Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief: The Fall Guy with Dan Reardon
Transcript
- 0:02A listener production.
- 0:04Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
- 0:06It's Friday the 10th of May 2024.
- 0:08We're going to talk to a champion on two wheels today who's turned to stunt work and brought some impressive skills to the table for the new Hollywood feature, The Fall Guy, which was filmed in Australia.
- 0:21G'day everybody, Rusty here.
- 0:22Welcome to another edition of our short cast.
- 0:24Dan Reardon is standing by in Hong Kong where he's on set working on another film.
- 0:29You may remember him from Australian Supercross and Motocross.
- 0:32This is a cool story of moving into another industry in post-race life, tooling up for it and how the racing brain still helps.
- 0:41We'll get to Dan in a moment.
- 0:43Quick plug for our latest feature episode, which dropped yesterday.
- 0:46It's a nice walk down memory lane with Alison Droa, who was a part of the RPM team in the heyday of 10 Motorsport.
- 0:53How she made Neil Crompton blush and lost for words.
- 0:56Crompo is never lost for words.
- 0:58Working with the legendary Doug Mulray on Sydney Radio when he was a part of Seven's Bathurst coverage, bringing that unmistakable humour of his to the broadcasts.
- 1:08Marrying into the Bates Rally family and how Rick and Ali's son, Zach, is now climbing the supercar's ladder...
- 1:14having wowed them in Toyota 86s.
- 1:16It was really nice to catch up.
- 1:18I hope you enjoy that.
- 1:20In the mid-2000s, our guest today was dominating Aussie Supercross with three straight titles, two in the Premier Class and one in Pro Lights.
- 1:28He won the Australian Motocross Championship in 2007 as well.
- 1:32It didn't stop there.
- 1:33with another Supercross crown in 2015, and he made quite an impression in the US too.
- 1:38He is still putting his body on the line, but for all sorts of stunts.
- 1:42And the latest release, the fall guy, with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, shot in Australia, including Sydney and parts of New South Wales, with a rumoured budget of $130 million,
- 1:54and distributed by Universal Pictures, is fittingly about a stuntman.
- 1:59I won't spoil it for you.
- 2:00Go to the cinema, the theatre, and have a look at that.
- 2:01But for a bit of a backstage tour of some of the stunt work that went into it, we are joined by Dan Reardon.
- 2:08Hello, mate.
- 2:09Welcome to Rusty's Garage.
- 2:10How are you?
- 2:11Good mate, good.
- 2:12How are you?
- 2:12I'm glad that we're catching up.
- 2:14It has been a while, but this is under very different circumstances.
- 2:17So in our kind of earlier crossing of paths, you were winning Aussie titles and Supercross and Motocross.
- 2:25You were wowing them in the United States.
- 2:27How did stunt work come on the agenda?
- 2:31That in itself helped get into this industry that I'm in now.
- 2:35Um, I had a buddy of mine years ago say that I should, you know, join or get involved in the stunt industry in Australia.
- 2:42Um, I've always loved movies, but I had no idea how they were made.
- 2:46And so I didn't realize there was a process to actually becoming a stunt guy in Australia.
- 2:52Um, and then once that I started, you got to tick all these boxes and jump through these hoops.
- 2:58I started working with these people that have been part of some amazing films.
- 3:02You just meet people at every show or every movie or every commercial that you're on.
- 3:08And then you get to the point where you work on some big productions and, yeah, you know a lot of people and, yeah, you can take you wherever.
- 3:15I love this.
- 3:16So we want to talk about the foreguy in a second, but I want people to understand a bit about this transition, if you like, that you've made.
- 3:25So there's quite a bit of work in it.
- 3:26And, Dan, there are many facets to it.
- 3:29So firstly, can we go a little bit from a fight scene perspective?
- 3:34People may not realize you've got a bit of martial arts background, jiu-jitsu, muay thai and all sorts, don't you?
- 3:40There's definitely, there's different, I guess, hoops or qualifications you need to tick off in order to be a stunt guy or a stunt woman in Australia.
- 3:49One of them is fighting.
- 3:50So it does help if you have a fighting background.
- 3:53I come from, I did a little bit of boxing.
- 3:54So that was prior to the film industry.
- 3:57So that was like a good way to get in.
- 3:58And then
- 3:59I started doing jiu-jitsu.
- 4:01I've been doing that now for about five or six years, I think it is now.
- 4:04And I kind of do these skill sets just for life or just for me, but they definitely help in the film industry.
- 4:11And then been doing Muay Thai and just a lot of striking and MMA stuff over the last probably year, two years as well.
- 4:19I just love it.
- 4:20I love all facets of training in general, and I get bored really easily, so I just need things to stimulate my mind.
- 4:27Sometimes getting punched in the face does that.
- 4:30And, yeah, it just complements the film industry very, very well because, you know, if you look at any action movie, there's going to be a fight in it, you know, and that's just like I said, that's just one facet of what you need to tick off.
- 4:41So, yeah, it keeps it very busy.
- 4:45proper love of two wheels we've covered that in the uh in the introduction but you are well versed when it comes to cars as well so i've seen you know over time stuff with uh showtime fmx and doing some some car related stuff with those guys um and there is behind the scenes kind of camera car work that you do too is that correct yeah yeah that's correct so um i guess my my specialty within the industry uh is vehicles as such so as a whole um
- 5:13Obviously, motorbikes and dirt bikes have fulfilled or are a large part of that.
- 5:17But cars as well is something I was really passionate about prior to the film industry.
- 5:22You know, I did a lot of time attack stuff.
- 5:24I couldn't afford it.
- 5:25I really wanted to do door-to-door racing.
- 5:27And I tried to go down the avenue.
- 5:28And then my wallet just wasn't big enough.
- 5:31But so I did some...
- 5:33Yeah, time attack racing and then a lot of drifting as well.
- 5:36And then I went into – started being part of like a live show, a drift show on the Gold Coast, which I did that as well.
- 5:43And then, again, these are all things that complemented the film industry because they needed guys like this.
- 5:48And it was like a bit of a hole within the industry, you know.
- 5:52And then you have to work very closely with cameras.
- 5:55So if you're working with a, say, a tracking vehicle, what we call it, or a camera car, and then we also drive that vehicle as well.
- 6:01So you understand both sides of the lens, you know, being in front or being behind camera.
- 6:05Yeah.
- 6:06Mega.
- 6:06Just before we move on here to the movie, well, some of that drifting stuff and time attack stuff, if memory serves, was that a Mitsubishi Evo?
- 6:12What did you have back then?
- 6:14So I had an Evo.
- 6:15That was my time attack car.
- 6:16And I started doing a lot of events in Queensland.
- 6:20And I was starting to go down the route of – because I went back racing.
- 6:26I retired from racing and I was just – I had this void in my life.
- 6:29I didn't know what to do.
- 6:30So I was trying to replace it with all these activities.
- 6:33And it just so happened to be cars.
- 6:34And –
- 6:35I was going down the route of I think we're going to do World Time Attack down in Sydney.
- 6:40And then I started coming back racing.
- 6:41So I had all these plans that could start to deviate in different directions.
- 6:44And I decided to come back racing again.
- 6:46And so everything was put on hold.
- 6:48But there was just these skill sets that you develop and I still use today, you know.
- 6:52So, yeah, it's definitely been beneficial to what we do today.
- 6:58The opening, if I'm right in saying this, perhaps for the, I don't think it necessarily came to pass, but there was an opportunity to be involved in Mad Max about a decade ago.
- 7:07Is that correct?
- 7:08So what they did, Mad Max, for the people that do remember the film, is they had quite specific bike scenes in there.
- 7:15And there was, I guess, so within the film industry, you have your tunnel of stunt personnel, and then you have.
- 7:22what you'd class as specialists.
- 7:23So if there was a scene that would require, say, a gymnast that's not a film person, that they couldn't find a stunt person for that role, they would reach out into the professional world and they would find that person.
- 7:35And so that pretty much happened with the bikes.
- 7:37there wasn't too many in the stunt community around the world that could do these certain things unless you come from a professional background of racing or jumping bikes.
- 7:46So they reached out to the motorcycle community.
- 7:49There was a bunch of us that got asked to go there.
- 7:51A bunch of the guys did go there and they carried on to be stunt guys now.
- 7:55Some of them went back to racing, but yeah, I was part of that original crew that got asked.
- 7:59I was just too heavily involved in racing at the time that I just, I couldn't say yes.
- 8:03but it was something that resonated with me.
- 8:05And now I understand why it was such a big thing for them to require people for that role.
- 8:11And again, that's why there was originally a small hole in the industry where someone of my skillset
- 8:17because there's been a couple of guys that have done the same thing that now fit into the industry quite well and are part of a team that is highly talented.
- 8:24Does it play to your strengths in some respects?
- 8:27Because motor racing is a lot about feel, a lot about fearless, and a lot about technical.
- 8:33So in setting up stunts in some of these, I mean, you guys...
- 8:37in the movie in the fall guy.
- 8:39I mean, in January this year, I think you shut down the Harbor bridge on occasions, you know, for a couple of days to, to get a particular scene done, which was amazing.
- 8:48But, but understanding the parameters technically, what is possible and all sorts of stuff, is that something that you learned understood?
- 8:55How did that all come to, to be?
- 8:58Yeah, it's well, I, you know, I, I really think, and that's,
- 9:04I have so much respect for athletes around the world.
- 9:07It doesn't matter what sport you do or what discipline you do, but you develop these skill sets that are never really spoken about.
- 9:14It's not really a thing to ask, but you're able to handle pressure in an accidental way.
- 9:20Your body is just used to it.
- 9:22You're subject to it every single day.
- 9:25make decisions really quickly.
- 9:26You develop the skill set, which I think has been imperative for the film industry for when you're doing stunts as well.
- 9:32It's a different sort of pressure that you're under.
- 9:35It's not a competing pressure, but you're under a –
- 9:38you know, a particular scene could cost quarter to half a million dollars.
- 9:41And you have everybody waiting for you to make that decision or to make sure you hit your mark perfectly.
- 9:46You don't, sometimes you don't get a second chance.
- 9:48You get one shot to make this work.
- 9:50So you have to deal with that pressure as well.
- 9:52But I feel that it's just something that you develop over the years for, you know, for 20, 30 years prior that you can really use that skillset to, to now venture into a completely different role, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,
- 10:04And I think it's, to me, I think it's been a massive advantage to be able to be in that scenario for so many years and then move into the film industry and still utilise the same skill set.
- 10:13So you get to work on this film, which has literally only been released in American outlets, movie theatres in the last few days.
- 10:23It's been out for a little bit in Australia.
- 10:25Now, with the support of the New South Wales government, with the support of Australian film and television industry, we bring this Hollywood blockbuster around the stunt game, ironically, to Australia.
- 10:39And you film there with...
- 10:40Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt.
- 10:42I mean, this is mega, mate.
- 10:44For a stunt professional, this movie is – there's no better to be a part of.
- 10:52There was a big emphasis on trying to make the stunts as real as possible because there's a lot of movies that have come out these days where CGI takes over, and a lot of the stunts, they may start – it's not so much the stunts –
- 11:06They just want the film to be done in a certain way, which they don't utilize practical stunts.
- 11:11And so it was a big part of the team from the producers to the director to the, you know, the stunt coordinators from the States to say, look, let's make this as practical as possible.
- 11:21And we broke a lot of records in this film.
- 11:25It will be up for a lot of awards within the film industry and hopefully the Oscars one day.
- 11:30And it's just, uh,
- 11:32We had so many talented human beings on this film.
- 11:34It was incredible.
- 11:35And every day was really, really special to go to work.
- 11:38And we knew that this movie was going to do something for the film industry, for the stunt industry in general.
- 11:44And so everyone had that excitement every single day when they went to work.
- 11:49And it was just we did so many big stunts that it just felt like a normal Tuesday or a Wednesday.
- 11:53When normally on a film, you have a big stunt and everyone looks forward to that big stunt throughout the entire film.
- 11:58Like today's the day, guys.
- 12:00With this one, it was like, oh, today we're crashing four cars.
- 12:02Oh, well, and tomorrow we're doing that.
- 12:03It was just such a normal thing.
- 12:05It was amazing.
- 12:06Cool.
- 12:07I mean, you've brought up something which I reckon is really important there.
- 12:11In the way that we celebrate so much of Hollywood and the various aspects of the industry, from music composition to acting to costumes and so on, it has created a conversation, Dan, around proper recognition for the stunt industry and what it does for filmmaking, hasn't it?
- 12:28Yeah.
- 12:28It really has.
- 12:29And there has been guys fighting for this for many years, you know, to try and to push the stunt industry into the Oscars and just get the recognition that we deserve.
- 12:38You know, there's people obviously that have been in this industry far longer than I have, and they've been fighting for this for a very long time.
- 12:44I now in the last few years understand what they're fighting for.
- 12:47And, you know, stunt professionals are artists.
- 12:49You know, we help create the movie and make it what it is.
- 12:53You can't do an action movie without stunt professionals.
- 12:56It's impossible.
- 12:58And we, a lot, and that's the, one of the biggest things that I'm so proud about is if you sit at a table full of stunt professionals, there are so many people, so many talented people that are from different parts of the world that have different backgrounds that you're just in awe of, you know, you want to know their story every, you want, or you always want to know their story because they're just so talented at what they do and you just get all these people together.
- 13:20And when we make movies together,
- 13:22using the best of the best.
- 13:24And that's why we can create movies like The Fall Guy, use practical stunts.
- 13:28And I'm just as excited as other people that aren't involved in the stunt industry to just watch it and just see other people perform.
- 13:34You know, it's so important.
- 13:35Cool.
- 13:36We want the audience listening to the podcast today to go and see the film naturally so we don't want to spoil everything.
- 13:42Firstly, you've touched on some of the records.
- 13:45There is a Guinness record in this for the most amount of cannon rolls for a car.
- 13:50Is that correct?
- 13:52That's correct, yeah.
- 13:53Yeah, that's Logan Holiday.
- 13:56I met Logan when he came out to Australia, and he is amazing, a really good human being, and we will be mates now forever because of that.
- 14:05And it was a big part of the movie that we get this right.
- 14:10We did a lot of rehearsals to get that right.
- 14:12That wasn't the first role that you saw that you will see in the film.
- 14:16I think we might have wrecked three cars or four cars during that.
- 14:21Um, but we, um, yeah, we worked tirelessly every day to make sure that we could at least give the best possible chance to do that.
- 14:28And yeah, he broke a record, which is amazing.
- 14:30It's amazing for, for Logan, the film industry, the, you know, the stunt industry.
- 14:34And yeah.
- 14:35Did you get to have much time, any time with Ryan Gosling and did he do any stunts himself?
- 14:42A lot of people don't understand is that we do hang around with actors or actresses quite a bit.
- 14:47You know, um, you get used to it, you know, it's, it's, it's, I'll let,
- 14:51Because everyone's so professional, they're not fans of what they do, but not in that fan-ish sort of way.
- 14:59That's quite normalised.
- 15:00So we hang out with them daily.
- 15:01Yeah, it's quite normalised.
- 15:03Ryan's a very good guy, very humble, very respectful to the stunt community.
- 15:07And Ryan did do a lot of the stunts.
- 15:11He has to be injected into some of those stunts himself because you can't just always use a double.
- 15:16So there is moments where Ryan is actually doing his own stunts.
- 15:20And in the film, there will be, I drive a bin truck, I'm a bad guy.
- 15:25And Ryan's actually on the back of this bin truck.
- 15:29And yeah, I'm driving him around over the Harbour Bridge, you know.
- 15:32So there is definitely moments that he's doing, you know, some of his own stunts.
- 15:37A quick break on this edition of Rusty's Garage.
- 15:39More with Dan Reardon on the other side of this.
- 15:43You're listening to The Motorsport Brief, our shorty, that today is talking motorsport and movies and how supercross and some drifting and steering and time attack ultimately led Dan Reardon into stunt work, and he is immersed in it now.
- 15:58Let's get back to the conversation.
- 16:00I'd encourage people to go to your Instagram, for example, because you do every once in a while let fans behind the scenes to see a bit of the work that you do in this stunt game from stuff on a high rise and some of the fight scenes that we've talked about.
- 16:15And there is some work around weapons and things like that, too, which I would imagine has been a part of your training and learning as you've morphed into this.
- 16:23I sort of was interested in that world prior to the film industry world, but it has been a massive advantage to be able to have that skill set because –
- 16:31I enjoy shooting.
- 16:32I shoot regularly at home.
- 16:34And, again, a lot of action movies have, you know, gun scenes or whatever.
- 16:38So you need to be comfortable or confident to be able to handle a weapon in a safe way.
- 16:42You know, when you go through mag changes or you just – you need to look like you know what you're doing.
- 16:46And we have a lot – so a lot of the times we will have weapons advisors or military advisors on shows with us that have some past experience.
- 16:54And so they take us through, for example, the film that I'm doing right now.
- 16:58We've been clearing rooms in groups of two, threes, and fours that you would do that you would see on any special operations show or anything that's tactical.
- 17:09We've just been doing that every day for six hours a day.
- 17:11So, you know, we get some really, really good training as well.
- 17:14The training is fun.
- 17:16Um, and it's just, it just makes a movie that much better when you have those professionals around.
- 17:21Awesome.
- 17:21I love that authenticity, mate.
- 17:22Couple to, to finish here.
- 17:24I think in, in the four guy movie, there are cameos as well that kind of hark back to the original, which I love.
- 17:29So I think Lee Majors and Heather Thomas is Jason Momoa, make a little, little appearance in there somewhere too.
- 17:34Jason's in there as well.
- 17:36Uh, Lee Majors, it was awesome meeting him and him being part of that towards the later parts of the movie.
- 17:41Um, yeah.
- 17:42It was just, we had so much fun on that film, you know, getting these cameos in, getting these people in.
- 17:47It was just, everyone was just,
- 17:49There's just so much love and appreciation for what we're doing.
- 17:52And it's really, really nice to see those people involved in it as well.
- 17:55Yeah.
- 17:56To finish, Robbie Madison got to do some stunt double stuff for 007 for James Bond.
- 18:03He was, you know, riding in some cool places.
- 18:06Is that kind of going to be one of the zenith moments for you where you get to blend all of this together and do some cool two-wheel stuff as well?
- 18:12And perhaps you're already doing that for all I know.
- 18:14I think when you first get into the industry, you just want to be part of it, right?
- 18:17And then you figure out your niche or you figure out what your direction that you want to go in and to be part of big films like that, I would love, you know, I would really, really love.
- 18:27It just takes time.
- 18:27It takes time to be a part of it, meet these people, show them that you're a,
- 18:31You know, you're a half decent human being, you have a good skill set, and then you can pretty much travel wherever you want in the world and do some crazy stunts.
- 18:40The Fall Guy will be hard to beat in terms of a stunt movie as a whole.
- 18:45but there will definitely be some big special stunts that will come up in the future for sure.
- 18:49Great, great stuff.
- 18:50To finish, mate, are you still dabbling in a little bit of racing?
- 18:52Do you whet the appetite every once in a while?
- 18:54Because I would imagine you still love bikes and doing that when you can.
- 18:58And secondly, we're talking to you in Hong Kong right now, and you're in the midst of either prepping or working on another film already, aren't you?
- 19:06I do still ride.
- 19:07I get, I wouldn't say hassled.
- 19:09I do get asked to come back and do some racing.
- 19:11I think those times are done.
- 19:13I've never officially retired the second time because I just didn't know what was going to happen.
- 19:18But it's just, I've been injected so deeply into this industry now, it would, I would have to get myself back out for too long of a period of time.
- 19:26So I think that I'll do some fun ones if there's a 125 race.
- 19:31You know, I'm a vet now, I guess, or I'm getting close to being the vet stage.
- 19:35So I can do those sort of races.
- 19:38And, yeah, you're right.
- 19:39I am in Hong Kong at the moment.
- 19:39We're doing another film.
- 19:41And we're in the later parts of this film.
- 19:43I'm just doing a small stint over here for about six weeks.
- 19:46And then I'm back home into Australia again.
- 19:48But, you know, we are working with stunt professionals that are probably from six or seven different countries here.
- 19:54So, again, it's just one of those really great films where you're going to meet so many talented people, all come together and create some magic.
- 20:01Awesome, mate.
- 20:01Hong Kong, Bruce Lee Central from back in the day.
- 20:04I hope you have fun on the set there.
- 20:06Enjoy that.
- 20:06It's been super to catch up with you and to share with people a bit about what you're doing now.
- 20:11I love the racing chapter, mate.
- 20:12You're a proud dad as well, and keep getting after it in the stunt game.
- 20:16Well done.
- 20:16All right, mate.
- 20:17Thank you.
- 20:17Thanks for your time.
- 20:19The Fall Guy is now showing at event cinemas in both Australia and New Zealand.
- 20:23Go and check that out.
- 20:24Love yarns like this one.
- 20:26Pursuing something in post-race life with the base skills or foundation that the sport gave you.
- 20:32Good stuff.
- 20:33And you can hear it in his voice.
- 20:34He's properly passionate about stunt work and that industry.
- 20:38And I love what he's doing there.
- 20:40Great work.
- 20:41Some other bits of news before we go.
- 20:42Lando Norris still soaking up that popular win at the Formula One Miami Grand Prix.
- 20:48Will that car and the updates that they brought enable McLaren to take it to Red Bull at the next round, which is a very different layout, at Imola?
- 20:56I felt for Oscar Piastri, who looked like he was definitely on for a podium, and a nice positive for Dan Ricciardo with that fourth in the sprint.
- 21:05Is Adrian Newey going to sit it out for a bit or go to Ferrari?
- 21:08And what does his exit from Red Bull next year mean for that team and Max Verstappen's ties to it?
- 21:14The silly season for the driver market in Formula One is going to require a lot of popcorn.
- 21:21MotoGP has announced its 2027 regulation changes with an emphasis on providing better overtaking, smaller front fairings, a reduction in engine capacity from 1,000cc to 850.
- 21:33They're the headlines of the new regs.
- 21:35A move to 100% sustainable fuel that comes in, ride height devices are out, and there will be less engines allowed per rider for the season too.
- 21:45What do you think of the Penske decision to suspend four team members for the big month of May, including the president, Tim Sindrick?
- 21:53This is huge.
- 21:54Aussie Luke Mason, who engineers for Joseph Newgarden and played a major role in last year's Indy 500 win.
- 22:00Plus Robbie Atkinson, a data engineer on Will Power's card.
- 22:03They're all benched for the most important race of the season and everything around it, following the push to pass scandal that was uncovered at Long Beach.
- 22:12And well done to Shane Van Gisbergen and the team and everybody at Quadlock for that matter.
- 22:16The paint scheme for Darlington is a nod to Marcus Ambrose.
- 22:20Yellow and black, iconic.
- 22:22Marcus loves the retro livery and he has very fond memories of that track.
- 22:26I hope it goes well for SVG.
- 22:28That is it for today.
- 22:29Scott Dixon is set to join us on the shortcast next week when the month of May really shifts into gear at Indianapolis.
- 22:35We are planning to catch up with him around practice for the 500.
- 22:40So keep an eye out for notifications on that one.
- 22:42Catch you next week, everybody.
- 22:43Bye for now.