Reflections interviewing Vic Armstrong
With this month marking the one year anniversary of my Life of Action II book, I found myself reminiscing about some of the people involved.
This is a picture above with stunt legend Vic Armstrong’s own memoir, which comes highly recommended. In fact, I’ve read it a number of times over the years.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak to many cool and interesting people in the second book, from in front and behind the camera. However, his was one of the most nerve-wracking interviews I’ve ever done! Nothing to do with him, since he’s a lovely guy, but deciding on the story I wanted to tell, and the direction I wanted to take our conversation, was quite difficult.
We need to remember that he’s had a vast and epic career from the 1960’s until now, he's famously worked on franchises like James Bond, Superman and Indiana Jones, plus he’s directed, and he’s obviously written his own book, in other words he’s kind of told his story! So, what can I offer? The fact that he agreed to the interview with me was motivation and a confidence builder, so I had to get it together.
So, firstly I re-read the book, watched and read a ton of archive interviews, revisited his films and TV shows, and did my usual research. Then, I finally decided on a more human angle for his interview. Rather than get too bogged down in the work itself which is pretty widely documented, I chose to try and talk more deeply about him personally, his family life, the boyhood experiences that made the man, and those adventures and collaborations that made the legend; stories about his work and friendships with Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, winning his technical Academy Award, and so on. And fortunately, he was happy to oblige! It was a great conversation and one I’m very proud of in the book.
As well as picking up Life of Action II, please be sure to read his own book titled, "The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman". By the way he's very humble and quick to point out he didn't pick the title, but it's a excellent read and goes far deeper into a remarkable life and career creating some of the best cinematic action of all time.