CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
Profile continued . . .

ARCHIVES!
STUNTMAN DIES DOING WHAT HE LOVED MOST: RUNNING AROUND ON FIRE AND SCREAMING IN AGONY

Friday, January 30, 2009

this entry brought to you by islands, "where there's a will there's a whalebone"


HOLLYWOOD-- Tragedy struck today on the upcoming Will Ferrell film Cricket and Screaming when local stunt man Darrell Andreas met an unexpected and saddening death.

"I don't know how it happened," said Assistant Director Mathew Emswiler. "Everything was going fine. Will Ferrell had just given us a take where his arm hilariously catches on fire after swinging a cricket bat that was, unbeknownst to him, engulfed in flames. We call in Andreas for a stunt of Ferrell's character totally lit up, and as he's running around on fire for like two or three minutes, flapping his arms madly, screaming in horrifying pain, the whole crew is watching and we're laughing our asses off. The next thing we know, he's dead. It's hard to know exactly what went wrong."

"He died doing exactly what he loved most," said Andreas' brother, Clyde, speaking for the bereaved Andreas family, "which was running around on fire and screaming horrifically. He did other stunts, sure, but the first time he ever set himself on fire as a teen he knew right then that this was his true calling. He knew this was what he wanted to be known for."

Clyde Andreas described his brother as "a genius" and was "always coming up with creative ways to light himself on fire." Andreas continued, saying "He developed such a gut-wrenching scream that was always exactly what directors were looking for, whether comical, like, 'Aiiiiyeeeee!' or if it was for an action movie, more of an 'Arrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhh!', or even if it was a horror movie, sort of a 'Oh god! Oh, oh god! Aaaaaaaagh! Make it stop!' They never had to dub in a voice actor's scream for a take-- he always nailed it. It brought him such joy. That something like Darrell being lit on fire would end in such tragedy is hard to get over. Nobody saw this coming."

"At least he died doing what he loved most," said Andreas' tearful widow, Maria. "He could've died flying out of the windshield of a speeding vehicle during a spectacular car crash at the climax of an awesome chase sequence when the cables strapped to his harness snapped. He could've died skydiving out of a plane and shooting a machine gun at a debonair covert operative with a license to kill, and his parachute didn't open. Or he could've even died getting a full-force kick to the face from Jackie Chan that was supposed to miss him by three inches but instead connected. But the Good Lord saw fit to take my loving husband the only way he could for him to truly be proud: his throat choked by the flames consuming him, only able to scream an unholy wail of agonizing pain. It's exactly how he'd want to be remembered."

"My children will grow up knowing," added the widow, "that their father was brave, and completely dedicated to his art to the end. And that they got to go to a nice private school instead of the shitty California Public School System because of the gigantic payout from his life insurance."
------



with love from CRS @ 8:53 AM 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment