Archives for July 11, 2013

National Yo-Yo Master Steve Brown recently had the honor of playing a role in the new Lone Ranger Movie by Disney! Steve reaching into his expertise in all skill toy manipulation not only invents but also teaches the main actors how to perform a nifty trick with a Pocket Watch.

We interview Steve here to find out more:

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Andre Boulay:
So you got the super cool job of being the technical advisor for the ‘pocket watch stunt’ that can be seen in the new Lone Ranger Film! Tell us about how you got the job?

Steve Brown:
I was contacted by Kris Peck, the Props Master for the film. He’s worked on a ton of huge films, including several of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. His IMDB page is crazy. He was looking for a yoyo player to help with a stunt in the film involving a pocket watch…he was hoping that since they’re about the same size and shape, a yoyo player would be able to help bring to live a part of the script that they couldn’t figure out how to physically make work. Kris dug around online, tried contacting the National YoYo Museum and some others, and finally found me.

We got in touch, and he explained what he needed and that it was really time sensitive…so I grabbed a pocket watch and worked out three versions of what they were asking for, and shot video off to him that night. Within a few days, I had a plane ticket to Los Angeles to meet with the director, Gore Verbinski, to show him different versions of the stunt so that he could choose one for the film. It all moved really, really fast.

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Andre Boulay:
So once you were on set you must have met and worked with some amazing people? Who did you get to meet?

Steve Brown:
I primarily worked with Tom Wilkinson, who plays Latham Cole. He’s the main villain of the film, and there’s a bit of business he does with a pocket watch that actually plays a key role in the story. That’s the move that I developed, and I had to teach it to Wilkinson, an actor named Steve Corona who plays a younger version of Cole, and Johnny Depp who casually nails it at the end of the movie. I ended up spending a lot of time working with Tom Wilkinson, since it was his landing the trick that was key to the film. He’s a tremendous actor, and I’ve been a fan for a while. He’s also a really kind and thoughtful guy, and I really had a great time working with him.

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Andre Boulay:
That is pretty amazing that you were able to come up with something on the fly like that! Can you say anything more about what the specific stunt entails? Or do we have to go watch the movie?

Steve Brown:
Go watch the movie! Ha. The stunt itself is deceptively simple looking. The thing about it is that it had to be distinctive, it had to immediately indicate a level of ability that implied a lot of time and experience doing it, but it still had to be easy enough for me to teach to three actors who are not into object manipulation.

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Andre Boulay:
Do you feel that it was actually your yoyoing background that helped or more juggling?

Steve Brown:
I’m sure both helped. I’ve never really separated my yoyoing from any other object manipulation…I kind of lump it all into the same category of “I throw stuff and catch stuff”. So for me, it’s all kind of the same thing, whether I’m throwing yoyos or knives or pocket watches.

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Andre Boulay:
So we know it was cool working with Tom Wilkinson. Was Johnny Depp cool to work with too? Did one of them nail the trick faster then the others?!

Steve Brown:
It almost feels misleading to say I “worked with Johnny Depp” because we met for about 15 minutes, I went through the mechanics of the trick with him, and then I never saw him again until it was time for him to film it and he nailed it on the second or third try. He spent so many hours at the beginning and end of the day in the makeup chair, and he was so crucial to the filming that by the time he was done at the end of the day I’m pretty sure “deal with the pocket watch guy” was dead-ass last on his list. Ha.
But for those few minutes it was easy to see why people love him so much. He was really nice and gracious, very respectful of what I was doing, and he obviously picked it up just fine.

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Andre Boulay:
Hahaha. True – it is easy to forget how much work goes into all the acting and filming in a single movie. Still very neat you were able to meet them! Were you able to show off yo-yo tricks to anyone while you were there?

Steve Brown:
During the filming of the scene where Tonto is sitting in the jail cell, they brought me in to meet with Johnny briefly and Gore Verbinski called out the National YoYo Master tattoo on the back of my head and had me show it to Johnny in between takes. Then a bit later that day I was practicing in between sandstorms (not even kidding) and Johnny came over to watch me yoyo for a bit. Some got footage of him watching me, and if there is any luck for me in this universe it will end up on the Blu-Ray special features.

I also spent a huge amount of time hanging out on set with Armie Hammer, who is one of the only principal cast members I didn’t need to teach anything to, but who is hugely in to object manipulation! He’s an incredibly nice guy, and really into throwing and catching all kinds of stuff.

He used to be a junior member of The Magic Castle in Los Angeles, a meeting place for magicians. He spent a bunch of time on set working on trick roping and gun spinning, and we had pretty much daily yoyo sessions when I was there. For the record, he prefers the YoYoFactory Supernova because his hands are HUGE and he needs a full size yoyo.

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Andre Boulay:
Let’s totally hope some yo-yoing ends up in the special features! That would be neat. Very cool about Armie Hammer too! So will we see any exclusive Pocket Watch tricks show up in your new project – 365CoolTricks.com?

Steve Brown:
I’m going to wait until the movie has been out a bit longer, but I’m definitely going to film the pocket watch trick from the movie for 365cooltricks.com. In the meantime, you can pop into the archives of 365yoyotricks.com for the guest trick that Armie did.

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Andre Boulay:
This was the second film you worked at on set? Zoolander you had an appearance where you played the hands of Hansel (Owen Wilson). Do you see more of these types of gigs in your future? Is it fun to do?

Steve Brown:
Yep, this is my second film credit. I was a YoYo Stunt Double for Owen Wilson in Zoolander, which was also really fun although I spent only a few days on set for Zoolander…all total I think I was on set for Lone Ranger for nearly 6 weeks or so. It’s hard to be away from my family that much, but I definitely hope I can get more gigs like this in the future…I met some truly amazing people working on that film, and everyone on the cast and crew were just fantastic to work with.

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Andre Boulay:
Totally awesome! Two movie credits is pretty darn neat. Congrats! Well we certainly are looking forward to checking out the trick in Lone Ranger! Thanks for sharing a bit of the experience!