IN FOCUS BIG INTERVIEW
“EVERY STUNT
PERFORMER HAS
A SPECIALITY,
BUT YOU NEED
TO GET TO AN
ELITE LEVEL IN
AT LEAST SIX
DISCIPLINES”
Men’s Fitness You’ve travelled the world and worked with
some of the biggest actors on the planet, and all because of
an ad in the paper?
Bobby Holland Hanton “Yeah I was a gymast at the time.
I started gymnastics when I was four, and I competed for
Great Britain until I was 17. I had a Russian coach, who left
to work in America, and I started to have a few back issues,
coupled with a huge growth spurt, so I was thinking it was
probably time to knock it on the head and give something
else a go. I started playing semi-professional football for my
local club, Fareham Town, and around that time I saw this
ad in the paper: to audition for a high-diving stunt show
at Legoland. I went to the audition, got the part, and never
looked back.”MF What was your fi rst proper stunt gig?
BHH “It was stunt doubling for Daniel Craig in Quantum
of Solace when I was 23. We fi lmed in Panama, Sienna and
back in the UK. I was supposed to do that job for fi ve weeks,
but it ended up being six months.”MF Th at’s some debut! How does a 23-year-old fi nd stunt-
doubling for James Bond?
BHH “Yeah it was, it was a dream come true going straight
in on one of the biggest stunt jobs in the industry. It was
a real eye-opener, too, working with one of the best stunt
teams in the world. Th at enabled me to hit the ground
running and pick everything up fairly quickly.”MF Did your background in gymnastics enable you to get
those big gigs early on?
BHH “Yeah for me, my side of things is very physical –
jumping around, getting thrown about, doing parkour,
performing acrobatics – so gymnastics was a great base. It
gives you spatial awareness and teaches you how to control
your centre of gravity; I would recommend it to anyone.
“A lot of stunt performers are either martial artists, or
trampolinists, or high-divers – everyone has a speciality.
To become a stunt performer you need to have certain
qualifi cations: you need to pass tests and get to an elite
level in at least six out of a possible 12 disciplines.”eaping across rooftops,
being set ablaze and
saving the world from
various existential
threats is all in a day's
work for elite stuntman
Bobby Holland Hanton.
For the past seven years
he's doubled for Chris Hemsworth as the
hammer-wielding hero Thor in the Avengers
fi lms, but he's also graced our screens as
Batman, James Bond, Tarzan, and various
other all-action characters. During a rare
break from fi lming, MF caught up with
Hanton to discuss his relentless regime,
super-sized diet and fearless mindset.L
MF Sounds intense. What are you qualifi ed in?
BHH “Th e UK British Stunt Register is slightly unique. In the US you don’t need
to qualify in such a range of skills, so that was a process in itself: having to train
and specialise in six diff erent areas. I’m qualifi ed in gymnastics, trampolining,
ten-metre high diving, kickboxing, scuba diving and swimming.”MF How long does it take to master one of those disciplines?
BHH “I was very lucky, in that I already had a background in gymnastics,
trampolining and high diving, so those three were nailed down already. For the
scuba diving, kickboxing and swimming, it was a couple of years of training to
get the necessary qualifi cations.”MF Th e life of a stunt performer is about as physically demanding as it gets,
but health and safety must have improved a lot since the days of Evel Knievel
– is there still an element of danger in your job?