Page 20 - Exercise 2A

Unit 2 - Fame and Fortune

Page 20 - Exercise 2A

Stunt doubles

Have you ever done anything really dangerous? Have you fallen o ff a bridge? Have you walked through a fire?

Rick English and Angela Meryl have. You’ve probably never heard o f Rick or Angela, but you’ve seen them when you’ve watched a film at the cinema or on a DVD.

They’ve been in a lot of famous films, including Kill Bill, Pirates o f the Caribbean, Casino Royale and the Harry Potter films. You haven’t heard o f them , because they’re stunt doubles. Most film stars don’t want to do dangerous things in films, so stunt doubles do them.

Rick and Angela have been stunt doubles for some of the biggest movie stars.

They’ve done a lot o f very dangerous stunts. Rick has driven cars through walls and into rivers. Angela has fallen o ff bridges, high buildings and motorbikes. She’s also fallen out of windows and cars. Stunts look good in films, but they can be very dangerous. In 2002, Angela fell through a glass table in the film Kill Bill. The glass cut her hand very badly and she ended up in hospital.

Probably the most dangerous stunt ever was in the film Cliffhanger. The stuntman, Simon Crane, climbed from one aeroplane to another, while they were flying at nearly five thousand metres. That was also the most expensive stunt ever. Simon got a million dollars for it. ‘Danger is part of our life,’ says stuntman Frank Street. ‘A lot o f stunt doubles have died and most of them have been in hospital several times. In fact, I’ve just come out of hospital myself. I broke my arm when I jumped out of a helicopter last week.’ Because stunts are so dangerous and expensive, film directors have started to use CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) instead. It’s safer and cheaper. So, in the future, there probably won’t be any stunt doubles.