By now it’s undeniable that you’ve heard or read something about the filming of The Revenant.
A big budget Hollywood film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and starring such talent as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy & Will Poulter to name a few.
In mid 2014 I was fortunate enough to have been brought onto the crew as a ‘stand-in’; a position that mimics the motions of the actors to help the rest of the crew set the camera & lighting.
Originally hired to stand-in for Will Poulter’s character ‘Bridger‘ (as seen on my crew id), I joined a team of approximately 12 other utility stand-in and rotated for multiple actors.
This was the largest team of ‘second team’ (aka stand-ins) I have ever even seen utilized for any production.
My time on set was an adventurous journey to say the least and if you’ve read or watched any of the many entertainment reports from set, you’ll have heard of the colourful environment that I worked in.
Come late November 2014, after nearly 6 months on the film, I decided to move on to the production team of the filming of the TV series Fargo.
A lot of my readers ask what else I ‘do’, and so I’ve decided to share this one facet of my life outside of blogging.
Stand-in work and being on set is a passion for me and I’ve been so fortunate to have been a part of such amazing productions over the years.
And though I’ve dedicated many years to this career, my position is a position that has typically gone uncredited in the world of film & TV thus making my participation unknown. You won’t find me in the credits and besides the few selfies taken on set a stand-in’s work is merely a fading memory.
This weekend The Revenant will be up for numerous Oscars.
I’ll be watching… And when it wins them – which it will – I will accept a very small part of it for the hard work and commitment I put in during my 5+ months on set alongside the rest of my ‘unknown’ stand-in crew.
Now that I’ve shared a bit of me, I’ll head back to fulfill my secret passion… The life of a Stand-In.
Mr. Fab -in
Tell us what we really want to know. What did Leo smell like?
…LOL, No comment… I can’t really say much about the production, we signed NDA’s