Last night, the premiere for The World’s Fastest Indian was held in New York, and Senior Editor Jeff Kocan was on hand. We also got an advance DVD of the flick, and we’re all big fans. The movie comes to a theater near you one week from Friday, and we highly recommend you check it out. It stars Tony Hopkins, and although “Sir Anthony” does a great job, most of the riding parts are handled by stuntman Myke Schwartz. Myke is also a motorcycle enthusiast in his off time; when I did this interview last Thursday, he asked me about the 2006 Kawasaki ZX-10R, which he is planning to buy. I told him I’d be attending a press intro for that bike the next day, and as I was driving home from said intro, he called me to ask me about the bike. Enjoy his work when you see the film. To see a trailer for the movie, click here.
By CJ

RRX: What project were you just working on?
I just got done working on a movie called Serathin Falls. I didn’t do a whole lot on it, but I flew a helicopter our there for them to use, because I’m a helicopter pilot too.

Did you enjoy working in The World’s Fastest Indian?
I had so much fun working on that movie. I mean, it’s almost as good as your job! But I may make a little bit better money! [Laughs] I’ve gotten to ride a lot of motorcycles in my 17 years doing this, and I’ve driven a lot of cars and funky trucks. Remember, a lot of these are highly modified—like blind-drivers. I have a camera bike that I ride. So being able to work on something that was a true story, out on the Bonneville Salt Flats, and to go as fast as you want, was pretty cool. Also, being able to go down to two-lane highway at over 100 mph with the cops chasing after you in a helicopter—it’s been done before, but this was for a movie! I’ve been chased by those guys before, but this time I didn’t get pulled over and go to jail.

So that was you riding in that part, huh?
Yeah, and then getting to work with such a cool cat—“Don’t call me ‘Anthony’ or ‘Sir.’ Call me ‘Tony Hopkins.’” What a cool cat. Also, it was National Speed Week down in Bonneville. If you like motorcycles, you usually like all sorts of motors, and people were bringing down all sorts of funky stuff to run. I saw a CR80 to break the world speed record at 160-something mph.

The Indian in the movie was pretty funky itself.
Yeah, riding this machine that had to be exactly like the one that Burt Munroe rode was nice. It was a hugely difficult machine to ride. First of all, you’re sitting inside … have you seen pictures of it?

Yeah, they sent me a DVD of the movie.
Oh, good. How is the movie?

[Laughs] It’s very good. You mean you haven’t seen it?
No, I haven’t. I saw a little rough cut of it like a year ago, but I haven’t seen the final stuff on it.

Oh, well I liked it a lot, and my wife did as well. It was plenty authentic for motorcycle people, but it had a good story for people who don’t follow bikes.
Exactly. Well that’s good to hear. Anyway, let me back up a little bit first: My friend Pat Statham was the stunt coordinator on it. He called me up and said, “Hey, we’re doing this movie out at Bonneville. You want to bring your camera bike out here to film it?”

I said “Cool.” My other buddy Eric came out there to actually ride the Bonneville racer. So the first week of filming for the movie was that lay-down; remember that, when he laid it down?

You mean on the beach in New Zealand, or the high-speed crash at Bonneville?
The high-speed wobble on the Salt Flats that led to the lay-down. Well my buddy Eric was riding it, and he laid it down and it caught one of those little wheels that are supposed to keep it from flipping over. It grabbed the wheel and high-sided and flipped it over. It landed on his back, and he broke his shoulder, so he was done. Then it was like, “Okay, Mike, you’re riding it now.”

I was like, “Cool, let’s go!” I was ready to ride it. Now, we had three of those machines out there—one with an Indian motor in it that we didn’t even use in Bonneville, although it was used in New Zealand for one run; and the other two were Ducati-powered. They had 750 Duck motors in there, because it had to have a V-twin in there and look kind of legit.

So you mainly rode the Ducks.
Yeah, and getting into that thing was like getting into a sleeping bag that zipped up. You’ve got your rearsets, but then you’ve got your World’s Fastest Indian rearsets, where your feet are back on the rear axle! And the freakin’ clipons were liked clipped on to the front axle! So you’re stretched out. I was wearing my Dainese back protector on my chest, because you’re lying on top of the freakin’ engine! It looked pretty on the outside, but it was a nightmare. You could only ride the thing for five or six minutes, and you’d better be hauling ass, because you’ve got the exhaust burning your leg. Even though we had them wrapped, I’ve got a really nice scar on the inside of my right thigh from that thing getting so hot. Plus, there’s nowhere for the heat to go, so it came straight up.

In a lot of the shots, you’d have the actors bump-starting the bike. It had no front suspension—except for a fork like off a Schwinn bicycle. It had a disc brake on the front, but you didn’t want to grab it too hard because you’re running on shaved tires. The rear brake pretty much didn’t work at all.

So even in real life, the bike really worked a lot like it was supposed to in the movie?
Oh, yeah, it was a handful to ride—especially when we did the scene going down the highway. You’re doing triple-digit speeds, and you’ve got no suspension, and you’re on a two-lane highway that’s not smooth like here in California. This is like a desolate road—rocks with tar in them. So riding that thing was a real trick. Plus, you have to keep your head tucked down in over the handlebars. While your head’s down there, and you have this 1960s Bell helmet and these funky goggles, you have salt from the salt flats shooting up on your, or rocks and debris on the road—coyote guts and whatnot. It was very difficult to ride that thing. But once we got going, it’s still a motorcycle. The guy who built them did it in such a small timeframe. He was constantly tweaking on them to keep them running, and we’d have to cool them down. All in all, what a fun machine to ride!

It had little outrigger wheels actuated by a mechanical lever—nothing fancy—and sometimes they came down and sometimes they didn’t. The problem is that if you drop this thing, you’re screwed, because we only had two of them. We used to have three guys sitting at the end of whatever run we were doing, to catch it. Some of the shots you see in the movie, you’d see these old period cars like a ’67 Impala. Those things couldn’t keep up with the bike. What we would do is not only have the actors in there, but part of the stunt crew, with fire extinguishers, to be able to get me out if anything happened. Because when that thing laid down, you couldn’t get out. It had be sitting upright, or you couldn’t pull yourself out. And when it goes on its side, you’ve got the normal fuel leaking out of the carburetor and the whole nine yards.

So you did almost all the riding in the movie, huh?
Yeah, I stayed out there for another month and a half and rode the wheels off that thing.

From talking to you, it’s obvious you have a motorcycle background. How did you get into bikes?
I was always a motorcycle nut. I started riding dirt bikes when I was 10 years old and was always fascinated by them. I went into the military when I was 18, and bikes and a parachute were my mode of transportation there. I was in the 82 nd Airborne division, and that actually got me into the stunt business. When I got out of the military at 21, I got a job working at a motorcycle dealership, because I was just a motorcycle fanatic. I worked there for three or four years while I tried to get into the stunt business, which I finally did 17 years ago. Right now, I’m standing in my living room where I have a 1989 YSR50 with 575 miles on it. I’ve got a 1966 Suzuki X6 Hustler, and then I’ve got eight other bikes in the garage. I’m a motorcycle nut. I get paid for it, and I get to do it for fun.

How much do you know about a film’s plotline when you’re doing a stunt? Do you study it closely like an actor, or is your job so specific that you don’t really have to get “in character”?
You want to get in character. You want to watch the movements of the actor, because if you’re going to be doubling him, you want to match what he’s doing. You’ll see shots of Tony racing the motorcycle down the Salt Flats, and how does he lift his head up? Does he look over his left shoulder or his right shoulder? When he gets that high-speed wobble and they have a tight shot of his hand, what’s he doing? Does he have his elbows tucked up or down, like I do? Some people notice that. You definitely want to match your shot with what the actor’s doing.

As far as do you know what you’re doing when you get there? No, because they’ll say, “Hey, you’re going to go ride this motorcycle for this movie.” When you get out there, you see that you have to push-start it and that you have to stop it by putting the outriggers out. Or first gear doesn’t work very good on this motorcycle, so you start off in second. Or the director says we’re going to have a crash, and he’s counting on you to set up the crash to where the motorcycle ends at a certain spot. I’ve worked on other shows where you show up and just drive by on the back wheel—“We just need you to do a wheelie by the camera.” On that show called My Name is Earl, I had to ride down the street and time it to where these guys are throwing a beer can out the window and I get hit in the head, and then I have to lay it down on its left side and stop while it’s skidding before I hit the camera operators that are set up in the middle of the street. So when you get there, you’d better be prepared for anything.

Part 2 >>