The Director of ‘The Fall Guy’ Began His Career as Trey Parker’s Stunt Double
The big movie hitting theaters this weekend is The Fall Guy, which somehow isn’t about some dude who loves pumpkin spice lattes and autumnal foliage, but rather, is an adaptation of the ‘80s TV show of the same name that anyone hardly remembers. It stars Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stuntman who’s tasked with finding the action movie star that he’s been doubling for.
The Fall Guy was directed by David Leitch, who also made Bullet Train and Deadpool 2, and who co-directed John Wick (despite what the on-screen credits would have you believe).
As some of you may already be aware, Leitch actually began his movie career as a stuntman — although as far as we know he was never dragged into convoluted missing persons cases à la Gosling’s character. But one of Leitch’s earliest gigs is of interest to comedy fans because it involved doubling for the co-creator of South Park, and co-arch enemy of Sean Penn, Trey Parker.
While David Leitch would go on to perform stunts in massive movies like Fight Club and The Matrix Reloaded, his first American feature film credit is for working on Orgazmo. After performing in TV shows and one straight-to-video Mexican action movie, Leitch was hired by stunt legend Philip Tan. At the time, Tan was working as the second unit director for Orgazmo, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s low-budget 1997 comedy about a Mormon missionary who becomes a porn star/superhero.
“I was an up-and-coming stuntman,” Leitch once told Filmmaker Magazine, “and I got a call to double Trey Parker. There were some fight scenes in that movie and we choreographed those and did some fight stunts.” As he later bragged to The Hollywood Reporter: “I had the Orgazmorator on my hand.”
Not exactly the sled from Citizen Kane, but a memorable prop nonetheless.
Not long after making Orgazmo, Leitch was brought back to double Parker again, this time for the big(ger) budget studio comedy BASEketball. Leitch also choreographed the climactic “tiki torch fight” scene. “He was super gracious and really cool,” Leitch said of Parker. “That was a great experience.”
Going from brawling with Ron Jeremy in purple spandex to helming a $125 million action blockbuster starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt may seem like an odd career path, but… no, it’s definitely an odd career path. Although it’s worth mentioning that Leitch’s contribution to the world of comedy wasn’t limited to the times he ensured that Trey Parker wouldn’t break his neck. Leitch also worked on Chris Farley’s final film Almost Heroes, and was invited by Adam McKay to direct the epic, celebrity-filled fight scene in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, which Leitch called “one of my favorite movie making experiences.”
So hopefully there’s a chance that the ghost of Stonewall Jackson will make a cameo in The Fall Guy.
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