Geek Syndicate Issue 7 | Página 51

Geek Syndicate
my shoulder to see who is walking to, and he came to me. It just knocked me sideways and then people popped out the bushes and off the fire escape and people were all laughing and clapping and my kids were being driven up to the studios. Then they took me to the studio and your whole life suddenly appears in front of you, I thought ‘My god, this is absolutely fantastic’ and I think it was the most wonderful weekend I have ever had, it was just sensational. They flew my kids in from America, and friends in from Spain and all over the world, and of course Scorsese is on it, and Harrison Ford and everybody was on it, it was just sensational. One major aspect of Vic is the importance of family - both in terms of his work family but also his personal one which now overlaps with the trade that he loves. VA: It’s wonderful seeing them doing it. It is great seeing them doing it. They are all talented in their own right. You tend to think that because its family doing it, it’s negative, but its not. There are no apprenticeships these days and when you think about it, my kids for instance have served their whole life as an apprenticeship, they have been sitting around the kitchen table, unbeknownst to us, listening in to conversations we have had about how we build treadmills, how we build this, how I invented the fan descender. That was another thing talking about difficult things. The producer wanted me to jump off a three-hundred and forty foot building using a machine that had never been seen before in a movie, it had to be practical, it
Image © Vic Armstrong Vic is known for his exellent horse skills - seen here with Sylvester Stallone

think it is a much better experience for the movie goer. From reading his book it is quite clear that Vic has gained a lot of high praise from actors and directors alike through his career, but which was the most emotional praise that he received? VA: I got a BAFTA lifetime achievement. For me that was sensational, you know I’m the first stuntman in the world to have a BAFTA which is our version of an OSCAR. I was thrilled to have that. But I think that the most emotional bit was the funniest one which you will laugh at probably. It was This is Your Life [A television show where a celebrity’s life is remembered and they are presented a book of memories by the host – ed.]. You know that wonderful phrase from Martin Scorsese who is a dear friend of mine which was added to the book was fantastic, but for absolutely shock, surprise, joy and gratitude it had to be This is Your Life.

I direct commercials as well, I had a commercial company, so I was directing commercials for Lincoln and Audi, and I was doing post production in LA and I got a call to come back to the UK immediately from (James Bond Producer) Barbara Broccoli and I thought ‘Christ, what have I done now?’ ‘You have to come back on Friday’. I said, ‘Look can’t I leave it until Monday I am doing the colour correction at company three in LA’ and all I got back was ‘No!’. I thought ‘Jesus’ so I jumped on a plane that night, finished my work on the plane arrived Friday morning, got off the plane and my usual driver drove me to Pinewood. There was a little film shooting in the gateway there so we had to stop and got out. I saw a couple of stunt guys and started to chatting to them, and the next I knew an Aston Martin slides up sideways and (This is your Life presenter) Michael Aspel jumps out with the red book and walked towards me. So I’m looking over

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