A Quote by Ben Stein

I don't consider an actor a star if he's paid $20 million and grimaces in front of the camera and has a stunt man stand in for him. They may be fine actors, but they're not role models. The real stars are wearing body armor in 130-degree heat . . . They're getting shot at and they don't have any stunt doubles standing in for them.
Every morning, I get up, get out of bed, and get on my knees and thank God for waking up in America ... (She is) the light of the world ... A nation of heroes ... The real stars are wearing body armor on top of their battle dress uniforms in 130 degree heat and they do not have stunt doubles to come in for them when the going gets rough and the bullets and the shrapnel start flying. They are the real stars, fighting terrorism and trying to free a nation.
I could take my grandma and put her in a cape, and they'll put her on a green screen, and they'll have stunt doubles come in and do all the action. Anybody can do it. They're relying on stunt doubles and green screen and $200 million budgets - it's all CGI created. To me, it's not authentic.
An actor would be foolish to do something that might hold up the picture, or more importantly incapacitate him. If an actor does do a stunt he needs to make sure a stunt man stands by to see that it's done correctly.
I love the physical roles. I have the utmost respect for stunt people and stunt doubles, but I like to do as much as I possibly can with what's become some pretty significant training.
I'm an athlete; I've got an ego when stunt doubles have to come in. Not an ego like that, but when it comes to physical stuff, if I didn't have to have a stunt double, I would always probably do it myself unless the producers were jumping in and stopping me.
In Montana, when we did 'Return to Lonesome Dove', we rode on the side of a hill at night in the dark; I was afraid my horse would step on one of the actors playing dead. The director said to leave it to the stunt doubles since they got paid for that.
You do your own stunts as an actor, and you end up getting hurt. It's not your job. You've got stunt guys. Stunt guys make a lot of money.
Everybody has a stunt except me. Every single person has a stunt, but I don't have a stunt, there's nothing. No wire, no pulling. I try to get in on the danger, but there's nothing.
I'd always been a good athlete and I liked getting paid what they paid you for stunts. In those days, they paid you per stunt so I'd try to do as many as I could.
Before becoming an action director in 1990, my father was a stunt man for about 8 years. During that time, he was body double to many actors in that era, one of them being Sanjay Dutt.
It's better to find a stunt person who can act. It's easier to do that than to find an actor who can do a stunt.
I don't believe athletes should be role models. . . . We're a one-shot deal, one in a million, so we should be the least likely role models. . . . I think one of the problems in society today is that we don't stress education enough, because we glorify athletes, actors and actresses.
I remember hitting Sarah Michelle Gellar with a right hook during my first week on the job. It was awful. They usually pair actors with stunt doubles to avoid things like that.
Being a stunt girl is very much my comfort zone, so I had to remove the comfort zone to step fully into the slightly scarier zone. Also, just being perceived as an actor by the outside world, rather than as the stunt girl who does dialogue, has been a part of the challenge in front of me.
These stunt guys are good at what they do and they're professional. A smart actor will step back and say, "I'm going to let the professionals do this." Hats off to those guys, man. When you see the credits scroll, look at all those stunt guys and remember all those names 'cause they earned their money on this.
At the Golden Globes, they put all the bigger stars in the front; the movie stars in the front, TV actors in the back. But even as a movie star, you can be outseated by a bigger star in any given year. It's kind of hilarious. You have to take it in stride.
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