Creative Casting

Standing before a rapt audience of summer campers inside the gymnasium of the Chula Vista Boys and Girls Club, R. David Smith unstrapped the special prosthetic arm he’s used to perform stunts in such entertainments as “Tales From the Crypt,” “The A-Team,” “Showdown in Little Tokyo” and, most recently, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.”

“How many of you have seen ‘Predator 2’?” he asked, anticipating the usual large show of hands, even though the thriller carried an R rating. “Remember the scene in which Danny Glover cuts off the hand of the alien creature who’s hanging off the side of a building? That was me, and this is the arm I was wearing.”

Waiting a beat for the palpable rush of excitement from the kids, Smith went on to explain all the gory details of how fake blood--Karo syrup and food dye--was made to explode from the stub of his prosthesis, and how the mangy creature he played broke its fall by crashing through a window.

“That’s when I broke my back,” he cautioned, only slightly deflating the kids’ enthusiasm.

In his 20-plus years in the stunt business, the tall, rugged Southern California native has broken several major and minor bones. He expects more surgery this summer on his right hand and a foot. Smith, who was born missing his left arm just below the elbow, had put off the surgery to take advantage of the rush of film production that preceded contract negotiations among actors, writers and producers.

The founder of the 8-year-old nonprofit Stunts-Ability is excited about the placement of amputee actors in such big-budget projects as “A.I.,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Windtalkers.” With any luck at all, exposure for Stunts-Ability alums in pictures like these might encourage other producers to treat disabled performers as valued members of the stunts community.

“Stan Winston, who designed the robot characters in ‘A.I.,’ knew they were looking for amputees to do stunts,” Smith recalled, relaxing after the assembly at a swimming pool within spitting distance of the Mexican border. “We helped casting director Sandy Alessi put together 130 amputees from around the country, and they picked eight out of that group.”

Despite many protests in the ‘80s over lack of jobs and access by people with disabilities, Hollywood has been slow to find work for them on either side of the camera. Except for such high-profile stars as Christopher Reeve, Marlee Matlin and Chris Burke, only a few character actors--Alan Toy, Robert David Hall, Mitch Longley and Chris Templeton among them--have been able to find regular work in television or in the movies.

Stunt coordinators have been even more unforgiving when looking for people to portray characters with disabilities.

“Producers won’t use a white stunt-double in place of an African American, a Native American or a Hispanic,” Smith said, referring to rules imposed by the Screen Actors Guild. “If there isn’t a black stunt-double on the set, they’ll call one up and get him out there.

“Yet, they don’t even think to call us for stunts, even though we’re covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act and SAG policy. If you’re going to do robots on ‘Star Trek’ or tie up someone’s arm in a stunt, then use an amputee.”

He said he also wonders why creative casting can’t be initiated in the search for extras and other jobs that could help pay the bills and cover insurance premiums.

“Stunt coordinators and effects guys will see someone with one arm and think, ‘I can’t do this stunt with two arms, how is he going to do it with one?”’ added Smith, who as a teenager was a star athlete. “Instead, they decide to tie up the arm of one of their regular stunt actors, because they already know he can do it.

“If you’re looking for realism in war movies, you want to use amputees.”

Brayden Hawk, a stunt coordinator who often works with Stunts-Ability graduates, concurred.

“Twenty years ago, if there was a scene in which someone is blown up, it was standard procedure to get an able-bodied person and tape one of his arms or legs behind him and do the [scene] that way,” Hawk said. “Trouble is, that actor wouldn’t be able to act like an amputee, because he wouldn’t have the same balance. It would just look different.

“An amputee is used to not having both their arms or legs, and that really sells the shot. It’s something more and more production companies are realizing, and the idea that a company is going out on a limb by hiring someone from Stunts-Ability has diminished dramatically.”

Because stunt work is covered by the guild contract, no one should confuse any work offered to actors with disabilities with charity. The insurance benefits alone are worth putting up with long days and gritty assignments.

“A while ago, [I] got a call from a production company that was looking for a bilateral amputee [missing both legs], and it came at about the same time we just happened to be at a Planet Hollywood [in San Diego] doing a show,” Smith said. “During the performance, a legless guy raced past us on his skateboard, looking like a pirate. When we chased after him, he thought we were after his money.

“After we explained who we were, he agreed to go up to Los Angeles to meet with a producer. He made something like $20,000 for the job, plus residuals and insurance. He also got another job out of it.”

Effects coordinators, he pointed out, “can do so much with bilaterals, because they can put them into very small places.”

Gail Williamson coordinates the talent development and industry relations division of the state Media Access Office, a disability resource to the entertainment industry.

“We offer and encourage training, and the Christopher Reeve Foundation gives an annual scholarship for training,” she said. “One of our actors, Robert David Hall, is currently the coroner on [“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”]. He’s a double-leg amputee and walks with an arm crutch.

“He’s been a judge on ‘The Practice’ and ‘Family Law,’ and he just signed a six-year contract with ‘CSI.’ He’s working because he’s an incredible actor, not because he’s a double amputee.”

“Stunt guys are actors, because they have to sell the shot,” Smith said. “If their character is on fire, they have to make it look as if they want to be put out. We also teach set etiquette, so they know the protocol when it comes to asking questions or getting help.”

Williamson noted that total unemployment in California is near 5% but that the jobless rate among people with disabilities is around 70%. “My passion is with children, and I go to individual educational programs, to create plans for them,” she said. “I had a little girl with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair and couldn’t get into an arts programs at the school she was attending because they didn’t think she could find work as an actor. This girl already had two credits and an agent, but they were convinced she had less of a chance than every child at the magnet high school across the street.

“The girl ended up getting what she wanted, because it was a reasonable request.” Williamson said she recently was sent a commercial breakdown from a Los Angeles advertising firm representing Marshall Field’s department store. “It says they’re looking for ‘men who can play blind, 30-34,’ which is like saying, ‘We want white guys to wear blackface,”’ she said. “They still don’t get it.”

Students of cinema history will remember that onetime paratrooper instructor Harold Russell, who lost both hands in a World War II training accident, was awarded a supporting actor and special Oscar for his work in “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

William Wyler, the director who recruited him for the film, was convinced that he was doing Russell a favor by advising him to abandon Hollywood for more reliable work.

Wyler probably was right. Unlike most other Oscar winners, Russell wouldn’t find work in the movies for another 34 years.

“‘Best Years of Our Lives’ was only one film, and Russell ended up having to sell his Oscar to afford surgery for his wife,” Williamson said. “No one talks about that.”