Tell about yourself and your background! *
It's complicated. It didn’t start good at all. Grew up in a shitty environment as a kid. Totally lost as a teenager. A lot of drugs and fighting on the street. Ended up in Prison. No goals no ambitions what so ever. Then I joined the local theatre. Met a lot of great creative people. They embraced me and showed me that I don’t have to prove anything. And I could start being my self. And then I realized that acting was little boring. Nothing happened. People just standing and talking. I have a totally different view on that today. Acting is a really cool psychological challenge. The same way stunt is challenging physically. So my stunt journey started quite late. I was 28 years old. Then I went to United Stuntmen Association International Stunt School in Seattle. Went back home to Sweden and did two seasons on the Wild West Stunt Show in High Chaparral. And then back to the US to do another stunt school session with Kahana Stunt School. And then the door knocking began. Knocking your way into the movie industry in Scandinavia.
What inspired you to become a stunt performer?
Guy Williams Zorro and Bruce Lee.
What is your greatest skill as a stunt performer, is there a stunt behind it?
Adjusting to the situation. Sometimes it's stressful, sometime it's painful, sometime you don’t wanna do it, sometimes you don’t like somebody. But all that is controllable.
What is the best part about being a stunt performer?
It's creative. To figure out how to solve a certain action situation and perform it. The more complicated the situation is the more interesting the challenge are. Finding physical solutions to be friend with gravity. In Scandinavia, we need to be much more creative to figure out solutions for our action scenes. The financial resources for a Scandinavian movie could be something similar to a Hollywood catering budget. Which doesn’t leave to much finances over for rehearsal and build komplex brake away stuff to practice with.
Tell your all-time favorite stunt story!
I was preparing for a 100 feet fall, 30 Meters. It was on a silo close to town. I got it confirmed from the local Police. So everything was in order. I went up to get comfortable with the hight. And I sat down and dangled with my legs over the edge. Walking the fall through my head. When suddenly the fire departements ladder truck accelerate in to the area below. With a sedan fire departement car after. I was thinking, what’s all this fuzz? And the person In the sedan jumps out and starts screaming up to me. Wait! Wait! Dont do anything! And I replied: Do what? Then she told me to come down. And I went down. It was a psychologist and a couple of fire fighters. Who got a call from someone from the neighborhood about a suicide. And i explained the situation, and we all laughed.
What advice would you give other stunt performers?
Safety at all circumstances. Be honest about your work and have patience. If you are dedicated. Your time will come.
Anything else you'd like to tell the community about?
There is an interesting question that’s going on in the community. The question about being part of the Academy. Most of the other artforms in the academy has decades of published research and shared knowledge in their fields. Im not sure if we even agree that stunt is an artform. Most books in the stunt field seems more focused on peoples carriers. Look how cool I am and how I made it. And that could absolutely inspire people. But I have read a lot of books about acting. And none of them was about how cool the author was. The focus where on the subject. And I learned a lot. Thats what I think we need. Now remember. This is a personal opinion.
Please share your social media handles and how we can follow you!
https://www.instagram.com/robban.follin/
Please include any links to stunt reels or videos you'd like to share!
