Budding stuntman Beau wants to make big impact

SUE FEA/ The Southland Times

READY TO ROLL: Beau Weston ready for action as a stuntman.

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Beau Weston has chosen no ordinary career path, but he's been having the time of his life trying to get there.

The 18-year-old Queenstown man has had his heart set on becoming a stuntman since he was nine, when he made a cameo appearance in a television movie being filmed on the Australian Gold Coast, where his family was living.

He featured as an extra in the movie The Outsider, starring Naomi Watts and David Carradine, and even scored a small role as stunt double for a youngster on the movie.

His mum Mary Weston said that was probably the catalyst for what has become a passion for Beau.

"I could never get him out of bed in the morning back then and he was up at 4.30am (during filming) ready to go."

As a youngster on the Gold Coast he also attended the former Stunt Studios' Stunt Kids programme, learning under professionals how to fight and fall correctly.

"That was just so much fun ... they had rock climbing walls and a foam pit," Beau said.

As a kid he loved watching "fight scenes and people getting burnt" on television, dreaming of one day acting in that role.

Before the family moved to Queenstown in 2006, Beau had also completed five years of acting classes at the Gold Coast Screen Actors' Centre.

His older sister, who trained at the Stunt Studios, was working as a stuntwoman and had been a great inspiration, Beau said.

During 2009, as part of the Gateway programme at Wakatipu High School, he worked through the training requirements to become a stuntman while completing his year 13 studies.

While his mates were in the classroom, Beau was released at set times to train for the Stunt Guild requirements in the hope of one day getting a foot in the film industry door.

He has completed his solo paragliding certification, rock climbing, horse riding under an Alexandra coach learning to ride and mount bareback, taken up karate and returned to tae kwon do, in which he reached a brown belt while living in Australia.

Kayaking was also been part of his outdoor recreation training at school and he volunteered as an assistant kayaking guide on the school camp in November.

"It was all fun though – it's not hard work," he said.

While wing-overs and spirals on a solo paraglider put his mum on edge, it's all been "quite exciting" for Beau.

Mrs Weston admitted to some nervousness when her son began leaping off the Skyline Hill, solo, with his chute: "But I've got a husband who's a commercial diver so I can't be worried."

Fortunately the lean, 1.86m tall Beau has not come to any grief and said that's what it's all about.

"I've been winded a few times while learning, but it's all about not getting injured," he said.

He plans to spend this year working nights as a DJ in Queenstown while training during the day and liaising with stunt co-ordinators in the hope of getting some work experience in the industry.

He landed a day's work on Tracker, being filmed near Queenstown last month, starring Ray Winstone and Temuera Morrison. This fearless youngster has only one goal: "to work as a stuntman as much as I can ... and hopefully get rich doing it."

- © Fairfax NZ News