MI6 court up with UK Freediving Champion , Steve Truglia. In this in final part interview we look at his experience on "Tomorrow Never Dies", his Guiness World record attempts and much much more...

Interview - Steve Truglia (Part 4)
5th March 2006

MI6 caught up with UK Freediving Champion , Steve Truglia. In this final part of the interview we look at his experience on "Tomorrow Never Dies", his Guiness World record attempts and much much more...

The World Is Not Enough

What stunts did you perform in The World is Not Enough? I was a member of the crowd under the boat that speeds over the Millennium Dome in the opening sequence. The Q boat came over the top of our heads. Where was the sequence filmed and how log did it take to shoot? That particular sequence took two days, without the preparation. Don't try this at home I've just got a great sense of survival. If you use your mind you can do things two ways. You can do jackass stunts if you like to hurt yourself. The crazy kid with the BMX who says I'm going to see how fast I can go off a ramp. It will look great on film but you’re going to hurt yourself and won't be laughing long. You certainly won't be employed very long in this business either! Or you can have a calculated intelligent approach; I'm going to do this jump on the bike. What speed do I need to hit the ramp at? What angle? What am I going to land on? How am I going to land? How am I going to practise? What if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? Let’s practise and do it safely. That kind of approach keeps you alive and keeps you from serious injuries.

Region 2 - Amazon

What has been you favourite film you have worked on, or your favourite stunt you have performed?
Defiantly "Tomorrow Never Dies" because of the diversity of work. We made a poor film in Lebanon called "Labyrinth" which to the best of my knowledge has never been released. I've searched for it and I just can't find it.

I made that two years ago, I did most the stunts, it was just mad. From being set on fire, blown up, jumping off this and that. But I certainly enjoyed making the film. However my first proper job was "Tomorrow Never Dies." I was in ore, working on a James Bond film. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this, it was just amazing. An interesting anecdote for you, when we’re filming the Range Rover scenes, one of the stunt guys, a passenger got told off twice because he was grinning, he's supposed to be a bad guy a drug dealer type trying to kill Bond! He just said "I'm sorry, I'm just so happy to be here." He was so pleased that he couldn't stop grinning. We'd be sitting in the car around the corner before we took off and be thinking this is the best thing in the World. While trying to keep a straight face for the cameras, where as now its bread and butter
work..

Anyone who tells you, they don't get some excitement out of this is simply lying.

Above: Steve prepering for a dive Image courtesy of Deeper Blue

Vic Armstrong is a legend in the stunt world and the Bond "family". What was it like working with him on the Bond project? Absolutely amazing, I found myself in awe working with Vic because of his background. I found him to be a very knowledgeable, approachable and lovely to work with. I learnt a lot from him, like improvisation when a weapons jam. What do you do in a scene when your weapon jams? Weapons jam all the time because of the type of blanks they use. Some ammunition is worse than others, when that happens instead of cutting a scene Vic taught me how to improvise. You don't just stand there because you wreck the whole scene. You walk over to a vehicle and pretend your talking on a radio. Just talk into your hand, do anything in order to let that scene continue. That was a learning curve because we didn't do what we were supposed to do. If something goes wrong I'll do something else, that's still action, not what was originally planned but its OK. It’s actually got me out of a lot of trouble.

He's a professional with an amazing amount of experience, I don't think you can be in this business and not be in awe of Vic and what he's achieved. He's a thoroughly nice bloke, very approachable. Do something for him like crashing a Range Rover and he'll shake your hand and slap you on the back and say well done. When you’re young and new in the business, just starting out, it’s worth its weight in gold when someone of his stature says well done.

That all important CGI

How do you feel about the advances computer imagery is making to cinema? Do you feel the days of the stuntmen are numbered, or will there always be a need to have a person in the midst of the action for real? I'm on my soapbox, this is my favourite subject. I'm consistently hearing from people that they're finding the big unbelievable stunts over the top, everybody knows its CGI and the good news is when you do those CGI stunts you still need stunt people. So there's still work for us and I believe that will always be the case. I predict there will be a backlash the way fashion goes around in circles.

Above: Steve Truglia sky diving

Cycles

I think the backlash will be people craving real stunts. On a personal level there are far too many films and I'm not talking about Bond now, which are big action movies that insult the viewers intelligence. There have just been so many films where it's been so over the top that it almost goes beyond entertainment.

It physically couldn't happen it’s too unreal there will be a time when the audience will crave for appropriate stunts and want to see things done by people. If you know real people are doing stunts there's that element audiences love to see. A stuntman doing the job that always enthrals an audience, everybody knows that it's a stuntman.
Whoever the action hero maybe, if the stunts he does are so incredible inconceivable the human element is slightly lost. There's always a need for a stunt performer in so many things especially television, maybe not so much in huge movies. I can't ever see a time in our lifetimes where you'll never need stuntmen. If you look at any of these films with massive special effects and CGI, you look at the list of stunt performers it is huge.

You’ll see like 30-40 stunt performers on big films like "Terminator" and "The Matrix". I prefer stunt people but believe in progress and technology. If things are going a certain way then, we as stunt performers need to adapt and learn how to work with the tools, which are available to a director.

We're just a tool for the director like computer-generated imagery, that's fine. It will never do exactly the job we do. If we need to modify how we work as a stunt arrangers rather than stunt performers by offering alterative suggestions to the director where they might be able to use technology to make things interesting I'm not adverse. I'm not against CGI, but would happily say to a director did you considered another option? We could CGI this part or we could blue screen or green screen that and have an actor do it.

00-Seven Questions How were you involved in the Bond series? Stuntman / Stunt driver What was your first ever Bond experience? In a tank of cold water as previously discussed What did you think of the last film, "Die Another Day"? Very good What is your favourite Bond film? Dr. No Who is your favourite Bond? Sean Connery Which Bond girl should come back? Ursula Andres if you could find a young version of her. She was just the sexiest thing on legs . My taste in women anyways! Absolutely amazing, coming out of the sea was just the best scene ever. What is your favourite Bond moment from the series? Toss up between The Man With the Golden Gun: I love it when Roger Moore said to M: "Who would pay $1millon to have me killed?" M says back "Apart form jealous husbands frustrated chefs…." Those lines are hilarious. It has to be a stunt, my favourite moment bar none. Is the stunt where he ski's off the cliff top and you think for just a second how he going to get out of this? And he pulls his parachute and it's a Union Jack. Everyone in the cinema roared and clapped. That is just about the best stunt I've seen in any film, in my opinion bar none. Not the most difficult stunt but it's the best I've ever seen.

Many thanks to Steve Truglia and good luck with his future work.

MI6 Biography Name: Steve Truglia Portfolio "The World is Not Enough" - Stuntman "Tomorrow Never Dies" - Stuntman

Related Articles:
Interview Steve Truglia (Part 1)
Interview Steve Truglia (Part 2)
Interview Steve Truglia (Part 3)
Tomorrow Never Dies MI6 Movie Coverage
The World Is Not Enough MI6 Movie Coverage
Steve T's Official Website