What It's Like To...

What It's Like To Be a Stuntman and a Strongman

• Todd Ryan Jones • Season 6 • Episode 11

Share episode

Send us a text

Todd Jones has crashed into walls, been punched in the face, flown through the air,  tumbled down stairs, and fallen off high buildings, numerous times--willingly.  He is a professional stuntman for movies and television shows.  Todd also is a strongman: among other things, he holds a Guinness World Record for "hearting" horseshoes (bending steel with his hands).  Think all of this sounds almost impossible?  Todd says he's not superhuman--he has simply worked hard and not given up: the secret to his success is perseverance. 

In this episode:

01:56--How and why Todd transitioned from acting to stunt work
02:39--What he learned at "stunt school"--including getting set on fire
04:35--How to land correctly from a fall
06:28--Todd's first stunt gig
08:10--His role on "The Newsroom" that kick-started his career
10:53--A typical day on set
12:30--The two biggest stunts Todd has ever done on screen
17:29--The qualities needed to be a stunt person
21:08--What his family thinks watching him on screen
22:26--How Todd got started bending steel
25:29--The process of setting a Guinness World Record for "hearting" horseshoes
27:33--The power of perseverance: how and why Todd came to believe this so deeply
32:46--As you reach your goals, keep setting the bar higher: what else can I do?
33:24--How Todd stays in shape
34:38--The work schedule of a professional stunt person: "consistently inconsistent"

As promised in the episode, here is a link to the episode of "The Newsroom" in which Todd appeared with Jeff Daniels: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2052565/?ref_=nm_rvi_nm_i_1

Want to know more about Todd?


Want to know more about "What It's Like To..."?

  • Sign up to be on our Insiders' List to receive our newsletters and insiders' information! Go to whatitsliketo.net (sign-ups are at the bottom of the page)
  • Follow us on social media:

Support the show

Todd:

You really just have to accept what is going to happen and hope for the best. You got to have at least some kind of pain tolerance to be in the business. It's gonna hurt, but you're working with really high level professionals and you have a pretty good idea that the least level of damage possible is going to happen, whatever that level is.

Elizabeth:

Hello, and welcome to"What It's Like To..." The podcast that lets you walk in someone else's shoes and live vicariously through their unique experiences. I'm your host, former journalist. Elizabeth Pearson Garr. And each episode, I'll be asking a new interviewee all the what, why, when, and wheres of how they do what they do. If they can do it, so can you. We're all impressed when we're watching a movie or a TV show and someone goes tumbling off the side of a building or jumps a motorcycle over a ravine or something like that. But we also know it's not usually the A-list actor who's doing that work. It's a stuntman or a stuntwoman. Todd Jones has been a professional actor, stuntman, and he also happens to be a strongman. He holds the world record for bending horseshoes. We'll find out all about that too. So Todd, welcome to my podcast.

Todd:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Elizabeth:

I'm so glad to have you here. I think these are all such interesting things that you do and definitely fall into my category of unusual and intriguing things that most of us will never do in our lives.

Todd:

I have been called unusual. Yes.

Elizabeth:

In the best of ways, in the best of ways. How did you, get into such, unusual, let's just keep with that word line of work. You started as an actor?

Todd:

Yeah, yeah, I started as a struggling actor. I couldn't sing or dance or anything good like that to get myself hired. So I had to figure out a way to make myself stand out. I had a martial arts background, so I used to get beat up all the time. I figured I had a good pain tolerance, like I'll go to stunt school and I'll make myself stand out by being an actor who can really for real do his own stunts.

Elizabeth:

So there's actual school that you go to? There are, yeah, not many and even the one that I went to closed up shop a long time ago, so. I would say most stunt people don't go that route, but some of us did, and, it worked. One of the best decisions I made. What kinds of things do they teach you there?

Todd:

Uh, pretty much what you would expect. You get set on fire safely. Obviously. Learn how to fall down a big flight of stairs, which was actually my first kind of big job that I got hired for afterwards. So that was gold right there. Um, fighting for film, pretty much typical high falls, you know, how to fall off of buildings safely and stuff like that. Any kind of typical stunt that you can do.

Elizabeth:

Typical everyday run of the mill. So can you pull back the curtain on a couple of these things? Like how do you get lit on fire safely? Or how do you fall down the stairs safely?

Todd:

Oh, getting set on fire? It's an involved process. You need teams of, the highest level professionals, which I'm fortunate to be friends with. It involves a lot of fire retardant clothing and, gel, basically, and, there's layers upon layers and ways you do it and, everything's done to the utmost. I mean, that gel goes in everywhere and it's usually freezing cold and, any stunt person that's been lit on fire will tell you that by the time you're ready to go, you're shivering and shaking. So you're like, just, just please set me on fire again. You know, you just want to get warmed up somehow.

Elizabeth:

You only do it once I assume, or do you have to do multiple takes of these things? Not necessarily. it's such an involved and dangerous thing that that's the goal. You definitely only want to do it once. But you know, if they didn't get the take and everybody's okay, which is how it should be, then you know, you might have to do it again. Producers definitely don't want to do it again because I get paid every single time I get lit on fire. So, they try to make absolutely sure that, uh, once and done. So then the falling down the stairs, falling off a tall building, something like that, falling off a train, are those all similar skill sets?

Todd:

Um, I've never fallen off a train. Um, yes and no. There's a certain way that you have to fall from like a building, a high fall. Basically, the most important thing is you want to land properly. When you're at that height, even when you're hitting whatever you're hitting, the airbag or whatever, if you land improperly,

Elizabeth:

You hurt your spine.

Todd:

It's dangerous. Yeah, your spine, your head, whichever. Yeah, exactly. You're falling from a high place, just like any other.

Elizabeth:

Yeah.

Todd:

The stairfalls, I say safely, you're pretty much just falling down the stairs. Basically, you want to go into a roll. You're going down pretty fast. So, hopefully, less of your body actually makes contact with every single stair. But you pad up as much as you possibly can and you just kind of, and you go for it.

Elizabeth:

But you are wearing a lot of padding as if you're like in sporting event?

Todd:

If you can. It depends on what the scene call for like, uh, women. Hats off to them ever since the beginning of movies, you know, you're wearing skirts and sleeveless stuff. And they pretty much typically have a lot less, uh, you know, their outfits don't allow them to put on a lot of padding a lot of times. So. A lot of times they just gotta grit their teeth and do it, you know?

Elizabeth:

Do they sometimes try to shoot it at certain angles? So they're not seeing the faces as much so they can match the actor?

Todd:

Yeah they do. And we all inherently like try to hide our faces as best we can usually. That also depends on if you're doubling somebody. If you're doubling somebody, then you definitely don't want to have your face seen. But, you also get a lot of jobs where you're not doubling somebody and I'll be some guy falling down and I don't have to necessarily hide it.

Elizabeth:

So let's go back. You mentioned that your first part as a stunt man was falling down stairs. Do you remember getting that part, what it felt like to get the call and then to actually do it? What was that like?

Todd:

It was awesome. It was on a soap opera back when soap operas were still a thing. I had worked on it some bit parts before I got into stunts.

Elizabeth:

So you had acted on it.

Todd:

Yeah, So I knew the casting director and once I did get into stunts, you know, I'm trying to do whatever I can to get myself out there. So I contacted that casting director. I was like, Hey, I know it's a soap opera. It's not like a action movie, but I was like, Hey, if anything comes up, I'm into stunts now, here you go. And it was just fortuitous timing. He was like, as a matter of fact, we got something, we might be able to use you for. One of the actors was doing a stair fall down the stairs and they needed somebody to do it. So I just happened to, dumb luck, get my name in there at the right time. And, the coordinator at the time was a guy named BH Barry, who is very well known in the Broadway world. He does a lot of fight choreography for, Broadway shows and stuff like that. And yeah, he was like, cool, I did it, got the job, did the stair fall, which was way more pleasant than the stairs that I had actually trained and learned on. They were these horrible rickety sharp stairs, so I just assumed that's what stairs felt like. These were these nice smooth metal, so it actually went off without a hitch. I got up and got a round of applause from the entire crew and everything. I was like, yes, okay, this is.

Elizabeth:

Great. I can do this. Yeah, and so that got it rolling so to speak that got the stunt career going.

Todd:

Sort of. You want to know the one that kind of really got it Rolling? Yeah. That was on"The Newsroom." Did you ever watch"The Newsroom" with Jeff Daniels?

Elizabeth:

I saw your clip. I watched it.

Todd:

That was kind of the one. A part had come up where they wanted an actor who could share the screen with Jeff Daniels, but who could also really do his own stunts. Like I got my material in there. And yeah, I got that part. That was kind of the one that got me because, the coordinator for that show did other shows in New York. So, B.H Barry, the guy I just told you about, he's more a theater guy, so he didn't really do any other TV stuff. This was a TV show, and coordinator from that show hired me for other shows where I met this person after, so that was really kind of the one that started snowballing into my career as it is today. And Terry Crews was in that too? Yeah. Am I right? So anyone who watches"America's Got Talent." one of my favourite people, To this day, one of my favorite people I've ever worked with, Terry Crews is awesome.

Elizabeth:

But it's a rough scene. I mean, it really looks like you're getting really beat up. It's tough. I don't know how people who care about you can watch these things. It's pretty incredible to see. Are you really hurt at the end of these things? I know,

Todd:

That one, I took a beating on that one.

Elizabeth:

I'm going to post a link to that clip in the show notes so people can watch. Cause it's really impressive what you go through.

Todd:

Thank you. That was an intense day because I had a lot of lines and stuff and we're out in the middle of Manhattan. Noisy, I can't hear. I think I spoke over Jeff Daniels a couple of times unintentionally, which he did not appreciate. But, you know, we got through it. So I'm all jazzed up. Here I am with these stars and I'm like, Aah. Trying to remember my lines and hit my marks so that everything goes smoothly while I'm about to eat a pain sandwich. So I had a lot going on that day.

Elizabeth:

And you said you were pretty bruised up at the end.

Todd:

That one, yes. For anybody that watches the clip, I do, I go BAM and I hit the cement really hard. We did that a lot of times. I remember they had me smoking clove cigarettes cause I didn't want to smoke a real cigarette cause I hate smoking, but it's like, I'll do a clove, whatever. And in the scene, I snuffed the butt out right there. And I knew how many times we did it,'cause all the butts were right there.

Elizabeth:

Oh!

Todd:

In the

Elizabeth:

beginning.

Todd:

It was a lot. It was like over 10 times I had to do that. Wow!

Elizabeth:

Head into the cement.

Todd:

Yeah,

Elizabeth:

Wow.

Todd:

but I did it, and, I'm still working now, so I guess I did okay.

Elizabeth:

Yeah! So, can you take us into kind of your head space before a shoot like that? If you're backstage or in a dressing room or something? How do you get yourself prepared mentally and physically, for these roles and for these stunts.

Todd:

Usually you don't, to be honest. I'll tell you what almost always happens. They'll call you in for some stunt. Hours and hours and hours before you actually do it, so you know, an entire day goes by and you're just sitting in your trailer or whatever, and you start getting tired and relaxed. And then when it's time, like, okay, go, go, go, like, come on, get them and you, got to go out and you're just... So you really just have to accept what is going to happen and hope for the best. And like I said, you got to have at least some kind of pain tolerance to be in the business. It's gonna hurt, but you're working with really high level professionals and you have a pretty good idea that the least level of damage possible is going to happen, whatever that level is.

Elizabeth:

Have you ever turned down a job because it sounds like it's too, I hate to use the word, scary to someone who's...

Todd:

No, it's okay. No, not really. Not that I can think of.

Elizabeth:

Hmm. You'll just take it on. Whatever they ask for, you'll prep for.

Todd:

Yeah, because usually, almost all the time, the coordinator that's going to hire you knows you, so he has a pretty good idea of what you're capable of. And for the most part a coordinator is not going to hire you for something that they themselves wouldn't do. To be a stunt professional in the first place, why are you in it if you're going to turn something down.

Elizabeth:

Can you give me an example of one of the most intricate or involved stunts that you've done on screen?

Todd:

Uh, there's two that come to mind. One that most people say, yeah, that's the one: getting set on fire. If you do call it a full burn, you know, from head to toe, you're just completely engulfed in flames. That's one of the most dangerous stunts you can do period.

Elizabeth:

Wow. That was just part of the story? The character was in a fire. And so

Todd:

Uh, yeah, the biggest one I ever did was on"The Blacklist" and, the character Liz shoots a guy with a flare gun. So he goes, I mean, I was told I had 15 foot flames coming off me from the top of my head. It was a pretty cool one. And a little more recently, I was on a show called"Evil" with Mike Cotter and I'm playing a priest and we're trying to subdue this guy who's possessed by this demon, but of course he's got superhuman strength. We're on a bed and he goes POW! And he kicks me off and I fly 20 feet through the air into a wall.

Elizabeth:

How did that work? How do you?

Todd:

Uh, it's a wire gag, so I had a harness on with a wire attached that actually went up through the ceiling next to the wall. Like, the wire was here, and the wall was here. And a couple of guys are on the other side of the wall, and when action calls, they jump off a ladder. I go, pew! I'm not a huge guy, but I'm not a small guy. I'm about 210 pounds. And they launched me like I was nothing. And, that was a pretty crazy one. You get paid for every time you do a stunt. So, as a stunt person, you want to do things as much as your body can take. But, I was glad that I only did that once. That was a pretty good thumper.

Elizabeth:

You thumped right into the wall.

Todd:

I thumped right into the wall and it was a reinforced wall because during the, uh, rehearsal I actually broke the wall.

Elizabeth:

Oh my gosh, Todd.

Todd:

And fixed it up so that wouldn't happen anymore. It was slightly hard. Yeah.

Elizabeth:

So you do have rehearsals on these things.

Todd:

Sometimes, oftentimes you don't, for something like that you do, because you know, there's rigging involved and a lot of stuff you have to work out, but a stunt person's bread and butter for a lot of us is, you know, we'll be, cop number one or bad guy number one or whatever and we get shot we fall down or we get punched and we fall down etc etc so a lot of times you don't rehearse for that stuff because it's pretty simple and as a professional it's expected that you can at least do something simple like that without rehearsal.

Elizabeth:

So is it as competitive as it is in the acting world to get the stunt jobs?

Todd:

Competitive yes but it's also a lot smaller, it's way, way, way smaller. So if you do get in, you know, the odds of making a career are lot better than in the acting world for sure.

Elizabeth:

And is it similar to acting that you have an agent who goes and sends you out on auditions or you--

Todd:

No, no, you get hired directly by the coordinator usually.

Elizabeth:

Oh Okay.

Todd:

It's a pretty tight knit community. Especially in the specific towns. Like I usually work in New York. So if you work in New York, you pretty much know the entire stunt community of New York, Atlanta, Georgia is another one. And then out in LA, so there's certain kinds of hubs. That's where the stunt communities live.

Elizabeth:

So you wouldn't fly to a movie set or something like that?

Todd:

I do on occasion. Sometimes that does happen. Yeah. But, more often than not, like solid 95 percent of my work is New York or the surrounding areas out there, Jersey. I live in Pennsylvania. So sometimes I work in Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth:

I spent some time on some sets. I lived in LA.. twice in my, life. And, I worked for E! Entertainment News. And so we did like behind the scenes stories. And I even worked as an extra sometimes on some shows. And it's just incredible when you're on those sets to see how many people are involved to make TV and movies work. And so, you really get an appreciation for how many directors, producers, crew and, craft services and costume people. I mean, there's so many people that are involved to make these shows work.

Todd:

Yeah, totally. I always recommend if anybody's trying to get into the business, working at least a few times as a background as an extra because it not only gives you that perspective, just, gives you a pretty good taste of, whether or not you might really like it, you know, the realities of being on a set and stuff like that.

Elizabeth:

Like you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of downtime, you're not just getting called, and then all of a sudden you're on. You might have a whole day where you're not working and then they're calling you the next day or something you have to really enjoy set time and be ready to go when they need you. I know that you're an actor also, but let's just stick on the stuntman side of things. What are other qualities that someone needs? Obviously, physicality and a sense of being willing to go for it. But are there other things that you think if someone were interested in this line of work, what would they need?

Todd:

Uh... Professionalism big time. Anything that you are in control of, being responsive, being on time, all that stuff. Huge. So so important. You cannot slack in those areas at all. Word will get around and that's really bad.

Elizabeth:

Great tip.

Todd:

And, believe it or not, just being, if not cool to be around, being tolerable to be around, you know, don't, don't be always talking. Like we were just saying, the days are long. Twelve, 14 hour days, that's not out of the question at all. That's very normal. So, do you think a coordinator wants to hire somebody that's going to annoy them all day? Like, no, you gotta make yourself be cool to be around for 12 to 14 hours at a shot. That's huge.

Elizabeth:

Yeah. Or ask, When is this day going to be over? When are we up? No! Be patient!

Todd:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think, honestly, that's probably one of my stronger qualities. There's a lot of more talented stunt people than I am that might not get the job because the coordinator doesn't like being around them for that long. So, anything that you are personally in control of, be in control of it and make yourself somebody that somebody wants to hire.

Elizabeth:

That's such great advice that someone could use in whatever they're doing. My kids are both in high school now, and I sometimes think, There is a lot of course that you can learn in a classroom and that will apply to whatever you do in real life. But there's so many other things that are just life skills and things like you're saying, being on time, being respectful, being kind to people, those are these sort of soft skills that are going to apply to everything you do, your work life, your personal life, your social life, being in a grocery store, like these are all things that are going to help you just be a better citizen and a better person in life. And by the way, they're going to help you in your career, even if you're not trying to use them, you know, in a manipulative way, but you really need to work on these things. They all matter.

Todd:

I agree. Show'em you care. Show them that you want it and you're not taking it for granted.

Elizabeth:

Anything. Yeah. Is it hard though? Because it's hard on your body, this job. Is there a shelf life? Is there a time that stunt people tend to say, I can't keep doing this any longer. This is kind of a younger person's game.

Todd:

Yes and no. I think it depends on people's personal aspirations. A lot of people will try to get into the stunt coordinating

Elizabeth:

field.

Todd:

That's kind of a natural next step for a lot of people. A lot of people do think, I'm getting too old for this, but I know a lot of people that don't. I know guys in their 50s and 60s that are still doing it and they have no intention of stopping. It's pretty much the individual. But yeah, there's the obvious realities. I'm only in my 40s and hitting the ground now is not the same as it was when I was in my 20s.

Elizabeth:

What's your hope? Do you want to just keep doing it as long as you can?

Todd:

As long as I can, yes. And I also just wrote my first script, my first screenplay. So there's some activity going on with that right now, believe it or not.

Elizabeth:

How exciting. Congratulations.

Todd:

Thank you.

Elizabeth:

Do you watch the things that you perform in?

Todd:

If I did something cool in it, yeah, I'll try to check it out and see how it turned out, if I did some kind of cool stunt.

Elizabeth:

What do you think when you see it? Is it a totally different experience than it was for you being in it?

Todd:

No, not usually, not at this point. It's usually the same.

Elizabeth:

What does your wife or your kids think when they see you?

Todd:

My kids are 16 now. I've been a stuntman their whole life. So that doesn't even phase them anymore. They'll acknowledge that it's cool and then they will quickly go back to whatever it was they were doing. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting with my strongman stuff, you know, I'm bending steel and all this crazy stuff that does not faze them at all. They're like, yes, we know you can do that. They don't care. My fiancé, we've only been engaged for a little over a year, so I'm not sure if she's still impressed by anything or not.

Elizabeth:

Does she get worried though?

Todd:

Yeah. Yeah, she does. And I'm up front with her too, like that one that I told you about where I got launched across the room into the wall. I was honest with her. I'm like. This one might hurt. Might get hurt on this one. So maybe I won't do that anymore, but yeah, she gets worried.

Elizabeth:

Yeah, I guess just like professional athletes. You got to take the bumps and bruises and come home and do some ice baths.

Todd:

Sometimes it seems like it doesn't register with people when they know I'm a stuntman and then I tell them what I'm doing. They're like, Oh, they react like, like, are you crazy? You know, you know what I do, right? That is the job.

Elizabeth:

So you mentioned the strongman work and the bending steel. This is what I read and I just can't believe it. See, I, you need to describe it, but you set a Guinness world record for taking horseshoes and bending them.

Todd:

Yeah.

Elizabeth:

Bending them into hearts?

Todd:

Yeah. It's called hearting a horseshoe. Yeah. It's a specific move that you do with it. Most hearted horseshoes in one minute for the Guinness world record. Yep. Actually, I was recently on a podcast and I did one for him. So there's one.

Elizabeth:

Oh my goodness. All right. So it's really, it's mind blowing how you can just do this stuff. So take me back. How did all this get started? I mean, clearly you're strong. How did you decide, all right, I want to start bending steel. What was the inspiration here?

Todd:

So I'm no stronger than anybody else. I think everybody in the world is way stronger than they think they are. I just, purposely tapped into it, but it all started. You familiar with kettlebells, you know what kettlebells are? are.

Elizabeth:

Yes.

Todd:

Kettlebells are actually very old, but they fell out of favor and there was a resurgence in like the late 90s early 2000s. So the guy that kind of spearheaded that is a guy named Pavel Tsatsouline who has a bunch of books really great training manuals that I used to read and in his books he's always referencing these old time strongmen from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and you said the word mind blowing. That's exactly the word I used. You read about what these guys were doing. You're like, Holy smokes! They're bending steel and breaking chains and all these crazy feats of strength and I don't know, I think maybe it was because I grew up as a comic book geek. I always liked superheroes or something. These guys just seemed like borderline superhuman. So I don't know. It just clicked. A lot of people see pictures of Schwarzenegger or whatever, and that's what inspires them to train. I saw pictures of these guys doing that stuff, and I just wanted to learn how to do it. I thought that was awesome. It took me a long time trying to figure things out myself, reading all these old manuals from the 1800s and stuff. Finally found a coach, one of the best guys in the world at that kind of stuff. Started training under him and now I can do a lot of that stuff that I would read about.

Elizabeth:

Is it a lot of hand and finger strength?

Todd:

Yeah,

Elizabeth:

To be able to do this?

Todd:

Yeah, it's really everything. Not even just physical. You have to go there mentally and not think about any kind of limitations and get in the right mindset and believe that you can and really try. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty much everything. A lot of the training is isometric. So say a horseshoe, if you're going to try to bend it, you take one that's currently slightly above your capabilities, that's not going to move and you try your absolute hardest to move this thing and you just give it everything you got pushing and pulling and that's pretty much how you train for all that stuff. You'd be surprised how quickly your strength shoots up when you train like that.

Elizabeth:

And then what inspired you to go for the Guinness World Record? You just figured you started doing this and you found it.

Todd:

Yeah, it was actually a pre existing one already. That's pretty much how it happened. I was like, if you want to establish yourself as a strong man, there's no strong man school, you can't get a degree in strongmanism. So you gotta build up some kind of credentials somehow. So I figured that might be a good way.

Elizabeth:

And what was the record prior to your--

Todd:

It was empty. Nobody had it, but it was there. So I took it.

Elizabeth:

Wow. What was that process then? You invite a judge to come watch you?

Todd:

Guinness is pretty involved. Their process is not light. It's very, very rigid, very detailed. I actually did it at the York Barbell Company in York, Pennsylvania, which is a very prominent company in the history of bodybuilding and weightlifting and strongman stuff. So it was super, super cool that I was able to do it there. But, I think I had to have five people that were not related to me, that weren't biased towards me. Yeah. And, I had to bend it within very specific measurements, that's what really made it difficult. Cause if I was just bending it on my own in front of an audience, probably could have done more. They wanted it specific. So it took a lot more time and it was very involved. Everything needs to be recorded and right down to the very finest detail. And it's pretty involved. Really weeds out a lot of people that might want to just take a shot at it.

Elizabeth:

So how many did you do in a minute? What was your record? I did three. And I'm going to beat it. Oh, so no one has challenged you? No one has beaten it?

Todd:

No, not yet. I usually don't publicize it too much. I don't want anybody getting any ideas.

Elizabeth:

That is so awesome. It must feel great to have a world record.

Todd:

It's pretty cool.

Elizabeth:

So what else does it mean to be a strongman? What else do you do with it? You're a public speaker, right?

Todd:

In a public speaking capacity, I usually talk about perseverance and the importance of it. Cause I think that's easily one of the most important traits a person can possibly have. So, I'll use the feats as physical examples to illustrate what I'm talking about and the power of perseverance. A lot of people think bending steel is almost impossible or impossible and I can do it. And I didn't just pick up a piece of steel and bend it like it was no big deal. It took me really long time, seemingly no progress whatsoever. And, I use that as an example of every time you perseverance and keep going, do not stop no matter what. And a lot of times you're not going to see progress. If you have a really worthwhile goal, you're probably not going to see progress for a while, but don't stop. Keep going. That's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way any kind of worthwhile goal is going to be.

Elizabeth:

When you say a long time, how long did it take you before you started to see any progress in

Todd:

bending steel? It depends on where you're starting from. If you're starting from when I personally started trying to do it, talking years. Years. Wow! Yeah. Once I found my coach that could really get me to hone in and do it, probably about like half a year of consistent every day picking up a piece of steel and just trying my hardest to bend it and not bending it. About probably a good half a year.

Elizabeth:

But that's incredible that you would stick, any person would stick with something for a few years without seeing physical signs of progress. I mean, that really shows a commitment and a determination. I don't think most people would stick with anything a few weeks without seeing something. So that says something about you.

Todd:

That's the one thing that I__ perseverance, just don't stop. I've read a lot of books trying to get where I am and a lot of autobiographies about significant people, famous people and for a long time I tried to figure out if maybe there was one thing that all of these successful people had in common that they cite as being a big part of their success. I kid you not all of them, every single person I ever read about, perseverance, they would cite perseverance. So just don't stop. That might not get you to the very top of what you're trying to do, but perseverance alone, just not stopping when many other people might, that's going to get you somewhere.

Elizabeth:

It's so interesting you say that because I hear that over and over again on this podcast because I talk to people who have done these really interesting, unique things. And the common theme how they got there is they didn't give up. And clearly many of them maybe had a innate talent, you know, the guy who won an Olympic medal. But these people accomplished their thing because they hit the wall, they found something that was hard but they still kept going. So it is that perseverance. That is the thing.

Todd:

I swear by it. And my career in stunts is proof of that as well. I'm not the most elite level stunt person in the world. I'm not. I'll be the first to admit that. I just didn't stop. And along the way, I saw other people that were probably way more talented than I am, but it's hard and it's long and it's a hard road and they gave up. It's the only reason I'm out doing it, and they're not.

Elizabeth:

You have to want it, whatever the it is, and you have to believe in yourself and you have to not give up.

Todd:

Not give up. Yeah. And, uh, if you're not in your ideal space in life, don't look at it like you're screwing up right now because you're not there. It's all part of it. Don't look at it in a negative light that you are not exactly where you want to be. Just keep trying. That's all.

Elizabeth:

Yes. I was just talking about that with someone else. I think sometimes there's this expectation, especially when you're younger, maybe your teenage years or in your twenties, that somehow there's this thing, you need to get the thing, like get into the certain college, get the certain job. And then your life is going to be... I don't know, you've made it and you're like at this plateau as opposed to the reality is that life is ups and downs, these swirls, ups and downs. That's the reality that you should come to expect. And then you won't be disappointed when it starts having these peaks and valleys because that's everybody's life. It's not just this like plateau of, Oh, I've made it to this promised land of, my happy place because you're going to have some challenges and that's how it goes.

Todd:

It doesn't go away. Even if you do accomplish everything you've ever wanted to accomplish, the hard times don't go away. So don't worry about it. Just expect it to be there and deal with it as it comes.

Elizabeth:

And then you usually find other things that you want to do. Now you have a successful career in stunt work and you wrote a screenplay. That's another thing that came to you that you want to do. We kind of create new things that we want to do. Like that's the beauty of being human, right? We find new things to reach for.

Todd:

Absolutely. That's another thing I use in the feats of strength for in my public speaking engagements. Once you accomplish this one crazy goal that maybe you once thought was impossible, or at least really hard, and all of a sudden you do it, and that just kind of sets the bar for where you are in life, and you're like, oh, okay. What else can I do? And then, pull out the bigger iron steel bar or something like that. Something different than what I just did. Once you set the bar for something that you once thought was impossible, it totally opens you up to an entire world of possibilities. And you start wondering, cool, what else can I do?

Elizabeth:

So are you physically training kind of every day, like weightlifting and stuff like that, to keep in shape for the work?

Todd:

Yeah, I don't really lift weights in the traditional sense. I have to work specifically on the strong man stuff, so I'll bend the bars and do all the specific feats that I do in front of people, but for my own overall athleticism and stuff like that, I generally stick to body weight kind of stuff. A lot of pushups, squats, that kind of stuff. Calisthenics. I always gravitate back to that stuff. You don't need any equipment. There's no excuses. You don't have to go to the gym. You don't need any piece of equipment at all. The floor is right there. You just get to work. The sky's the limit with that kind of stuff that you can do. So even when I start working on other stuff for a while, inevitably, I always come back to the body weight workouts.

Elizabeth:

You can do that when you're waiting in a trailer for 12 hours.

Todd:

Yup, absolutely. Talking about the isometric stuff, pushing and pulling against stuff, that's not going to move. I'll do that sometimes in my trailer. I'll grab ahold of my door handle or something, you know, really give it what's for without ripping the door off or anything. Make sure it's sturdy first.

Elizabeth:

They'll be like, Oh, that Todd's here again. There went the wall, now the door just went down.

Todd:

How did that happen?

Elizabeth:

Do you tend to work like a couple of times a week, or does it just totally vary?

Todd:

It varies. It's all over the place. I might be busy for months on end. Might not do anything for a couple weeks, everything in between. The only consistency with the work is that there's no scheduling at all. Anything could happen. I'm used to it.

Elizabeth:

Don't plan for the weekend because you might be working that weekend and then you'll have a few weeks off.

Todd:

People don't understand that I can't, you know, they want me to commit, like, Oh, I'm having a party in three weeks. can tell you that I'm coming, and that means kind of nothing, because I might be gone in three weeks. Like, I have no idea. People get mad at me for that, but I promise it's not because I'm being a jerk. I just don't know.

Elizabeth:

It's the life of, what do actors sometimes say? We live in the circus or something? You just have to go with the flow.

Todd:

I wish I lived in the circus. That would be awesome.

Elizabeth:

That's your next career. Add it to your list of work.

Todd:

We'll see.

Elizabeth:

The strongman in the circus. I can see it. Yeah, used to be more of a thing. Not quite as much anymore. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. It's been really interesting and fun and, appreciate all your time, Todd. Thank you.

Todd:

Likewise. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Elizabeth:

One thing I really appreciate about doing these interviews is that so often the conversations take these unexpected, delightful turns. Here I was talking to a stuntman strongman and we end up talking about perseverance and shifting life goals. People are amazing. Here are some of my takeaways from my conversation with Todd Jones. Number one: If there's something you want to do, go for it. Make yourself visible. Contact the casting agent. Tell people you're available. You'll never get the dream job just sitting on your couch. Two: In any profession, focus on the things you can control. Being on time, being kind, being responsible, being someone others like to be around. Show people you care and that you're not taking the job for granted. Three: the first step to doing anything, including bending steel with your bare hands, is mental. Believe you can, and get rid of limitations. Four: the next step to achieving anything is perseverance. Most people will give up, so be the anomaly who keeps going, even with the inevitable hardships. And finally, number five: there's no mountaintop of success to reach. Continue to raise the bar, so to speak, to keep life challenging and interesting. My thanks to Todd Jones for sharing his experiences and his inspiration with me. For more information about Todd, check out the show notes for this episode. If you want to listen to more interviews with people who work in the entertainment industry, check out episode 23 with Ken Fuchs, the director of"The Bachelor" and"The Bachelorette," as well as"Shark Tank,""Family Feud," and other shows. And episode 15 with Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Dan Sturman. You can find these episodes on our website, whatitsliketo.net and anywhere you get podcasts. Oh, and we have a YouTube channel now too, if you'd prefer to watch this podcast with captions, It's WhatItsLikeTo2023. If you're not already subscribing to this podcast, please do. And please tell a few friends about it too. I'm Elizabeth Pearson Garr. Thank you for being curious about what it's like.