Use Of English Test 10 – The Fall Guy

Nick Gillard earns a living working as a stuntman on films and TV shows but his first lessonexperimenttasteattempt of show business was trick-riding circus horses when he was just 12 years old. Four years later he got the chance to performshowpracticeplay in his first film. ‘I really enjoyed working on the film,’ Nick remembers, ‘so I started asking how I’d go aboutgo bygo forgo on becoming a stuntman.’ Nick couldn’t just introduceset upput upestablish as a stuntman straight away. First he had to get allowedagreedacceptedapplied by the British Stunt Register, which represents stunt professionals in Britain. To do this he had to reach instructor marklevellinemeasure in six sports including skiing, riding and gymnastics. Since qualifying atinbyon the age of 19, Nick has worked on many movies and he has doubled for some of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Safety and timing are all-important for stunt professionals - they plan everything down to the leastlowesttiniestlightest detail. ‘We take the utmost careattentioncautionguard. It’s not like being an actor where you can takehavegivemake the shot again if it goes wrong. It’s got to work first time.’ Nick has ledmadedonegiven some terrifyingly dangerous stunts. For one film he jumped across a bridge in a speed boat, and in Alien 3 he was putsetlitcaught on fire, without air, for more than two minutes. Filming on location fetchesbringsfliestakes him all overacrossthroughabout the world, often for months forinaton a time.