TFN Talks with Brett Sheerin
Ever wonder who is behind the crazy, spectacular and heart stopping stunts in some of your favourite Hollywood blockbusters? What is a stunt performer and what does it take to rise to the top? TFN Caught up with Australian stuntman Brett Sheerin, who got candid about his life, challenges, triumphs and what it’s like to be in the high octane business of stunts.
“I learned that we go through life with a positive little voice and a negative little voice. The more we listen to or feed one or the other, the more we will hear from it, and the more we ignore one or the other the less we will hear from it.
- Brett Sheerin”
Brett, you are in a pretty fascinating line of work that few people outside the film business truly have a grasp on. Can you talk a little about what a stunt performer’s role is in a production and what sorts of skills would one need to be prepared to have to be hired as a stunt performer on a major Hollywood film?
Each film with action will have a stunt coordinator. Their role is to assist the director by helping put together an action sequence which suits the story line and is also safe and repeatable. The coordinator will decide what each sequence needs, for it to be safe. For example, actor training, stunt doubles and stunt actors where required. All safety equipment organized, like rigging, mats and padding.
A stunt performers role is to take her/his direction from the stunt coordinator. It could involve training an actor, being the stunt double for an actor, which involves picking up all the actor’s mannerisms and trying to replicate that while performing. Knowing what your personal limits are and what you need to perform the stunt safely. Speaking up if you are concerned about yours or anyone else’s safety on set. You always want to be ready for any stunt that is asked of you. Its important to keep your skill level high to make you more employable.
The areas of performance broken up would be:
Body Control – the most important area. Including, gymnastics, martial arts, high diving and dancing.
Water – Scuba, boat and jet ski experience. Surfing and other water sports. Lifeguarding
Vehicles – Cars, drifting and rally, motorbikes both dirt and road, variety of trucks. Anything with wheels.
Heights – Skydiving, repelling, high diving, high falls.
Animals – Horse riding. Bull riding. Working with dogs and a variety of animals.
Fire – This one is more of an industry only area where you learn how to set up someone and be set up to be lit on fire safely.
Having worked in film myself I know that most people believe it’s a very glamorous job, which I know you will have a good laugh at. What is it really like to be a stunt man? What are the best and the hardest parts of the job?
I love being a stunt man. I’ve always trained for sport through my school years which set me up well for the training that is involved. You always have something to learn in this industry as its constantly evolving and it seems no two stunts are the same. There is always an element thrown in to make it challenging. Part of the job is often to be very uncomfortable, whether its dealing with the elements, costume, hair and makeup, prosthetics or dealing with awkward props.
It is such a great feeling knowing you are ready for the stunt you are about to perform. Giving it your all and being recognized by your team and the crew after the stunt showing their appreciation. Finally seeing it on the big screen and being able to share it with your friends and family and knowing that it is now a part of history is an amazing feeling and one I often think about before doing the stunt.
The hardest part of the job is the sacrifices I have made to chase that next job. Unfortunately, that has meant that I have missed out on a lot of friends and family’s special events like weddings etc. I have been so fortunate to have had a great support network with my family, my wife and my close friends.
What inspired you to go into stunts and how did you start?
In 2000 I had just overcome one of my biggest fears, which was stepping into the ring for Muay Thai/ Kick boxing fight. I was well out of my comfort zone here but I also realized you learn so much about yourself when you do that. It also taught me about the importance of preparation. After that fight I felt like I could do anything I set my mind to. Not long after that my sister Deahna who was working as an Assistant Director on an Australian TV show called Home & Away had been talking to their stunt coordinator, the legendary Grant Page about me and how much she thought I would love that career. She came home one day and gave me Grant’s number and said to give him a call if I was interested. At that stage, I had about 5 years’ experience in Muay Thai, I had lifeguarded at North Cronulla beach and raced boats. Plus I did a variety of sports growing up. I was a licensed plumber at the time. Once I realized stunts was actually a career, I committed to it 100% and have never looked back.
What are some of your favourite shoots that you’ve done and where were they filmed?
One of my highlights would be working on The Hobbit trilogy stunt doubling for Bilbo Baggins. This was a two-year job, which is rare in our business and I was able to travel all around New Zealand’s beautiful North and South Islands. We went to some of the most amazing locations which could only be reached by helicopter.
Another would be a Superbowl commercial called Rexona Stunt City which was shot in my home town of Sydney and I have to say Hawaii 5-0 because Oahu, where it is shot would be one of my favourite places in the world.
I’ve been very fortunate to have worked in many countries including, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines, India, Thailand, Germany, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
What is the longest you have ever spent in a costumes truck getting dressed or in the prosthetics chair getting your makeup done and was your favorite character or role?
Playing an Orc in The Hobbit, was a three and a half hour start to finish with all the prosthetic work. These can be really long days.
I’d have to say the Bilbo character was my favorite. I was very fortunate to work closely alongside Martin Freeman who played Bilbo and with Terry Notary the movement coach and Glenn Boswell the stunt coordinator. We were able to invest a lot of time into getting his character movement just right. I even had a training / rehearsal pair of hobbit feet to test out each stunt.
What is the biggest challenge you have had to overcome in life and what was the biggest lesson you took away from it?
This is a hard one to decide on so I’m going to mention three because each one taught me lessons to help me with the next one.
Firstly is having a ring fight. This taught me a lot about myself. I learned that we go through life with a positive little voice and a negative little voice. The more we listen/ feed one or the other the more we will hear from it and the more we ignore one or the other the less we will hear from it. I was so used to listening to the negative and it had affected me so much up to that point. What I would do then was write down all the positives so I could see how many there were and focus on those. (Ie, I’m training with champions in the sport, my instructor has an amazing record with fighters. I’ve never been this fit or strong or ready for this. I have trained as hard as I could have). With the negatives, you can try to address them. What is it saying? I learned to not worry about things I can’t change and focus on things I can. For example the negative would whisper, ‘what if he comes out and knocks me out first punch in front of my friends and family watching on’. This had never happened before in any preparation of sparring and I realized that its hard to do when both fighters are focused and ready to both attack and defend on instincts and fight to plan. So, I focused on what I could, all my combinations and fight plan and sparred much heavier guys with a lot more experience than me to give me the confidents that I can look after myself in that ring with anyone in my weight category which made me think, why not me!?
This really helped with stunt work. Your mind can try and play games with you, I would still focus on the positives but the negatives would still have a cheap shot. A good example of that was a 40 foot fall I did for a film called Unbroken. The coordinator wanted to put a thin wire on me to decelerate my fall before hitting the ground. Normally you can cheat this but they wanted it in one shot so there were no mats able to be used. This played on mind, thinking if anything wrong happens to the wire I’m either seriously injured or dead. My negative side gave me a bad visual that when I rolled off the stairs at the top, the wire wraps around my neck and it cuts my head off. Very graphic, but I realized there was a chance of that happening, so the next day at work I rehearsed at a low level to see how it would unwrap and adjusted it so it was not possible to wrap around my neck. Everything went perfectly to plan. Another example would be when you are getting hit by a car. Your natural instinct is to get out of the way of this heavy metal moving towards you and you know it’s a fight you will not win if you get hit incorrectly. Once again, my negatives would fire a statement like, what are you doing, you are going to hurt yourself etc etc. I would just let those comments come and go and focus on what I needed to. My job at hand, the technique I need to get right. I have been hit by about 10 cars for different shows, it never gets easier. It is one you need to be prepared for and with that preparation I have never been injured performing this stunt.
My second one was being diagnosed with cancer. This mindset that I had carried from fighting, don’t worry about things you can’t change, focus on things you can. I couldn’t change that diagnoses. That day I had a good cry and realized that I couldn’t change that diagnoses. I had excepted and focused on the road ahead. What’s the plan and treatment? What can I do? I learnt a lot about nutrition, eating healthy alkaline foods and checking my bodies PH levels and meditating every chance I could to give my body every chance of healing. Asking yourself questions like, If I had a week to live what would I do, if I had a year, 5 years etc etc. Not in a negative way, in a very at peaceful way of making the most out of my time here. I was extremely proud of what I had achieved in my 30 years of life. The one thing that I hadn’t experienced and always wanted to was to be a father. I thought even if I were to pass away, if My wife was pregnant it would mean the world to me to know a part of me will live on. My wife and I had been trying to fall pregnant about a year and half before I was diagnosed and we later found out that it was due to the cancer.
Half way through my chemotherapy treatment, my cousin who was about the same age as me was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was 6 months pregnant at the time and had already had a young little girl. Her beautiful baby decided to come out naturally at 6 months and survived. Unfortunately, my cousin passed after 7 weeks from her diagnoses. This hit me so hard, seeing her and her family go through that experience. It was so unfair. Which made me think how lucky I was to be fighting the cancer I had which was Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, in comparison to her. There is always someone going through a worse situation. I’m sure there are so many women out there that would love to have had my cousins life, living with a beautiful family, never worrying about where her next meal or water came from, great education and lifestyle and got to achieve so many milestones in her life including being a mother to two beautiful girls and live an amazing 30 plus years.
I can’t help but feel so grateful with my life and my situation. The day my cousin passed away was the day I had the call to say I was in remission. It’s always a bitter sweet day for me and always reminds me of our lucky I am. I was able to live on and keep working towards my goals and dreams which leads me to…..
My third one is my wife and I’s struggle to have children. It was so hard to be told that I may not be able to have kids due to my cancer. It was so heart breaking. Once again, I didn’t focus on the things I couldn’t change and just focused on what I could change. After seeking medical advice from our IVF (In vitro) doctor. He told us that after my tests, it will be hard to fall pregnant but it’s not impossible, it will depend on how much we can endure with all the cycles. I’m so fortunate to say that this does have a fairy tale ending and my heart goes out to anyone who has gone through this or is going through this. We ended up having 7 cycles of icsi IVF, over a five-year period. Our first-born son Mason was our fourteenth embryo attempt and our second son Arlo was seventeenth embryo attempt. At this stage we felt so fortunate and although we would love to try for a girl, my wife just couldn’t put her body and mind through the IVF process again and I totally agreed. Two years later we fell pregnant naturally with a beautiful baby girl Lily. It was the best surprise of my life. The ups and downs in this process were so hard and emotional to go through. To think how different things would be if we stopped trying after thirteen embryo attempts. I felt so grateful to have gone through both being a fighter and cancer as they both set me up to handle this stage of my life. To focus on the things you can change, let go of what you can’t. Plus, you have to make the most out of the hand you’ve been dealt, there is always someone out there with a worse hand and no one owes you anything.
In the world of film, Australia has earned the reputation for consistently producing world class stunt talent. All the top big budget feature films I have worked on had stunt teams flown in from Australia. What is it in the water over there that produces such strong performers?
That’s nice of you to say and I’m very proud of where I have come from. It is a very small industry in Australia and there is a grading system you need to pass before you get started and it has different levels along the way. I believe this really helps people do their time and not rush into a position they are not ready for potentially making it dangerous for themselves and others around them. Which is why Australia has one of the best safety records in the world. They set a high standard as an all-rounder, which means you try and be proficient in as many of those areas I mentioned earlier or at least three of them.
I also feel that the older generations really pass down their knowledge to the next generation, including a strong work and training ethic. I’m so grateful to those who have helped me along the way and I always try to pass that knowledge down to the next generation.
Would you like to share any humorous stories from set?
I felt so bad with this one but it was funny now looking back. It is costume, hair and make up departments’ job to try and make you look as close as possible in likeness to the actor you’re doubling for. On this one job, the costume lady made a foam padded suit to bring my measurements closer to the actor’s. I was working closely with this actor and he had no idea I wore it. One day I was chatting to the actor and the costume lady came up to me to get me ready and asked “Do you have your fat suit on?” As soon as she said it, she realised by the look on both of our faces that he wasn’t aware of the fact that I wore one.
This one’s a bit gross but also funny. I was working on The Hobbit and I had been performing in the hobbit feet all day. They are made from a latex material that doesn’t breathe at all. The lady who looks after them was there at the end of the day to take them off, and as she rolled them down a big squirt of sweat shot out straight into her mouth. She was such a good sport about it and we both laughed so much about the chances of that happening. Needless to say she was a lot more careful from that day on …haha.
Can you tell us what films you have worked on in the past few years?
Here are a few of the shows I’ve done over the past few years: Maze Runner 3, Gemini Man, Extraction, A Quiet Place 2, Marvel’s Agents Of Shield, Suicide Squad 2 and Marvel’s TV series called Wanda Vision.
You have a beautiful wife and kids. What is the secret to maintaining the nomadic lifestyle and the extreme pressure and commitment that film commands and enjoying quality time with your family?
Thank you, and this is a hard one to make work but with the right partner it is possible. I really wanted a family and I also love what I do for a living. I’m very fortunate that my wife Selene is very supportive. Communication is important and like all your skills you will get better at the ones you put time into and your marriage and family time is no different. I’ve also been very grateful that most of my stunt coordinators I have worked for have been supportive of family and make it easy for me to bring them along to different shows out of town or around the world. When I was younger my priority was the industry and trying to get work and now it needs to work around my family as they are my priority.
What do you love doing outside of your career in stunts?
My biggest passion would be surfing, its my happy place for sure to unwind. I also really love training, even if I was to retire, I would still do all my training. The ones I enjoy the most are gymnastics, martial arts training, Muay Thai and Jiu jitsu, motocross riding and drifting cars
What advice would you give someone who wanted to go into your field? What advice do you wish someone had given you when you started out?
Train, train, train. Try and train with the best person / group and facility you can in that particular skill. You really want to be at a competitive level. You can’t beat onset experience so get as much as you can. Getting involved with short films is a great start. Try and train with well established people/ groups in the industry.
I’m not sure if it’s because it doesn’t feel like work when you love what you do, that time just goes by so fast. I can remember so clearly when I first started and just like that, this is my twentieth year. The advice I would give is make the most of each day. Start today not tomorrow because a year from now you’ll wish you had started today.
It’s expensive to learn these skills so work hard with a paid job and make as much money as you can so you can re-invest it back into yourself. You need to be as employable as possible because when it comes to employing stunt people the coordinator will be looking for the best people they can find to make their job easier.
Be ready for that opportunity and most of all its up to YOU to make it happen.
