Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>
>>> Chicago Tribune has had an amusing long-running series in which movie,
>>> tv, and theater actors are interviewed, and encouraged to tell
>>> embarassing stories about themselves.
>
>>> William Fichtner is absolutely hysterical talking about having to do a
>>> very difficult horse-riding stunt in the Johnny Depp-Armie Hammer horror
>
>> "Arnie hammer horror" - I love it
>
> Heh. Hadn't occurred to me, I swear.
>
>>> The Lone Ranger (2013), in which he must leap from a moving train onto a
>>> saddled horse.
>
>>> Fichtner was not a stuntman and hadn't ridden a horse at all in 37
>>> years. But the director demanded "realism".
>
>>> I love movie stunts, and it doesn't bother me in the least that a
>>> professional stuntman and not the actor is performing the stunt. I can
>>> suspend disbelief. The cutaways have never interfered with my enjoyment
>>> of the movie. I just want to see the stunt and hope no one was hurt, but
>>> that's not going to be the case when they make the actor perform it.
>
>>> It's worth reading; turn off javascript.
>
>>> https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/what-to-watch/ct-ent-my-worst-william-fichtner-20230530-ie6qbj6prrb3nj5du6hq373l5i-story.html
>
>> Can't be done.
>
> Sigh

Thank you. All I got was a page saying I had to pay to read this article
because it’s special content for subscribers only.

>
> My worst moment: William Fichtner didn't know how to ride a horse. Then
> he was asked to do a horse-riding stunt.
> By Nina Metz
> Chicago Tribune
> May 30, 2023 at 5:30 am
>
> In the thriller "Hypnotic" from writer-director Robert Rodriguez,
> William Fichtner plays a man who uses high-tech mind control for
> nefarious purposes and Ben Affleck plays the cop who must stop him.
>
> "I've turned down plenty of bad guy roles in my life, even when I needed
> to work," said Fichtner. "I can't find some redeeming quality --
> something that drives the character -- then I don't know what to play.
> And I found so many layers with this guy. You gotta find that thing that
> the character cares about, and if you find that, you can make him a real
> person, whether we like him or not. I like to joke that if you're an
> actor and you try to make interesting choices and you have cheekbones?
> You kill people. That's all there is to it. But I've done just as many
> comedies as dramas."
>
> That includes several seasons on the sitcom "Mom." His credits also
> include "Armageddon," "Black Hawk Down," "The Perfect Storm" and more
> recently the ABC heist series "The Company You Keep."
>
> When asked about a worst moment in his career, Fichtner replied: "I
> looked up my bio and I went through every movie and, I kid you not, I
> don't know if I have a cringey moment outside of being on set for a week
> and calling the director 'Pete' and I find out his name is Robert. So I
> was racking my brain. And I have had moments where I'm like, 'Ugh, you
> gotta be kidding me' and then you have to find your way through it. So
> I'm gonna tell you about one of those.
>
> "It's a story that really stopped me in my tracks and silently inside I
> thought: How am I going to do this?"
>
> My worst moment ...
>
> "This was about 10 years ago. I was taking my wife skiing with the boys,
> and my agent called and said, 'Listen, you're going to get a call in an
> hour because I'm pretty sure you're going to get an offer to play Butch
> Cavendish, the gunslinger in 'The Lone Ranger.' And it's a Jerry
> Bruckheimer film, I've worked with Jerry, like, five times. I don't say
> no to Jerry, I don't care what it is, he's such a gentleman. So I'm
> like, 'You got it.'
>
> "I get to Albuquerque 48 hours later and Tommy Harper, the stunt
> coordinator, picks me up at the airport and he says, 'All right, I have
> a question for you: How's your horseback riding?' And my heart sank. I'm
> like, 'Uh, 37 years ago I rode a horse for 12 minutes and swore I'd
> never do it again.' And he's like, 'Oh, that's interesting. Because the
> one thing (director) Gore Verbinski wants you to do in this film -- and
> it's on the schedule for three months from now -- not only does he want
> you to ride a horse, but he wants you to jump out of a moving train onto
> a horse. And they don't want to use a stunt guy because of the way
> they're going to shoot it.'
>
> "He's telling me all this while I'm waiting for my luggage.
>
> "He said, 'We've built our own railroad out in the prairie. We have 11
> miles of track. We've flown in the old train cars. And your gang is
> going to ride up on the outside of the moving train, they're going to
> open up the door and unchain you and then you're going to aim your guns
> at Tonto and the Lone Ranger and then the horse nearest to the train is
> going to have an empty saddle. The train is going to be going 18 miles
> an hour, so the horses are going at a full gallop. And Gore wants you to
> give this whole speech, tip your hat and then turn around, jump off the
> moving train onto that horse with the empty saddle and then ride away.'
>
> "I'm a team player. So I'm like, 'Heh, sure.' And he's like, 'Instead of
> going to meet Gore, why don't we go right to our cowboy camp?' I'm just
> terrified. I had three months to prepare for this.
>
> "So we started working on the stunt with a flatbed truck that wasn't
> moving, and jumping from the truck to the saddle. A week later we take
> it up to three miles an hour. A week later we take it up to six miles an
> hour. And we kept doing that until we got it up to 18 miles an hour. And
> your aim has to be perfect, but I remember one of the guys said to me,
> 'Bill, I promise you, you won't hit the ground -- I'll grab hold of
> you.'
>
> "So we're practicing and I'm in the high 90 percentile making it into
> the saddle. But on the day, it's not just the jump. I have a whole
> speech I have to do and these busted up teeth in my mouth (that are part
> of the costume). And the idea is that I never look back over my
> shoulder. They want me to just turn and almost blindly jump straight
> out. I will literally see the saddle when I'm in the air.
>
> "The reason Gore wanted to do it that way was because, when you cut
> away, everybody knows that's the magic of movies. But he didn't want to
> cut away. He wanted the camera behind Tonto and the Lone Ranger, so it
> was watching me jump. The whole time the camera would see the horse out
> there galloping with the empty saddle, and then I turn and jump and it's
> like, 'Wait a minute, did he just do that?'
>
> "So it was time to go. And I remember the first AD shouted out, 'All
> right, the train's going 20 miles an hour,' and I thought, 'You always
> told me 18!'
>
> "I do the first take, I deliver my monologue, I turn around, jumped out
> and landed in the saddle.
>
> "On film sets, they say 'check the gate' which means check to make sure
> the last image is clean, there's nothing in there ruining the image,
> especially because we're shooting in dust and debris. And this was the
> only time I remember on the entire shoot where they were like, 'Gate's
> no good.' Something got in the lens.
>
> "And I'm like, oh my god, you gotta be kidding me. So I do it again, and
> this time the horse ever-so-slightly slowed down and I missed the front
> of the saddle. So I landed just in front of it on the horse's neck, and
> that guy I told you about reached out and grabbed my jacket right
> between the shoulder blades with those big hands and he said, 'You're
> not going anywhere.' But that meant we had to do it again.
>
> "I was always hoping this was a one-take wonder and here we are, take
> three. By the way, it isn't easy to reset for a scene like this. To slow
> the train down all the way probably takes a mile. And then you have to
> back it all the way up. There's a lot involved.
>
> "So here we go. Take three. And I'm thinking, oh please land in that
> saddle because this monologue is feeling pretty good. And I turn, I jump
> and I hit the saddle! Boom, cut, check the gate. The gate's good! And
> away I went.
>
> "And (let's out a sigh) I was so happy that it worked.
>
> "After that movie, everyone was like, man, you're a horse rider now --
> but I've never ridden one since (laughs). That's the moral of that
> story."
>
> The takeaway ...
>
> "I was happy for me, but I was really happy for Gore. This was a shot
> that he had imagined long before they even started shooting the film.
> He's such a visual guy and he had a storyboard and he explained to me,
> 'This is how I want it to look, this is how I want the shot to be.' And
> we all worked hard and he got his shot.
>
> "I walked away thinking: I did it.
>
> "I did that."
>

This sort of sounds like it ended up being a best moment.

Also like gore belongs in prison right next to Baldwin.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.