Tag Archives: stunt double

Interview with Martin Ivanov – stunt driver who has played in 4 James Bond films

20 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by in Martin Ivanov, No Time to Die, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre

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Martin Ivanov is a rally driver who became world famous stunt driver. He is well known for his stunts in James Bond films, as well as for doubling Matt Damon in Jason Bourne series and great performances in many action blcockbusters.

Interviev with Martin Ivanov

Interviev with Martin Ivanov

Piotr Zajac (bondlocations): Before you became stunt driver you were rally driver. You also drove a Formula 1 car. It was impressive how you drove under jumping truck (video).

Martin Ivanov: When I had a call from my client about this job I thought that it was once in a life time chance to drive a Formula 1 car. We went to former military air base. The first day in was raining all the time and it was really wet, so it was quite dangerous. On the next day it was dry, but still cold. The tires were cold, so there was not much grip. I had a few runs in Formula 1 car to get the filling, to get used to the clutch and steering wheel. It was quite easy because of all the systems in the car. I was driving up and down just for fun to try Formula 1 car for about 40 minutes or 1 hour. I was trying to make left turn as close as possible to the ramp. Then we went for a jump. I was supposed to cross in the middle of the truck. When the time of filming was coming closer and closer everyone in the team was getting more and more nervous. The director and the producer said that I could cross in front of the truck and thanks to special camera settings it would look like I was crossing under the truck. I said that we should do it for real, without any camera tricks. I had backup plan for safety. When I was driving I was watching if the truck was on the ramp and if the ramp was still in one piece. Everything was fine so I turned left. If anything would be wrong I would just go straight. After turning left I went on a small road on aside. It was covered with mud. The car spun, but I went back. Tires were ice cold and it was like 5 degrees celcius so I had no grip, especially in mud and in the puddle in Formula 1 car.

That was in 2014 when you were already known as James Bond stunt double. Your first 007 movie was ‘Quantum of Solace’. You were driving Aston Martin in the opening car chase sequence together with Ben Collins.

The sequence was mostly done by me. Ben did just a few fast straight runs. He did a little bit of the tunnel sequence at Lake Garda and a little bit of straight driving near Carrara. I did all of the action scenes like drifting or spinning in the tunnel and the whole part in Carrara quarry.

A few years ago I was in Carrara quarry. The road was rather bumpy like for off-road rallies. Did you have to repair Aston Martin quite often because of that?

Aston was surviving quite well. We had more problems with Alfa Romeo cars. There was a problem with engine, we had to cut tires for better grip.

Did you have special suspension and tires in Aston Martin for filming in Carrara?

We put spacers so it was a bit higher. We had winter tires, which were softer, better for loose gravel. That was it.

How long were you filming the whole car chase sequence?

We had a couple of weeks of testing and preparation. Then we were filming for over a month. At first at Garda Lake for a few weeks and then in Carrara for two or three weeks.

How did you film the part in the tunnel?

Everything was at first rehearsed and tested. It was mostly the scene with the truck that had a blown tire and pushed me into the wall. These were stunts with special effect rigs. There was not much space for improvising. They first shot me going through the traffic. Then we’ve spent a lot of time with going around the truck. It required probably three takes. It was quite difficult to spin 360 degrees in the narrow tunnel. We did it two times. When I was doing it the gearbox cable was snapping from the impact probably. I did 360 spin, I lost the door and I wanted to accelerate but I couldn’t change the gear because the cable was gone. It happened both times. After this spin there was another truck coming towards me but it was shot separately. In one take, which was actually in the movie, it was very close. I had no driver’s door and truck’s bumper was really close, so I could feel the wind from that.

Was Daniel Craig present on location? Did you film any scenes with him in a car at Garda Lake or in Carrara?

Mostly he was filmed in front of green screen in the studio, but he came few times on location. We had a car that we called Go Mobile. It was a platform with engine on which any car body could be placed. The stuntman was a driver and actor could play.

Did you drive this platform?

No. There was a driver sent from the company that rented that Go Mobile from USA.

How many Aston Martin cars did you have on set?

We had six or seven. Some of them were clean, some of them were damaged i.e. without driver’s doors. Some cars had special effects rigs to help in doing stunts.

Did you also play in other scenes except car chase?

All of the drivers played in the sequence with horse race in Siena. We were dressed like Italian horse race spectators. Daniel Craig was chasing Glen Foster. They were running and pushing people back. We were just those people who were standing on their way.

In ‘Skyfall’ you were fruit seller in the opening sequence in Istambul.

Yes. We were selling oranges with Ben Collins. We were running away when Audi was sliding and crashed into the table with oranges.

In what other scenes in ‘Skyfall’ were you involved?

I was mostly background driver.

You had much more work in ‘Spectre’. You were driving Jaguar C-X75 as Mr. Hinx. I’ve seen you in action in Rome. I was there at the Tiber river when you were filming final part of the car chase with Jaguar in fire and Aston Martin sinking in the river. How did you prepare for that scene?

We put protection on ebonite on Jaguar. There were gas tanks or something like that mounted in the car. When the fire from Aston hit the Jaguar the gas caught fire.

Was there any stunt driver in Aston Martin when it jumped into the river?

No, the car was on a cable. There was no engine in that car. It was filled with foam so it was not sinking fast.

I rember that one Jaguar was with POD system on the roof. Was it also you driving that?
Jaguar C-X75– Jaguar C-X75 with POD system on the roof on the ‘Spectre’ film set in Rome, Italy.

I was driving in POD on Jaguar. I remember that this POD was very strange. We were rehearsing for two or maybe more weeks just driving that POD and trying hand brakes, drifting. It was very hard to drive POD on the Jaguar. It didn’t work as we wanted. The steering was super heavy and not responsive. At the end we used it for maybe three hours one night and that was it. We just drove straight on the street. That was just a few seconds in the movie.

How is a steering wheel in POD connected to the steering system in the car?

There are different types. Usually we use hydraulic system. There is a pump at the steering wheel connected with hydraulic hoses to hydraulic actuator at the steering column. They are very heavy, sometimes they allow to turn more and sometimes less. Those with mechanical connection by shaft with joints between steering wheel in POD and steering column in the car are much easier to drive. You have the same feeling as driving normal car. Special effect engineers built electric one. I drove it. It was very strange. You don’t get the feeling. Sometimes it switches off because of a glitch and you have no steering. The best is POD with mechanical connection.

Did you have any technical problems with cars, especially when you were driving down the stairs? I know that gaps between stpas were filled with concrete, but still it was not smooth road.

On one take when I drove down the stairs I broke rear control arm so the wheel was turning itself. We didn’t have many other problems.

In ‘Spectre’ you were also driving Land Rover in Austria. Bobby Holland Hanton with whom I was talking a few months ago was one of your passenges. He said that it was ‘hair raising experience’ when the airplane hit the roof. Was it also scary from your perspective as a driver?

No. For me it was always too slow. Defenders were not very powerful. It was quite difficult to accelerate uphill. Especially when you are in mountains so there is less oxygen. Power drops down even more. It was difficult to make car chase in that slow car. Range Rover Sport was very powerful and fast, but Defenders were just dying.

I thought that they were specially prepared for the movie.

They were prepared, but the engine hasn’t been changed.

So you would prefere to drive Range Rover Sport.

I was supposed to be driving that car with Dave Bautista, but last night before the beginning of filming director Sam Mendes called stunt coordinator and said: ‘Martin can’t be Dave Bautista’s driver because he looks like an underwear model, not like a gangster’. Evangelos (Grecos) who was in the second Defender went to Range Rover and I was in Defender for the whole chase.

So in ‘Spectre’ you were driving Land Rover in Austria and Jaguar in Rome. Was it also you driving Jaguar at the Blenheim Palace in UK, where the beginning of the car chase was filmed?

No. I was still in Austria. That was someone else driving in UK.

You have also played in ‘No Time to Die’. I know that you are not allowed to reveal anything from the plot, but maybe you could tell something about filming scenes that we have already seen in trailers.

In trailers you could see a car chase that we were shooting in Norway and in Scotland. You could see me many times in trailers how I was doing that flip in Range Rover over Toyota. After that we went to Italy to Matera to shoot another car chase. I was driving black Jaguar there.

I’ve read the story about Coca Cola sprayed on the street to improve traction.

We used Coca Cola first on ‘Skyfall’ when we were shooting in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul on marble tiles that were really slippery for the bikes. We were spraying Coca Cola on those tiles and we got better grip than on normal asphalt. In Matera all roads were made of stones and were very slippery. We had quad bike with big tank full of Coca Cola that was spraying it all over the street. As soon as you put Coca Cola you have so much grip that you can’t even drift.

Did you have to repeat spraying with Coca Cola every day?

It was repeated even during the day because after a few runs it was covered with dust and it was loosing the grip.

Thank you for the meeting and for sharing all the stories from James Bond films sets.

December 14th 2020

Interview with Bobby Holland Hanton – stuntman who has played in 3 James Bond films

01 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by in Bobby Holland Hanton, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre

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Bobby Holland Hanton has been professional stuntman for over a decade. His career began on the set of ‘Quantum of Solace’. Since then he has worked on number of movie hits. Find them all on his website.

Piotr Zajac and Bobby Hanton

During an interview with Bobby Holland Hanton

Piotr Zajac (bondlocations): You have started your career as stuntmen in film industry from James Bond film – ‘Quantum of Solace’. How do you remember that time?

Bobby Holland Hanton: To jump into high level and work with such a great team, great stunt coordinator and learn very fast on my feet was a great experience. I’ve kind of used that throughout my career today.

How did you get to ‘Quantum of Solace’?

I went for the audition. I had a couple of meetings with the team. I had some photos taken showing my stunt reel at the time. Then I had a couple of physical auditions. It was a process of about five auditions. I got a call to come in and stunt double for James Bond. I think originally it was for five weeks and ended up being six months. Gary Powell, the stunt coordinator, kept me on for the whole show and I ended up doing a lot more sequences than I was originally supposed to do. I was very lucky in that aspect.

Your first stunt ever on film set was jumping in Panama.

Yes. The Panama jump from balcony to balcony was my first introduction to the film industry and to the stunts especially at that kind of level. I mean the highest level to go in. It was 2 a.m. in a morning. Three storeys up. It was the balcony jump with one to the other of a distance around 7 meters. I was jumping from high to low. It wasn’t massive distance but it was enough to get that distance of 7 meters for the jump. There were no safety cables, no safety mats just due to the fact that camera angle was over my shoulder. Once I left they wanted to follow me as much as they could. They wanted to pan down and see the street. There couldn’t be any safety so it was a hair raising introduction.

Did you do any rehearses in Pinewood Studios before the actual jump?

Yes, this is exactly what we did. In Pinewood Studios we rehearsed on stage at floor level. We had the exact measurements and dimensions of the actual jump and the balcony. We did it at floor level first to make sure that the distance was achievable. Once I’ve done it at that distance Gary Powell said: ‘Listen, you can do it at floor level, that is fine, but make sure that you are prepared to do it at high level and don’t freeze, because the last thing you want is to freeze up there when you’re three storeys up and you’ve got no safety to protect you’. So it was psychological battle. It was a challange I was very much up for doing. I felt like massive point approved being so young at my first job and I was quite lucky that I had background in gymnastics. I did a lot of jumping and springing, a little bit of long jump. I knew that it was a skill of mine that worked well and I did a big jump. We went to rehearse it in Panama. We built a scaffolding and put some safety to make sure that it was durable. So it was all done in a safe process. We wanted to make it as safe as possible, because what we were doing could be very dangerous. I rehearsed that twice with the safety. Once it was done Gary said: ‘OK guys, that is early day, we are done. We come to shoot in the evening’. We executed it twice and we went home. I was very, very happy young man.

It was not your only stunt performance in that movie.

I was at similar height and build to Neil Jackson, the actor that Bond fights in the room with knife, so I was fighting againts Daniel and Ben Cooke. I did that fight. I helped with some of the fights and shot some of the fight sequences there. I was supposed to go home after those six weeks, but Gary turned to me and said: ‘You are going straight to Siena for five weeks and do the rooftop sequence there’. I went there and I did it. After that I went to Pinewood Studios to finish up the movie for a further three or two and a half months. I met some very close friends of mine to this day on that show, on that team and some inspirational people and some people who helped me very much long away learning the craft and learning the skill though.

When I was in Siena I was looking for the balconies but I couldn’t find them. Now I know that they were built on scaffoldings just for the movie.

Lots of the location was practical. It was the actual beautiful architecture that has been there for many years. They’ve added the element of set built to work for the story and added a few little pieces in, so we could make a travel distance longer and more exciting than the actual, original.

When you were jumping from the roofs it looked like you’ve damaged parts of them, but I’m sure that were just some props.

Yes, exactly. It was part of the set really. There was a lot of set built that went into it which would have taken the crew a lot of time to get it to the level it did and make to look as realistic as it did. They did a fantastic job. Gary and the director wanted the tiles to break away in part of the sequence to add that element of danger. Bond sliding down and maybe slipping off the roof had obviously added to that high octaine chase sequence. The adrenaline rush that even the audience will get from being bumped on the edge of seats. What is gonna happen here is very dangerous and obviously adds a hudge element to the sequence. Yes, there were a lot of set builts and a lot of props and broken tiles, but it was stuff set and ready to break on impact. As you can see in the sequence it was done very well.

I’ve seen on some photos from the set that you had special shoes in Siena, not as elegant as 007 usually wears.

I had a couple of sets of shoes. There were the set shoes that were the actual shoes that you would wear with the suit. The actual James Bond costume shoes if the camera was shooting a bit tighter they would have to use them. We also had a pair of completely black lightweight running trainers with grip so we could actually run, jump and use them to be able to perform the stunt to the highest standard that we needed to make the sequence work. As I’ve found throught my career in all the films I worked on, that there are good few pairs of footwear and different kinds and styles of costumes to make things work.

In which sequences you were performing in Pinewood Studios after filming in Siena?

When I went back to Pinewood it was coming to the end of the film. I did some pick up shots of the gallery sequence on the ropes. We did the film credits with silhouettes. I was on rotational harness looking like falling through the credits. It was more of pick up stuff that we had to do to make the scenes linked together as smoothly and simultanously as possible. Big stuff for me was in Panama and in Siena.

Could you tell something about your performances in ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’?

For ‘Skyfall’ I was in Turkey for six weeks and a few days back in England. It was more helping up with the stunt team. I did a little bit of driving in Turkey. For ‘Spectre’ I played small part in one of the vehicles that we shot in Austria. We were part of that big chase sequence in the snow when the plane came down and was tapping at the top of the car. That was a great experience and nice to play a small part in that. It is always nice to work on a Bond movie at any capacity.

Can you tell more about the chase sequence in Austria, about the preparations for that sequence?

A lot of time goes into the preparation with that type of thing because it is an action sequence that could potentially be very dangerous. It is dangerous. It needs to be done in a right way, organized and with people not rushing. A lot of time needs to be spent on it. We were heading in Land Rover towards a real plane on cables. It was smashing the top of the roof at some pace. If you imagine traveling at some speed towards it and the plane coming back that way you are actually doubling that speed. I’m not gonna lie but there was a few times we were quite hairy. ‘Wow, that was close’. It was well rehearsed, it was set up very safely by everyone who was invloved and it went well. It adds the element of excitement, danger and adrenaline and that is what they are looking for and they keep raising the bar.

How the scene like the one with the airplane smashing through the building was filmed? I guess that there were not many takes?

Yes. You do dry runs. You basically rehearse it as many times as you need to make you confident that it is going to work on a day. I think we must have done it two times, because they could rebuilt it twice.

How was it to work with Daniel Craig?

He is great, he is great athlete. He has put his heart and soul to James Bond franchise. He is probably the best of all time really. He has changed the franchise as far as the Bond character in that kind of gritty kind of organic and it feels very real which is great. He has definitely done an amazing service for the franchise and he is such a nice guy.

We couldn’t see you in the latest Bond movie: ‘No Time to Die’.

Lee Morrison, very good friend of mine whom I met on ‘Quantum of Solace’ was the stunt coordinator for ‘No Time to Die’ and he actually did call me and asked me to do a sequence, but I couldn’t do it. I had back surgery at the beginning of last year. I was out for good amount of time so timewise it didn’t work. That was unfortunate because I would have loved to be able to work on it, to be able to work on all of them since I’ve started, but I had to put my health and safety first. I wasn’t physically ready to be doing anything of that kind of caliber. Unfortunately it didn’t work out but you never no, hopefully the next one comes around. Who knows. It is always an honour to work on a stunt movies, for Bond.

How can you summarize your Bond experiences?

I obviously remember my first experience in ‘Quantum of Solace’, being so young, 23, my first job and being thrown in the deep. It was huge learning curve for me. It was kind of like a deer in headlights, to be honest, because you kind of learn as you go being on your toes all the time ready to go for anything. It was definitely a way to learn for sure. ‘Skyfall’ was very different for me, I didn’t have as much pressure as being Bond double. I’ve already done a few films by then and I was a little bit relaxed, but not too relaxed as the industry is dangerous. ‘Spectre’ was again different experience for me because I played a small part. It was great to see that side of the film industry. In James Bond films you feel special process of the film making.

Was it something special for you to be involved in Bond franchise?

I’ve been a big fan of Bond growing up and watching them all as a kid and into my early teens and late teens and early adulthood. Being part of that is something that not many people can say they’ve done and done at the highest level with the best people and with the best team. It is an honour.

What is your favourite James Bond stunt?

The crane sequence in ‘Casino Royale’. The parkour sequence on the crane was phenomenal. It was the first one that Daniel did. That was the first one that Gary Powell was in charge of and I think he changed the industry in that kind of aspect. The crane sequence is amazing to watch.

Which of your stunts do you remember as one of your most dangerous in your career? Is it the jump in Panama in ‘Quantum of Solace’?

I think that this particulat stunt is still one of stand out stunts in my career today, 13 years ago, because it was a big jump with no safety, no cables and all the elements that went with that – being my first time, being so young. It is something that is very memorable for me and it will be memorable for the rest of my life. I’m very proud of it, that I could do something of that standard as an opening for my career.

Thank you for telling me all that great stories from your Bond experience.

May 19th 2020