Delivered: 1961 – Returned: Unknown
Let’s not
start at the tried-and-true beginning, but somewhere in the middle. Funny how your middle can be the beginning
for someone else. This particular
insight has love, loss, skepticism and the relentless pursuit of
re-invention. Having lived to be this
age is not a surprise - as much as a gift.
A Trojan Horse perhaps?
Working in the entertainment industry
has afforded me a look into most strangers’ psyche that is exhilarating. You see, making successful movies relies on a
single premise - the suspension of disbelief.
We have struggled to keep you, the movie goer, interested and
entertained, never-mindful of your own life while you are in that theater
seat. Our job is to provoke, opine,
intimate, educate, and surrender illusions manifest. I have travelled to different countries in my
efforts to accomplish these feats, thinking that I would learn something
different in Prague, only to find out that “not quite” is the same in any
language. Still, I learned to love the
lessons. I’ve also been blessed with great instructors.
Stuntwork, can you imagine me behind
the wheel of a racecar – whizzing around the track, clocking straight-away-speeds
of over 110 mph? Me neither. So I made it my business to go out and create that
reality. I broke my jaw doing it once –
rolling that car end over end just off the third turn. Imagine, learning to
trick ride and barrel race in the rodeo, just to have the experience. I was tutored by Guillermo Del Toro (Director
- challenged me) and Jeff Ward (Stunt Director Extraordinaire), both of whom
were relentless. Yes, working in the entertainment industry requires you to be
a risk taker, an inventor, a bean counter, have nerves of steel, and an
appreciation of each and every day you get to live. I’ve heard a hundred stories, constructed too
many deals, and yet in the blur of these experiences, there was always the
expectation of being here.
I’ve learned teachers are necessary in life, you can’t always
learn by example. The painful truth is sometimes you ARE the example. Perhaps my turn as instructor was successful
for someone since one can only be confident of a single performance at a
time. Learning to create a limitation
hurts, but you must learn this. Some, you do not need; especially the illusion
that we are subject to terms and conditions of time and usefulness is
unacceptable.
Having been
through all these experiences and more has possibly created an adrenaline
junkie somewhere dormant within me – still waiting to be released. In the meantime there is a hunger that never
relents; to learn, to excel, to become, and yes – to suspend disbelief. That is after all how it works.
