and you know that there is an uh an idea that there is a possibility that you could die if there's an accident uh obviously it's happened in your family

and it's happened to you to a certain degree. Neither one of those events were on camera. But I mean, do you ever consider that, well, I'm doing this, I'm putting my life on the line to entertain people. Or are you just so consumed in the task at hand that that really isn't part of it? It's just, there's a stunt person,

like kind of disposition where it's the stunt itself. It's just there's a stunt person kind of disposition where it's the stunt itself. It's not like I could die trying to get this silly shot for this opening sequence. Yeah, so honestly, I don't think about it as far as an entertainment standpoint. I really enjoy it. I love crashing cars.

I love drifting and driving and all that stuff. And I think it's cool to be able to go to Florence and drift a car in the streets. It's just super cool. Drifting, that means just when it's sliding. Sliding a car or crashing in the streets of Italy. It's just rad. It's super cool.

But every one of those pieces, just you driving around that fountain with the other cars chasing you, that's a whole day, right? Well, yeah. So, I mean, working with Michael Bay, he'll have like 15 setups. So that was literally,

we would be there for 30 minutes, get that shot, and then move on to another location and do it all over another shot. He goes that quick? Very fast. Moves very, very quickly. He does not mess around. He knows exactly what he wants, and he wants it done now. He's very serious, and if

he gets it done, he's a super happy camper. Were there any accidents that were unplanned? There was no accidents that were accidental. We did not wreck any alphas on accident, which was great. So I'm very thankful for that. There seemed to be an awful, like I have to watch the rest of the movie, but there was a lot of cars after you guys. It seemed like the entire country was after you.

There was a lot of cars. There was. And they didn't even show them all. There was seven cars chasing me when we were doing the Italy scene. And you can see them, but for most of the chase, I had seven other stunt guys chasing me two feet behind me. It was pretty cool. Were the Italians generally excited about it?

They were so stoked. They were so happy we were there. Is the Alfa an Italian car? It is, yes. Oh, good. And I imagine it works as somewhat of an ad for alpha yes which we i honestly didn't even think about it until i saw some of the shots and i'm like man like like the shot drifting around the fountain with the uh with the duomo

in the background i thought was cool like yeah and that's perfect for who's the guy was jumping down the duomo man what was his name? He was a free runner. So he's sort of a stunt guy, the actor is? He was not a stunt guy. What's a free runner? He'll go out and do flips around walls and over railings, and he'll do these crazy flips and tricks. But there was a stunt guy that had to run down the dome there.

Yes, but he wasn't actually a stunt guy. They hired a free runner, and he was willing to do it because that's what he does. Right. It's heights and stuff. So we got him his SAG card, and that's how he got into it. So he wasn't a stunt guy per se. Right. But he knew how to do that. He was the guy for the job.

But he had ropes on, right? Yes. Oh, yes. And honestly, from what I heard, I wasn't there for a lot of the stuff, but I'm friends with the people that were rigging for them and making them safe. And they didn't want ropes most of the time. They wanted to do it free solo because they thought the ropes were going to get in their way. Yeah.

But once they learned and they were told, like, hey, these ropes aren't going to be in your way, and you can do anything you can think of because you're not going to die. Right. And that got them like, oh, okay, we'll do it. And then they loved it. And then they were doing some stupid cool stuff. I don't know if you saw it at all, but once you get deeper in the movie, they're doing some pretty great, like the Freerunners, they were on it.

I thought they killed it in the movie. Well, I mean, it's a weird sort of thing, but it seems like a lot of these extreme athletics that people enjoy or that people enjoy or that people come up doing you know kind of sets them up for a career like this and it seems like the more of these kind of movies i make whether you like them or not there's like plenty of work for people that are willing to do this shit absolutely and that's that's what i was getting at before is it's kind of turning into a business of specialties so like my specialty is driving

yeah if they need a skydiving sequence and they don't have a guy that looks like the actor or whatever, they could go find someone that's a pro skydiver and bring him in and give him a SAG card

and then bam, he's in the business. There you go. So it's a pretty open business right now, but it's kind of turning into like a talent based, you know,

like what's your talent? Oh, it's specific, you know, right. So now we're driving a couple of questions. What happens to all, do they, do to all, do they reuse the parts? I mean, like, it seems like you got a lot of pieces of cars everywhere. I mean, now, did someone come along and, you know, kind of repurpose that shit?

Like parts that break off or whatever? I mean, like, you know, engines and all this other shit. I mean, where does all that stuff go? I know it's not in your pay. It's not in your purview or whatever, but what happens to all the cars? So, from what I understand, I don't know 100%,

but I think most of those cars, they get crushed. They can't sell them legally. Right. So I think they just get crushed or they'll get brought for like show cars. Right. You know, like a Netflix, you know.

But you would think that some crazy, like, you know, car guys would just pull all the parts out, you know, the engine parts and whatever. Yeah, I wish. I don't think you can. Oh, really? It's a legal thing.

I think these cars were given by Alpha, and it was more of like a here you go, but it's like a legal thing. They can't legally take the stuff and use it. Right. And in terms of back to the sort of manual stick versus automatic, because I learned how to drive on a stick because I wanted to know how to drive on a stick. Now, in general, why do people prefer, is it a better car, like a manual car? So my personal opinion of it, I love driving a stick shift for the fact that I feel more

in tune with the car. Right. You're using it, you're shifting the gears, you have control of everything. That's why I like it. And I really like, there's a few other reasons, like there are small reasons, but like if everyone drove a stick shift, there'd be way less texting and driving.

You can't, it's way harder to text when you're driving a stick shift. Are they still doing it in Europe? Are most of the cars? Oh yeah, I don't think that'll ever change. Europeans love stick shifts. They don't want anything to do with automatic. It's just the way it is. Yeah. And in terms of like, what car do you drive normally? My daily is a 1991 BMW M5. Yeah. They only make those in stick.

So that's most of my cars are stick. I have a few, like my, I drove my truck today. That's automatic, but it really depends. Like for me personally, if my leg's not feeling great, I'll just drive my automatic, you know, but it's not feeling great, I'll just drive my automatic. But that's mostly what I go on. So do you have any old American sticks? I don't. No, I'm a BMW fanatic. I collect old 1980s and 90s BMWs.

You like Beamers, huh? Mm-hmm. They're just good cars? They just handle so well. Really? The thing is, is they're very high maintenance, and they brake a lot. Yeah.

But they drive, when they're working, they drive fantastic. Really? They're such good cars. Better than anything else you've ever driven. So here's a lot. Yeah. But they drive, when they're working, they drive fantastic. They're such good cars. Really? Better than anything else you've ever driven. So here's the thing. After driving on 600 and around in that Alfa, the Giulia, it handled very much like an M3 and I really, really like that car. I would honestly

buy one, but I would want the one that we had in the movie that had all the electronics, everything turned off. Right. But that car was amazing. When we had it dialed, that car was solid. you see that ford ferrari movie i did i actually worked on it you did so what'd you do on that one i drove in 1957 like porsche speedster it was pretty cool so i drove one of those and then i drove one of the red ferraris in the scene where you're running to the cars from the start of the lamans yeah so. So I ran to the car, jumped in, and drove out.

So that was cool. How did Ferraris drive? So I was fortunately in one of the best cars on set. I was in one of the Ferraris that had the LS3 motor, and it had like 550 horsepower. That thing was wicked. Yeah? Some of them were just show cars.

They didn't have good engines or whatever just to look good. But that one was fast and I was pretty stoked to be in that for the day. So that must have been fun to do a period piece with the old cars. To be honest with you, that was one of the coolest days on set because it felt like the set looked so real. And if you just focused on that one spot and didn't look around you, it felt like you were actually at the 24-hour Le Mans. It was pretty cool. And those cars, I mean, people are freaks for the

old cars. I don't know much about them, but those Shelbys, people love those things. I guess there's not that many around. No, they're rare. But you're not a car freak. You just like your Beamers and that's it. Yeah, I'm not specifically, I don't know a lot about cars.

Just like the cars that I like, I'll learn about them. And, and BMWs are my favorites. Well, that's good to know. Cause they like, what about electric cars?

Anything? So I just drove a Porsche Taycan and that's the new Porsche electric car. And that thing is wicked. It is really cool. It's all wheel drive electronic. It's got like 700 horsepower. It's got like 600 foot-pounds of torque, and it is fast. Really? Oh, man.

I was blown away. Where'd you drive that? At the Porsche Test Center. Oh, yeah? Do they hire you to do that stuff? That was actually a test for an upcoming movie that we're gonna be doing. I can't say much about it, but it was a fun day. Yeah, I just got to go out and drive it and have fun with that thing. Because now like when something like that, not to name the movie,

but is that the production company wants to use that they're in, they're in talks with Porsche to use that car. So, and then you got to go try it. Yeah. And that's the thing. We just need to make sure it works and if we can actually do stuff and if not, then we'll work around it. And that's the same thing we do with alpha with six underground. Right. So when you go test it, do you spin it out and you know, know whatever what's the thing where you were just moves on the side yeah so we were just in an empty skid pad and just throwing it around see what it can do see how the electronics limit you stuff like that so and that's all day yeah i mean it was it was it was probably a couple hours long that's fun right yeah absolutely and what what

are what for you what were some of the high points in terms of the best rides you've had in films? I know that Six Underground, that looked like it was something, to be in Italy doing that. But what are some of the other ones that you did that were like, fuck? Let's see. I did a pipe ramp for Fear the Walking Dead, the TV show. And that was a pretty gnarly one. I was going probably 58 miles an hour. I was in a pickup truck, like a little two-door Dodge Ram.

And the pipe ramp was, it had an eight-inch stopper on the top of it. So I was supposed to hit it and completely stop. And then it was supposed to look like I hit a tree. It was butted up against a palm tree. I was pretty nervous about that one. But like I said, I didn't think about the crash or anything. I was just trying to hit my mark, but that was my first pipe ramp.

Which a pipe ramp is what exactly? It's when you have this metal pipe that's sticking up six feet into the air, and you just drive up it and flip. You just got to hit it and flip. The thing with pipe ramps is they're kind of unpredictable. Yeah. Whereas a cannon, you kind of expect what's going to happen. Pipe ramps, anything can happen. You have no idea. In terms of like whether you roll or just crash the car?

Yeah, whether you roll, you could land on your roof. You could land on the driver door, stuff like that. And that makes a difference from a height because the pipe ramps, sometimes they'll get you pretty high. Yeah. I've seen cars like 15 feet high and they'll land, you know, it depends how they land, but sometimes that can ring you. The illusion is you're out of control and the car is going to hit a tree.

Exactly. So that thing was on a stopper up to a palm tree, and I came in and I hit it, and I did, I think, two and a half rolls, and I landed on the driver door and I bruised my ribs on that one. So that was one of the few times I've gotten injured doing a stunt. How did it look? It looked cool, yeah. I can show you later.

And so you're always busy. I try to be, yeah. No, it's been pretty busy for the last six months. I've been all over the place and very thankful. But outside of bruised ribs, no injuries? Outside of bruised ribs, no injuries, nope. On 6 Underground, I jammed my thumb doing one of the crashes, but I was healed in about two weeks or so.

And that was it. Nothing serious. Well, everything's going good then. Now, I imagine your dad's proud of you. I think so. We always have something to talk about. Yeah, yeah. He threw me into the business and he kind of,

he opened the doors for me and he kind of shoved me through the doors and said, if you want to make it, it's all on you. Yeah. So I think he's pretty happy that I've made it as far as I have. He hasn't, he,

he hires me and I worked for him. Like I worked for him on six underground. He was the coordinator for that one. Um, but I don't work with him too often. I, I've most of my stuff I've tried to get on my own. And,

and, uh, so I think he's proud about that. On purpose. You don't work for him too often. No of my stuff I've tried to get on my own, and so I think he's proud about that. On purpose you don't work for him too often? No, I think it was more on purpose from him. He wants me to make it on my own. He didn't want me to be... Right, be seen as the guy.

Right. But you guys get along on set? Oh, yeah, always. There's no father-son dynamic? Like, what are you doing? I mean, sometimes there is. But I usually... He's know but i usually he's pretty knowledgeable and he's been around a lot longer than i have so i usually try and bite my

tongue and uh yeah he's probably right yeah well good talking to you man absolutely yeah thank you very much yeah so that was brett smarris you can can watch any of the movies we talked about. But the Michael Bay film, Six Underground, is out. You can watch that on Netflix. Soon I will get the guitars out here. © transcript Emily Beynon Boomer lives. host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company

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