PB mixed issue sampler - updated Jul18

INTERVIEW / RICK ENGLISH
Rick lobs himself up
the road while Tom
Cruise rides the only
S1000RR with a
180-section front tyre...
‘I HIGHSIDED IN MISSION:
IMPOSSIBLE BY ON THE
REAR BRAKE THEN RELEASING IT’
Jenny Tinmouth
was also on the
stunt team of MI:5
There’s only one way to
develop movie-ready
stunt skills
Mirrored visor?
Check. All-black bad
guy leathers? Check...
ONSIDER yourself a bit of a film buff?
Reckon you can see through CGI and
special effect action scenes in movies?
Well, defeating such cynicism and
providing ever more spectacular
footage is what keeps Rick English in
work as a bike-riding stunt man, listed
on the British Stunt Register for
directors and film crews worldwide to hand-pick if he
suits the flick they’re producing.
And he often does: his CV includes Bond films,
Mission: Impossible, Kingsman, Ghost Rider and
more... he’s also appeared on TV, and in commercials,
too – when PB caught up with him on a practice day,
he’d just picked up a battered scooter in preparation for
playing a London scooter scally for a major high street
brand. If you need a wheelie, powerslide or a VMAX
ridden through the desert, he’s your man. So how the
hell does an ordinary bloke from the south east wind
up working with Hollywood bigwigs?
“When I was about seven, I watched TV stunt man
series ‘The Fall Guy’ and the Burt Reynolds film
‘Hooper.’ Reynolds in particular was a bit of a hero of
mine. In the opening scene of that film, you see him
pulling on his armour, his leathers, taking a swig of
Rick on the set of
Kingsman with Colin Firth
This is his actual
face, still in one piece...
whiskey and then getting on his bike to shoot a crash
scene. I thought that was the coolest thing, and I knew
right then that’s what I wanted to do.
“I did fall into real life for a short time, and initially
I had a job as a personal trainer. But all the time I was
riding bikes, doing a bit of club racing, and still thinking
about getting into films, but initially through my
interest in martial arts.
“I started to work in a gym in London’s west end and
you’d get a lot of actors and directors coming in – I got
my first foot in the door that way.”
For anyone wanting to make a living as a stunt
double, you need to be part of a recognised body – in
the UK, that’s the British Stunt Register, run by an
actors’ union. You need to train across six different
disciplines of stunt performance, and reach a certain
standard in all. Accredited members are then added to
a directory for directors and stunt team co-ordinators,
which lists height and physical attributes as well as
areas of expertise, to help find close matches where
body doubles are required.
Getting a break
After some early work on the martial arts side, he got
his biking break in 2000. “It was just riding through
traffic in ‘Three Blind Mice’, but it was my first paid
role involving bikes.”
From there, Rick’s stunt roles quickly went up a
notch to some big flicks – over the years, he’s played
a part in Batman movies, Bond films, and one-offs
like ‘The Boat That Rocked’. But when it comes to
bike stunts, two franchises stand out for Rick – one
for obvious reasons, the other more personal...
“My favourite bike scenes were in ‘Ghost Rider
II’, not because it’s the best or most popular film
I’ve worked on, but because there was lots to do
– I like to be busy, and there was a lot of riding in
that film. It’s not about the money for me; I just
love doing cool stuff and going to cool places,
and in that respect it was the best job I’ve had
– lots of riding, and also some ‘wire work’,
which is basically any kind of stunt that
requires you to fly through the air, so you’re
on a thin wire and yanked away!
“Because it was an over-the-top sort of
film, rather than something that had to be
realistic, you can do stuff that’s more fun
and get away with it. The supernatural sort
of scene is great to do – there was lots of
fighting and riding to do, and it was shot
48 PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK | FEBRUARY 2018