A stuntman is a trained professional who performs daring acts like jumping off a high-rise building or passing through a ball of fire in a movie, but when they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
While stunt work is a lucrative career in Hollywood, it is still undervalued in Nollywood.
David Patrick, or Mr Nollywood, is an unassuming Nigerian stuntman. You would walk past him and not realise that months ago, he was a stunt double for the footballer Alex Iwobi when he was required to jump over several cars in Lagos traffic.
As a first-generation Nollywood stuntman, he spent most of 2020 and 2021 falling off multi-story buildings, crashing cars, choreographing fights, and surviving infernos.
He has featured in several movies, including ‘King of Boys,’ ‘Soólé,’ and ‘Devil in Agada’ ‘Superstar,’ and the recently released ‘Mambas Diamond’.
In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, he speaks about some of his death-defying leaps and the low appreciation of the stunt industry in Nigeria.
PT: What is the role of stunt performers in movie production?
Mr. Nollywood: The stunt or choreography industry has been there for a long time. The stunt coordinator is the safety manager on that set. For instance, I’ve been set on fire before, I have jumped from two-story buildings, and many other risky things. So I risk recommending a safer approach for lead actors.
PT: How did you get into the stunt game?
Mr Nollywood: It started 20 years ago in 2001 when I was in secondary school. I was learning Karate, martial arts, and Nigerian Man O’war, not knowing that all these things would accumulate to be a better thing for me. My colleagues and I were featured in Nollywood movies pro bono. We didn’t even realise what we were doing, we just felt that we were action actors, but as the years went by, we realised that the industry in Hollywood was called the stunt and fight industry.
PT: What were your childhood aspirations?
Mr Nollywood: I wanted to be a doctor. I once sold herbal medicine; joined the Nigerian Red Cross, where I was certified. But as I was approaching my dreams, other side attractions started coming in. I loved Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Van Damme, so I embraced martial art. I was playing with my mind, and it became a reality.
PT: What death-defying stunts have you performed?
Mr Nollywood: I have been burnt on a movie set. I have also used a dispatch ride to collide with a moving vehicle; I did it twice. I take these risks to understand the safety measure. But, unfortunately, we don’t have all the facilities to spare in Nigeria. So the stunt artists put our lives on the line to protect our superstars.
The most dangerous one I have done is set myself on fire without a fire drill. Ideally, I was supposed to have carried out a fire drill as it would have to help me prepare for an evacuation in the event of a fire or other emergency or so the fire doesn’t touch my skin. Unfortunately, the producers had a string shoe budget. He initially wanted to set a dummy on fire, which wasn’t realistic for me, so I rose to the occasion.
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PT: How did you do it?
Mr Nollywood: I coated myself with so much cloth and water. People would think it was just cloth and water, but it was burning inside. Though it didn’t rip off my skin, I felt all the heat. And they poured five liters of fuel on me. Funny enough, the movie is yet to be released.
PT: You featured in three highest-grossing movies in 2021
Mr Nollywood: Yes, I was featured in three movies, ‘Soole,’ ‘King of Boys,’ ‘Mambas Diamond,’ ‘Devil in Agbada’. I also coordinated and performed the stunt coordination in the accident scene in the ‘Superstar’ movie.
PT: What does it take to perform a stunt in a movie?
Mr Nollywood: If you didn’t pull off a realistic car accident, you would have to use a condemned car. This will help you know the accident’s impact on the car because I can’t perform some stunts twice. If the camera is not well set and correctly angled and you pull such a stunt on a new car, it will amount to colossal damage.
PT: Have you pulled such a stunt before?
AdvertisementsMr Nollywood: I was the stunt double for a footballer, Alex Iwobi, when he was required to jump over several cars in Lagos traffic in a DSTV advert. I had to hire a car from a mechanic garage, pay them for complete bodywork, and use it to rehearse.
Unfortunately, my knee shattered the glasses on one occasion, and I significantly damaged the vehicle before I mastered the stunt before it was eventually recorded. However, on the shoot day, I practised 20 times on a brand new car without breaking a single glass because I had extensively practiced on a condemned car.
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