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Photo courtesy of Jay Torrez.
?We?re not daredevils,? says Tome nativeJay Torrez looks forward to burning up. The 32-year old movie stunt man and fight choreographer, who recently appeared in ?Sons of Anarchy,? says he ?had to work my way up to a full-body fire burn,? which he?ll perform on a closed set at Santa Fe Studios in early January.
Bathing in flames is a dangerous way to make a living, but it is just part of Torrez?s job.
?We?re not daredevils. We are precision calculated-risk takers,? says the Tome native. ?I?ve done partial burns before, but smoke and carbon dioxide is the worst danger, so I?ve been training in Navy Seal breathing techniques.?
Torrez, from a family of ?Spanish cowboys,? relishes the thoughtful toughness demanded by his profession. He doesn?t mind the pay either.
?We do get paid well,? he says, smiling. ?But you don?t just go to stunt school and start working in films. It?s not that simple.?
Torrez tells how he joined the elite ranks of stunt actors.
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Photo by Michael J. Miller
?I graduated from Concordia University in Irvine, California. Some surfer buddies became stunt doubles, so I thought my martial arts background might help me. Only one of my 100 [cold] calls was a hit. That was to Gene LeBell in North Hollywood. Gene LeBell put me around some of the top stunt guys. Then I had to negotiate my SAG card.?Torrez explains that in the world of stunt actors, ?Who you know? is vital.
?I got adopted into a stunt family? the only way you can work in this business. Stunt coordinators hire you from the families. Those veteran stunt people in Los Angeles taught me a lot about life.?
Torrez learned horse falls, saddle falls, high falls and trust, and he doesn?t flinch at type-casting.
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Photo by Michael J. Miller
?Hispanic guys play terrorists a lot. I have a beard now to play a terrorist. Then they?ll shave me so I can play a Marine. I play cartel guys, too. In the movie ?Machete? I worked for Eric Norris who brought me to Austin to work for director Robert Rodriguez and Jessica Alba?s stunt double. By ?coming back to life,? Torrez says, he has increased his on-screen time and job security. ?In ?Machete,? I think I died six or seven times!?
Focus is essential, says Torrez. ?Keep your mouth shut. Don?t get starstruck by Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg or Martin Scorsese on the set.?
Torrez got his ?Sons of Anarchy? role from series creator Kurt Sutter, who remembered Torrez?s work on ?The Shield? series.
Torrez loves New Mexico film making after years in Hollywood.
?I got onto ?Hamlet 2,? then ?In Plain Sight? and most recently, ?Two Guns.? We have the best crew here, and you get shots here that you can?t get anywhere else in the world.?
?Torrez will speak at the New Mexico Film Festival at UNM Valencia Campus on February 8.
?? Bill Nevins is an Albuquerque writer and teacher, and curates the New Mexico Film Festival at UNM VC.
?Through New Mexico?s rich and diverse artistic traditions, many homegrown artists now pursue their art on a world stage. This story is part of a series about New Mexico performers, writers and artists, which began with profiles of poet/writer Jimmy Santiago Baca and artist Patricia Marietta Leis in our December issue. To let us know whom you?d like to read about in this series, send an email to publisher@abqarts.com.
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Source: http://abqarts.com/?p=11781
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