Danger is my Business
From fields on fire in Braveheart to bare-knuckle boxing in Becoming Jane, Donal O'Farrell is a stunt co-ordinator who has spent nearly thirty years in the business. He talks to Adam Lacey about the set-ups and knock-downs of the stunt world.

The idea of stuntwork in Irish films hardly conjures up images of the Terminator powering through Los Angeles Police Department roadblocks on a gargantuan Harley Davidson, mercilessly mowing down anything that gets in his way with a ridiculously oversized automatic weapon. But Donal O’Farrell, stunt co-ordinator on upcoming release Becoming Jane and a film industry veteran of nearly thirty years, makes a compelling case for the value of stunt workers in the film business of any country, no matter what the genre or budget.

Prior to meeting Donal I must admit that I am expecting some kind of steroid-abusing, adrenaline junkie, possibly on fire from head to toe, and certainly arriving by parachute or Humvee. When we do eventually meet, at the IFI in Dublin’s city centre, he is, thankfully, a non-threatening gent of average height, well built and younger than I expected, without so much as a hint of suddenly bursting into flames or challenging me to a castle-top sword-fight. As he later tells me, ‘People have preconceived notions of stunt workers – big, muscled, blonde, American – but my height and size are average. It means you can double for smaller and larger people.’ He emphasises this by informing me that he has doubled for both a doddery, elderly woman in RTÉ ’s Pure Mule, and also for Southern Fried good ol’ boy Matthew McConaughey in dragon-themed flop Reign of Fire.

His most recent work, however, is period drama Becoming Jane in which, he tells me, Anne Hathaway ‘absolutely nails’ the English accent. He adds that the busy starlet has been a huge Jane Austen fan for many years and was more than familiar with the literature before the starring role was offered to her.
One may wonder what sort of stunts would be involved in such a production, and without wanting to give too much away (he never reads or listens to any reviews due to their propensity for plot spoilage) Donal concedes that his involvement was concerned with a controversial form of pugilism. ‘There’s two fight sequences, both of them involving James McAvoy and it’s bare knuckle boxing. James is obviously not a bare knuckle fighter but he’s done so many stunts in training and he gets involved in some fighting in the film. It was great to do bare knuckle fighting and James was fantastic to work with on it.’

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 115.