Batman Motorcycle Helmet

Stunt Man Adam Hart Talks 'Captain America', 'X-Men', Spielberg, Cameron, and ...

Stuntman candy! No, it's Advil for me.

TAKE US BACK TO THE BEGINNING. HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START?

I grew up in Southern California and I went to all the theme parks and saw all the live stunt shows. Growing up, I watched a lot of movies and the thing that always excited me was all the action. That's kinda what I said I always wanted to do, so growing up, I took martial arts, boxed, wrestled, played pretty much every sport there is. I also had a love for acting, so I started when I was 8 years, and I ended up going to college and getting a degree in acting. Then I went and studied acting for a summer in England, but everyone thought I was crazy there. Every time someone asked what I wanted to be doing 5 years down the line, I would say, "I want to be a professional stuntman."

Anyway, after I graduated my first stunt job was doing the live show at Medieval Times Then, while I was working there, I got hired for the Batman stunt show up at Six Flags. I later got a job at Knottsberry Farm at their Wild West stunt show. While doing that, I went to Universal to work on Terminator and Water World, and also Disneyland. At one time I was doing six lives shows.

HOW DID YOU SCHEDULE THAT?!

I don't know. But on top of all that, I was hustling and lucky enough, as soon as I was able to earn my SAG card, I got a job. From there, it's like starting at the bottom of the hill again.

IS IT COMMON FOR STUNT PERFORMERS TO TRAIN IN LIVE SHOWS?

You know, even a few years ago, people used to look down upon the performers doing live shows, but for me it was great. I got paid to train, to get to do a high fall over and over. For example, when I was at Medieval Times, I did well over 3,000 saddle falls. When I was at Water World, I would do nine 45-foot fire dives in a day. At Batman, you're riding motorcycles. I just think it gives you an awareness about how to perform. Because someone could be the greatest martial artist out there in the world, but maybe they can't perform in the scenes they have to do.

"Performing" is such a big part of stunts, especially when it comes to things like mo-cap. You have to perform.

HOW HAS THE INDUSTRY CHANGED SINCE YOU FIRST STARTED WORKING AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A STUNT PERFORMER?

Well, there definitely isn't as much work here [in Los Angeles] as when I was starting. I would go out and hustle nine sets in one day, getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go down to get there at the call times the shows I was trying to get on. I would say nowadays, driving through downtown LA or anywhere else, there just aren't as many [productions]. It's a bummer, but there's still stuff out there, still other ways to hustle. The most important thing I would say to aspiring stunt performers is hustling has to be your job. No matter what. Even if you've "made it", and you're working consistently, it's still important to put yourself out there and make sure doing so is your number one priority.

51 Days of Disney (Day 33): Pocahontas « The Adventures of a Lost Boy

Was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, they thought that their first stab at historical fiction would win the highly coveted award. Oh how wrong they were.

A ship led by Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) and Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson) is set to leave England for the new world of America in search of gold and a place to help expand the British Empire. The ship is hit by a storm, and a young sailor named Thomas (Christian Bale, seriously, Batman is in Pocahontas) falls overboard, but is saved by Smith. The film then shifts to the Powhatan tribe of Native Americans where the warriors of the tribe return from a battle against an enemy tribe. Chief Powhatan tries to marry his daughter, Pocahontas, to his lead warrior, Kocoum. Powhatan finds out about the Englishmen and decrees that everyone in the village should stay away from them, but Pocahontas’ curiosity gets the better of her and she runs into Smith. The two become fast friends and teach each other about their world, but hostilities start growing between the two groups and the powder keg explodes when Kocoum is killed by Thomas. The Powhatans and English go to war and it is up to Pocahontas to stop the bloodshed.

One of the major problems with Pocahontas , as is the fear of the relatively unknown other world. The story is also a bit of a mess. The insanely stupid plot element of the magic wind that allows John Smith and Pocahontas to be able to speak to each other is something that always brings me out of the movie for that scene. It just doesn’t make any sense, even within a movie that has a magic, talking tree. Ratcliffe doesn’t really have the motivation to be as maniacally evil, he is power hungry to a point where it almost becomes comical. I’m honestly surprised that his ultimate goal isn’t to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. There isn’t really enough motivation for the Englishmen to want to go to war with the Powhatans either, the Native Americans don’t even attack the English camp until they are provoked. The idea that Pocahontas can suddenly end the hostilities between the two groups is also rather naive.