With the popularity of motocross growing in leaps and bounds all over the world, it was just a matter of time before seriously entertaining motocross or supercross footage showed up in a major motion picture. The popular Disney film Motocrossed set records as the Disney Channel's most-watched feature. This accomplishment sent writers, directors and stunt coordinators all over Hollywood searching for two-wheel talent. There have been attempts in the past to blow up motocross with films like Winners Take All, but they just didn't seem to hit the mark. Recently, the movie XXX, with Vin Diesel, had some radical freestyle jump footage, and the movie Serving Sara, with Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley, had some arenacross footage, but no movie in the history of Tinseltown has ever had as much two-wheel talent and excitement as the upcoming feature film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
Director McG, who also directed the first Charlie's Angels, got the idea to put supercross in the movie after watching the huge interest and excitement of the freestyle motocross portion of the X Games. He immediately asked second unit director and world-famous stunt man Mic Rodgers to rally up a location and riders. Rodgers, who has raced motocross since he was a teen and can still rip some pretty fast lap times, quickly put his right-hand man, Chris Tuck, on the job. Tuck is a stunt man and stunt coordinator, originally from Arizona, who actually was a fast pro in his day. As well as performing countless other stunts, Tuck is the dude in the new Mountain Dew commercial who jumps the golf cart over the green and then steps out of it and waves to the stunned crowd. With his background in motocross and supercross, and his connections with the best riders in the world, he and Rodgers were able to come up with a location and put together a cast of riders that would absolutely blow the director, the producers and all of Sony Pictures Studios away!
The location was set in what we later nicknamed the "Coal Bowl." Rodgers and Tuck found it in San Pedro, California, when they were working on The Fast and the Furious. The track was set in the middle of a huge black coalfield with 30- to 40-foot-high mountains of black diamond coal all the way around the track. To make the track look like a futuristic, underground location, Rodgers and Tuck had Dirt Wurx build a full-blown supercross track that actually weaved its way up, over, down and under 30-foot-high cement, peristyle-type pillars. For stadium whoops and massive 80-foot doubles, a tunnel was made out of shipping containers.
The two-wheel talent that Rodgers and Tuck put together could be described as nothing less than spectacular. Of course I would say that, because I was one of them. Tuck began by finding doubles for the angels, played by Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu. Tuck needed to figure out who would be the right size and shape and who could pull off the tricks to double the girls. The first pick was freestyle rider Ronnie Renner, who would have the task of doubling Drew Barrymore. There was almost nothing funnier than when Renner was in costume, which consisted of a long blonde wig, a skintight jersey and pants and a chest protector with breasts molded into it. He played the part perfectly.
The next project was finding a double for Cameron Diaz. That task took on double duty. Andy "Regis" Harrington and Trevor "Airball" Vines shared the wealth. Harrington would do all of the crashes and fast laps, while Vines did the tricks. There was no love lost between these two. It had actually started months before the shoot, when Harrington, who is a freestyle judge, didn't give Vines the score he thought he deserved at a contest. Well, it escalated from there. Vines found Harrington's digital camera on the set. A few days later, Harrington just happened to be showing his grandmother the photos when all of a sudden, a picture of Vines popped up, mooning the camera. It didn't end there. Harrington immediately went down to Kinko's and photoshopped a poster of the picture with the saying, "For a good date, Trevor is your mate, just call 1-888-sterilizer," and plastered it all over the set. Vines confronted Harrington, and we had to split them up. At lunch, Harrington modified his bike to look like Vines' freestyle bike, with a big grab handle draped over the back of the seat similar to the one on Vines' bike. Harrington then rode around the set with his legs draped over the bars in a "sterilizer" fashion. Of course he was yelling so everyone could see him, "I am Trevor from wherever, I do the sterilizer," and the entire set was on the ground rolling, except for Vines. Once again, they had to be separated. When it was all said and done, Vines got the last laugh. Harrington had just bought a brand new Dodge truck that he was showing off to everyone. While we were down on the track shooting, Vines went over to the special effects truck and got the guy to paint some scratches down both sides and on the back that looked just like the truck got keyed. When Harrington came back to see his truck, he started to tear up. "That's not cool," he cried. "I am going to kill Vines," he yelled. Just then, Vines walked up and wiped off the marks. The duel was over. "You win," conceded Harrington, "I can't take any more." Let's just say they sort of got along the rest of the shoot.
Christopher Gosselaar was picked to play Lucy Liu's part. Talk about the perfect size and shape. When he was in wardrobe with hair, breasts and tight gear, he looked exactly like her. He proved to be the center of attention pretty much the entire shoot. He is the type of kid who was constantly getting in trouble in school, and it was no different on the set. In fact, he almost got sent home several times for messing around. There were a couple of things that stuck out in my mind about Lil' Goose. First off, he whips the bike as hard as anyone in the world! I have seen some gnarly whips in my time--Cooper, Carmichael, McGrath, Windham, Stewart and even myself on occasion--but I have never seen anything like what Gosselaar was doing consistently, lap after lap, over the 80-foot double. He was even more impressive on an XR70. Lil' Goose jumped nearly every jump on the track on the 70. He did a double-double rhythm section that took some of the freestyle guys two days to jump on their 250s; he did the peristyle jump, which shot him a good 20 feet high and 30 to 40 feet in distance; and he was gearing up to do the finish line jump on the last day, which was a 65-foot jump, peaked and doubled when Tuck and Rodgers finally put a stop to his madness. If there is anyone in this world who belongs on a motocross bike, it's Lil' Goose.
With the angels out of the way, Tuck had to find doubles for the other three major characters. Nick Wey was called on to double good guy Max, played by Shia Labeouf. Wey got to ride a full-blown Pro Circuit Yamaha race bike and basically lead everyone around the track. Wey was a great choice for Max; his flowing, smooth style put some serious credibility into Max's character. Plus, he was the only rider brave enough, or fast enough, to ride in front of Ryan Hughes for three weeks. Playing Thin Man, one of the main characters, was none other than Johnny O'Mara. Riding a flat-black KTM with bright red wheels, O'Mara proved that he is still the most stylish dude on the track. He doesn't ride much anymore, but I could still just sit and watch him bust laps.
The "God Bod" Dave Castillo was picked to play the other bad guy, Emmers, and was a perfect pick. Castillo had to double a guy from South America named Rodrigo, the "Latin Lover." As soon as Drew Barrymore caught a glimpse of the God Bod's bod, he was immediately written into a speaking part that has him chatting with Drew as she sits on the back of his bike giving him a bit of a reach around on the abs. Don't think he didn't catch some serious grief over that. Next time you see Castillo at a race, be sure to give him a "What's up, Emmers?"
Then there was the camera bike. Of course, my good buddy Chris Tuck sold me on the fact that I was the perfect guy to ride the camera bike. Happy to be working, I quickly agreed. I didn't realize that the bike was a YZ250 with 33 pounds of camera equipment and hardware bolted to it. It wouldn't have been a big deal except the crew wanted me to do the whole track on it. Have you ever tried to jump an eighty-foot double with 33 pounds strapped to the bike? Not fun! To make things worse, every time they changed the angle of the camera, which was controlled remotely, it would change the attitude of the bike. For the first two weeks, every time I got on the bike something would break within one lap. One time, I landed off the big double and the camera bracket broke, locking up the steering. I flew off the track with a $30,000 camera attached to me; somehow I saved it. Once they got all of the bugs worked out, we proceeded to get some of the most insane footage ever.
Tuck and Rodgers didn't stop with principal stunt doubles. Mic Rodgers convinced the studio that to have a somewhat realistic supercross segment, he needed a whole cast of pro riders. Joel Albrecht, Clifford "the Flyin' Hawaiian" Adoptante, Erik Anderson, Shae Bentley, "Mad Michael John" Mike Jones, Casey Johnson, James Povolny, Ted Campbell, Broc Glover and "Ryno" Ryan Hughes rounded out the cast of pros. Several real stunt guys were also used to do some of the insane crashes and crazy antics. Tuck picked guys who were all actually pretty good riders. Clay Fontenot, Louie Franco, Doc Charbonneau, Kenny Alexander, Dan Wynands, Shawn Lane and Tim "Too Tech" Trella, who also served as the first unit stunt coordinator, were some of the insane stunt dudes. Gloria Fontenot, Donna Evans and Jennifer Caputo also doubled the angels in some of the easier riding scenes and utility stunts.
As remarkable as it was, there were only a few mishaps during the three weeks of shooting. On the first day, Ryno accidentally stuffed Shae Bentley and James Povolny in the same turn at the same time. The end result: a cracked elbow and some serious road rash on Bentley's part, and a shattered radio on Mic Rodgers' part. That same day, Tuck had to chew out Mike Metzger (who was making a cameo appearance as well as busting a back flip) for jacking around on an XR50 while the first unit was trying to film a speaking scene with the angels. Trust me when I say that, after seeing the Tuckster mad, we all pretty much stayed in line, except for Lil' Goose. He had the entire crew cracking up with practical jokes like putting black coal dust around the face foam of goggles or on the forehead pad of helmets. He always seemed to start it, but one of us would always get him back. Unfortunately, it all came to a screeching halt one day when we were doing starts. While Gosselaar was looking the other way, Harrington undid his goggle strap and hooked it through the handlebar crossbar and reattached it, so that when Gosselaar went to put them on he couldn't get them off the bars. He panicked and ended up doing the take without goggles. Ryno was lined up next to him, so he automatically assumed that Ryno did it. On the next take, just before Rodgers yelled "Action," Lil' Goose grabbed the goggles off Ryno's head and chucked them over his shoulder. Everyone was rolling with laughter except for Rodgers and Tuck. Let's just say the entire line got a major chewing. We later found out that to do just one start can cost up to $5000; we shaped up quickly after hearing that.
Unfortunately, the worst thing that happened came on the last day of shooting. Broc Glover came out to be a part of the show and figured the track out pretty quickly. One of the last shots we did was a camera bike shot in which I am ahead of the pack and the camera is shooting behind me. I did the two big doubles and turned the corner to see a dust cloud and a bunch of riders on the side of the track waving their hands. Apparently, Glover's bike bogged on the takeoff of the first big double, throwing him over the bars. Luckily, his body cleared the landing, but he still packed super hard. End result was a broken collarbone, several broken ribs and a punctured lung.
There are a few cameo appearances from some of the top dogs. Ricky Carmichael has a shot standing by the track in his street clothes checking out lines; Carey Hart makes an appearance, his girlfriend Pink also plays a role as the race starter; Mike Metzger gets to bust a back flip as well as hang next to his bike without a helmet. But the coolest cameo of all has McGrath sitting on his bike without his helmet on. Cameron Diaz's character, Natalie, looks over at him from across the pits and gives him a cocky kind of a shrug suggesting a "bring it on" attitude, and in super-slow motion McGrath looks over at her and simply flashes a seven with his fingers. It sounds corny, but with the music and the riders in the background, it turned out pretty sick!
In true Charlie's Angels fashion, there are definitely some outrageous things happening. Bikes get shot out of cannons with dummies attached to them, creating sick crashes. There are green screen shots of Emmers and the angels flipping around on the bikes, kicking each other off in midair, along with some very unrealistic race situations like Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu kicking the top pro's butt on a supercross track. After seeing what they were doing, we figured that the segment was going to be way over the top. But after McG, the director, showed us the first uncut segment that the film editors threw together, every one of us was in awe. The footage was unbelievable! The way they mixed dialog with slow-motion footage and pumping music is truly chilling. Every moto head will get goose bumps watching this part of the film. The footage was so good that the studio ended up expanding the length of the moto segment tremendously; and they changed the movie's name to Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
Look for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle in theaters this month.