Latvia's action men

RIGA - Latvia is full of talented and skilled individuals, those we often see in our everyday life. A few we know from television. Others who may appear on television remain unrecognizable to us on the street, staying in the shadow of someone else’s fame. These are the stunt men, representatives of one of the most difficult and dangerous professions in the world. Today there exists a constantly growing demand for action scenes in movies and, as a result, practically no contemporary movie can deal without their services. They deputize actors in such dangerous episodes as fighting, high jumping, tripping and falling, extreme car driving, mountain climbing, diving and more. 

Latvia’s stunt men association, going under the name “Wanted,” is about seven years old. Although the team itself is not big, all its members are real masters of their craft. Most of them are professional athletes with more than 20 years experience in such areas as artistic gymnastics, tumbling, Tae Kwon Do, judo, freestyle wrestling, boxing and rugby. They are masters of sport, members of the former Soviet Union and present-day Latvian republic national teams. Some of the younger members also specialize in today’s fashionable tendencies, such as parkour.

The first team of this organization was formed by a group of enthusiasts, athletes who have known each other for years. There are no official castings or interviews for those who want to join the association. “If we need another member, we look around the sport circles,” says the president of the stunt man association, Roman Morozov, “There was only one case when a guy came to us and said he wanted to join us. We tried him, and he was pretty good, so we took him. Let’s see how he will show himself in the future,” said Morozov.

Friendship and trust are very important in this profession. To start with, they are spending a lot of time together, training, filming, being on the move, and good work is impossible without good relationships. Besides, they are responsible for each other’s safety, as they are performing all kinds of risky tricks as a group. “Usually, my whole life is in the hands of the person who assists me, and it is very important for me to trust him, and for him to take responsibility for what he does. We are not a team, but a family, and we do care for each other,” comments Roman. Being a stunt man not only requires perfect physical conditioning and good flexibility, but also a number of other important personal qualities, such as patience, persistence, the ability to take risks, and then recover.

“If a person wants to enter the team, there are three key moments in which we test him. Firstly, it is his physical condition. Secondly, it is his attitude towards training. Finally, it is his ability to do real work in a film. Young people usually think that this is all about having fun, and enjoying adventures, but they are wrong. Sometimes it takes the whole day to film a scene, and you have to be really patient to be able to wait for 4 - 5 hours, in the least pleasant circumstances. For example, you may stand in cold water for several hours and wait until the director does his work. If a person cannot stand this, then the stunt profession is not for him,” says Roman.

Stunt men do not have a normal work schedule. Two hours training, three times a week is a must for everyone. Besides, each of them additionally goes to the gym and does his sports training, when he finds it necessary and convenient. The training is usually coordinated either by Morozov, or by one of the leading stunt men, Artem Grigorev. Both are also staging fight scene choreography. Their training takes place in the Olympics center in Riga. This is a huge hall with padded floors and high ceilings, full of all kinds of sports equipment. This is the actual workshop of their craft. The atmosphere here is very friendly. They joke with each other and comment on each other’s work.

As with every sport, stuntwork involves numerous injuries, and here the risk is much higher than in other professions. Most often, a person can get an injury during training, but sometimes it is also quite possible to be injured in the very process of performing the stunt. Roman himself recently fell from the fourth floor during filmmaking, due to the failure of the safety construction, and broke his leg. At the moment he is not able to perform stunts, so he works on coordinating and staging. Both Roman and Artem confirm that most of the injuries take place at a young age, when you believe you are superman and can do everything.

In missing work, says Artem, “If a person misses two or three days, this is all right, but if he does not train for a long time, it is really difficult for him to get [back] into the swing. This could only happen in two cases. The first case is when you are performing stunts, and the second if you have an injury.”

He says that “Every stunt we do is dangerous, and the percentage of risk is present everywhere.” However, on the list of the hottest stunts, both men name full body burns, vehicular stunts, and jumps and dives. In order to learn to do them, one must first practice at low speeds and low heights. Every trick must be carefully worked out to insure maximum safety. The full body burn is a special stunt where the entire body is set on fire. This could be done by using a special fire-barrier gel and clothes, but the stuntmen wouldn’t divulge this secret, saying that this is a professional secret. High jumping, or falling (depending on the scene), is a stunt where the expert jumps from high buldings, rock cliffs, etc., onto padding below.

The Latvian stunt men’s association has already had a chance to participate in many Latvian and foreign projects, including in movies and advertising. In 2006 they were filming the Russian movie “Impudent Days,” together with such stars as Gosha Kutsenko and Viktor Suhorukov. The movie is about a young man, Ignat, whose girlfriend was being chased by criminals. Ignat practices parkour and martial arts, and is fully able to protect his girlfriend from the “bad guys,” in the movie. One of these “bad guys” is played by Roman.

Currently, the stunt team is taking part in two foreign projects. The first one is the Japanese serial film “A Cloud over a Hillside,” which is being filmed in Latvia, Japan, France and Malta. At the center of the plot is the Russian-Japanese war in 1905. Apart from the war episodes, there is also a love story about a Japanese officer who falls for a Russian girl. The Latvian part of the movie is shot in Adazi, Tukums and Riga. Most of the stunt men are only doing stunts, but Artem plays one of the support roles - the lieutenant. The second project is the Russian 24-series action movie “Terminal,” which focuses attention on the Moscow criminal world. With this project, the support roles are given to the younger members of the association.

One of the most notable films, both for Roman and Artem, was the adventure comedy “The Fifth Tsenturia,” directed by Ruslan Baltcer (also the author of “Impudent Days”), which came out on the screens on March 18.
Venturing away from their stunt action skills, they say that their greatest goal and ambition is to shoot their own movie. This has been partly realized already. The recent movie “Hour Zero,” which is still in the process of being editing, was made by the combined efforts of the director, scriptwriter and stunt men; they also helped out with the financing. It is a science fiction movie about artificial intelligence, which can destroy the electrical energy system throughout the world. Roman, Artem and other members of the team came up with this plot, and developed it further by inviting scriptwriters.

The scenes were directed by the Latvian specialist Edgars Punculis. The stunt men again play the villains. “Playing negative roles is much easier and interesting than [the] positive [roles],” says Artem. Despite the fact that the overall budget was rather small, both Artem and Roman are completely satisfied with their work, “Although in some moments we felt the lack of acting skills, we did our best, and the work of the full cast deserves praise and attention,” states Roman.

Another objective for the group is to receive government support. In Latvia, there are no laws which require any social security and protection for the stunt profession. Early retirement does not exist for them, either. “We want to create a stunt man’s trade union, so that the government would turn its attention to our needs,” says Roman. “We would also like to make a special stunt school, but this is impossible without the government’s help.”

These individuals haven’t limited themselves to their primary occupation. In their spare time they occupy themselves in all sorts of creative work. For example, Roman is interested in drawing, while Artem takes pleasure in mastering photography. Both of them can barely watch movies, however, as they are unconsciously paying attention to the smallest details in them, details unnoticeable to the untrained eye. While watching fight choreography, they analyse the way it is done, and often find that they could do it better, “It is not only about stunts and fighting. It is about the movie itself. We are able to notice the slightest faults, as we are very much familiar with the process of film creation,” comments Roman.

Despite all the difficulties which they have to face, none regrets choosing this profession, and would not change under any circumstances. “During our youth we had the experience of working at white-collar jobs, but in the end we realized that our place is still here. It is difficult to enter the world of cinematography, but it is impossible to leave it,” says Roman.