Set on fire, thrown out of a plane, hanging out with Hollywood stars...It’s all in a day’s work for stuntman Brad Farmer. HAZEL SLADE talks to him about life on and off set.
“I haven’t had any serious injuries - just a few sprains and some broken bones.” For most of us this would be a worrying state of affairs, but for experienced stuntman Brad Farmer it’s all in a day’s work.
Londoner Brad, 43, has just moved to Hampden Road, Flitwick, with his pregnant wife Nicky.
But if you met him, few of you would believe that this new neighbour normally spends his days being set on fire, hit by cars, thrown off buildings and doubling for Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, Jude Law and, of course, his namesake Brad Pitt.
But Brad hasn’t always been the active sort. He explained as a child he was the complete opposite.
It wasn’t until his mid 20s that, as he put it, the former retro furniture salesman decided he ‘needed to make some money’.
He explained: “My brother-inlaw was a stuntman. His dad was Nosher Powell and he was in the first Bond film as a stuntman.
“He’s been with my sister since I was 14 and I’ve been around the business since then.
“I got to the point in my life where I thought, I need to do something now, I need to make some money.” But becoming a stuntman is no easy feat.
First it is advisable to join the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) which will assist you in how to train for that dream job.
And it took Brad six years travelling all over the world to complete his training.
Some of the things he did included learning to scuba dive, sky dive, jet ski, fence, abseil and fight, to name a few.
But, most importantly, he had to learn to take a punch and fall properly.
Brad explained: “You don’t really learn to be a stuntman until you are on the set. You learn it from other stuntmen.
“You have to learn to brace yourself and fall properly. We do use mats but it doesn’t always work out as it should and it can hurt quite a bit at times.” After working hard for more than half a decade, Brad landed his first role in the 1999 production of Alice in Wonderland.
Brad was doubling up for Martin Short, who was playing the Mad Hatter.
For his part Brad had to replace Martin in the scene where the Mad Hatter is pushed through a
table. we do anything that is too dangerous for the actors,” Brad explained.
“Getting set on fire, thrown off buildings, getting into fights, that sort of thing.
“We can be replaced, the actors can’t be.
“I’ve had some breaks and sprains. My friends and family are quite used to it, they don’t really worry.
“I’ve been doing it for a long time now and it doesn’t bother me, I love it.” Some of Brad’s other credits include X-Men: First Class, Johnny English and Johnny English Reborn, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strange Tides, Robin Hood and The Dark Knight Rises, to name but a few.
But not least among his accolades is doing stunts in all the Harry Potter films over the past ten years.
And Brad was even responsible for working out how to film the broomstick flights, particularly during the famous games of Quidditch.
He said: “Sometimes if the director doesn’t know how he is going to do something, he gives us the script and we then work out how to do it.
“We came up with lots of ideas for Quidditch, the first being skydiving with broomsticks. We did the test for that but it would have taken us months to film just a small piece.
“So we came up with the idea of pole arms and went from there.” Brad, whose next role is doubling for Brad Pitt in the new blockbuster World War Z, goes all over the world filming but said now he is older he prefers to come home to his own bed.
And it’s not all hard knocks, with Brad attending some red carpet premieres with the stars.
When asked if he will still be doing this job in 20 years time, Brad explained some of the stuntmen he meets are in their 70s, although most go on to be stunt co-ordinators, who book in the jobs.
He added: “This job is not for everyone, but I love it.
“Just don’t try this at home.”
