A veteran Hollywood stuntman who traded high-speed car chases for the high country of northern New Mexico shared his message of faith, safety and movie magic with aspiring filmmakers at San Juan College, where he transformed a typical Wednesday into a master class in making movie thrills come alive.
Tomas Sanchez, who lives in Chama, gave an impassioned presentation to a large audience of high school students April 23 at Film and Media Day at San Juan College.
Opening his talk, Sanchez said, “In the stunt business, in the movie business, or in life, you always want to measure twice and only cut once. Safety is first.”
With so many different things at play in making movies, Sanchez said he believes the movies would be bland and less than entertaining – if not for stunts.
“But, I believe without stunts in action, the movies would just be a bunch of talking heads. So I think that my department is the best. So that's just on a little bias there,” he said.
According to internet Movie Database, Sanchez’s favorite saying is, “Anything is possible when you have God and family together!”
“His strong beliefs in faith, culture and hard work has carried him through his 35 years as a SAG member,” it states at imdb.com. Sanchez has appeared in national commercials for McDonalds, RCA, Rocky Mountain Marine and Santa Monica Visitors guide.
Sanchez established Conservation Xtreme at his ranch outside Chama, which works with Wounded Warrior projects.
Before showing clips from some of his work, Sanchez reiterated his emphasis on safety on the set.
“But I want everyone to go away with one thing, safety is first of the sets. And I know recently, we've had some bad things go on in New Mexico, and that's unacceptable,” he said.
“I want you to go home at the end of the day,” Sanchez said. “So any of these things that you see, do not try them at home.”
Advising them to seek out professional stunt coordinators in the state, Sanchez said would be happy to look at their script and help them stay safe, while accomplishing their mission.
With that, Sanchez showed various projects and stunts from movies he’d worked on, including one of his earliest projects with Michael Jordan.
“That was probably one of my favorite movies and probably the pinnacle of my career, working with Clint Eastwood,” Sanchez said about the 2021 movie ‘Cry Macho.’ “But not only that, I had the pleasure of having my son (Gabriel) do stunts with me on that show.”
Clips included Sanchez riding a horse sitting backward, being strangled with a garrote, being shot in the chest at close range, intense fight scenes from “Breaking Bad,” and being tossed out of a speeding pickup.
Sanchez welcomed questions from the audience, but getting none, he joked, “I think everybody left.”
“But you know, making your living dying is a little different department in the business,” he said.
“We do what we call pre-viz or a rehearsal for the director. The director will give us a scene, and how are we going to make that practical,” said Sanchez.
The job of a stunt coordinator is to design the stunt, keeping it safe and within budget, he said.
“So there's a lot of different variables … and getting the shot is key for the director,” he said.
“When I started and you shot a stunt, you wouldn't know if you're doing that again until they saw the dailies, and then at night, you're in the hotel going, Man, I hope it did good, because I don't feel like falling again,” Sanchez said.
With the digital technology available now, he told the audience “you can do some amazing things.”
“You don't need to shoot real guns. You don't need real guns on movie sets. They need to be safe,” Sanchez said. “I don't care if you're playing at home, if you're on a movie set, you never point the gun at anything that you don't wish to destroy.”
The No. 1 rule is to treat all guns like they’re loaded, he said.
Stunts require precise measurements to make sure that no one gets hurt. Pointing to the piano, Sanchez said you must map out every move, insuring the camera or the piano is not damaged.
Fight scenes are rehearsed over and over, making sure landing pads are properly placed to break the fall. And, safety meetings are vital to success of the production, he said.
Sanchez pointed out working with animals, such as the famous Clyde the buffalo, from New Mexico, presents unique challenges.
A student asked Sanchez about the requirements to become a stuntman.
“Well, first of all, you got you do need training, and the basic one is falling down,” he said, recommending gymnastics or martial arts, which teach how not to get hurt during a fall.
Sanchez mentioned driving stunt schools and fireworks schools in Los Angeles, which teach the basics, but require a lot of training.
His most dangerous stunts were a double T-bone in “In Plain Sight” and a river crossing for “Saldado, when he actually had to save a lady in the rushing current of the Rio Grande, Sanchez shared in an email.
Injuries were mainly bruises and hematomas, Sanchez said.
“On one show “Gambit,” with Cameron Diaz, an extra moved a table back, we cleared out for a bar fight. Before action, he moved it back and when I went down in the fight scene I knocked myself out, broke the table in half with my head, resulting in a minor concussion,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez’s presentation closed with him handing out copies of the movie he directed, “At the End of the Santa Fe Trail.”
