Danny Aiello III
Written by Craig Younkin | Source: 212city
When you think of a thrilling career, few carry the reputation of a professional stuntman. But if you think your job is thankless work, then see how it compares to the challenges these guys face. They get knocked around on the set all day long to make a movie star look good, and give up all the credit for it in the process as well.
Enter Stunt Coordinator & Stuntman Danny Aiello III, son of actor Danny Aiello. He has been around the business a long time and has stories to tell. He’s a gracious and down-to-earth guy who cares just as deeply about good film making as putting together action sequences. It doesn’t matter how many locations they have to scout to get the perfect shot or how many times, or how hard Harvey Keitel bangs his head against a car-hood, it’s all about realism.
The first story he goes into is about stunt doubling for a well known actor, and being thrown out of a car at 30 miles an hour. When the scene ends the star walks up to him and asks, “Did it hurt?” which strikes Danny as an odd question, and on his puzzled look the reply is “When I go on Letterman tonight I want to know how bad this hurt me.”
He can’t even get credit from dad. He tells another story of trying to prove to his grandma it’s him stunt doubling in the action sequences for dad. When Danny Sr. walks in, grandma asks the question of which Danny is doing the stunt, to which dad replies “oh, Momma – it’s me.” I think he didn't want to disappoint her.
It’s a rough business but Danny doesn’t seem to mind. His philosophy is surprising. The audaciousness of the stunt doesn’t matter to him, the realism matters. He loves “difficult” actors because he knows that they care about perfection, which is something Danny puts into his own work. He is truly an actor’s Stunt Coordinator, and one who also stays true to the writer. Reading the script first is essential to him because he makes it his job to create action that is inherent to the script and true to each particular character.
Danny has been around the world of TV and film for more than 30 years, beginning as an actor in the film “The Wanderers” and eventually moving into the field of stunts. As a stuntman he has worked on most of the big projects in New York over the years. As Stunt Coordinator he is credited with everything from daytime soaps like “One Life to Live” to primetime TV, such as “Rescue Me”, “The Untouchables” & the upcoming “Castle” & “Cupid” television series, and countless movies including everything from blockbusters like “Sex and the City”, and eloquent, dramatic films such as “Death in Love”, which is to be released later this year.
Exclusive stunt scene from an upcoming episode of Rescue Me.
He hasn’t stopped there. Danny is a filmmaker in his own right. He has also directed a film called “18 Shades of Dust”, a.k.a. “A Hitman’s Journal”, which starred his father Danny Aiello; as well has directed and produced episodes of “Dellaventura” television series. Experience that gives him a unique vantage as a Stunt Coordinator, and is part of the reason he is known for being one of the best. It’s a long resume and it should be. He’s currently finishing up shooting the next season of the great FX series “Rescue Me”, which returns to television on April 7. He agreed to invite 212city.net down to the set for this exclusive interview.
What made you want to become a Stuntman/Stunt Coordinator?
I was a stuntman before I even really knew what a stunt person was. As a child, I was severely dyslexic. I did not learn how to read a word till out of school already. I was an athlete, extremely shy. They would send me to Teacher’s College at Columbia University four days a week so they could study how to teach children with dyslexia. Now this was before my father was even known, we were living in the projects, and one day he hangs up the phone and asks me “Danny, would you like to be an actor?” After a long argument, I finally said yes just so he would leave me alone. The movie was called “The Wanderers.” I didn’t get the role, but they asked me if I could do stunts.
So now I’m done with that movie and I’m like “this is great.” I don’t have to talk, I get to be physical, and I get to make, what was to me at that time, a lot of money. Then reality set in. For about 6 or 7 months, there was no work. My father then gets this movie “Fort Apache the Bronx” and Vic Magnotta, the same stunt coordinator on “The Wanderers” was the coordinator on that movie. He asked me if I’d like to do my father’s stunts and I was thrilled. It’s all I’ve done ever since.
I just did the work and took for granted that if a coordinator told me I was going to be lit on fire, they knew what they were doing. It was more about having the mentality for me to do it. If I was going to be lit on fire, I would make myself relax and just shut down. From there I just went from movie to movie, working for Vic, and back then in this business you worked for one stunt coordinator. There was about three or four of them but they didn’t get along, so if you worked for one, you couldn’t get hired by the others. Then Vic was killed filming a car stunt. I had to watch them pull him out of the water. I went over and put my St. Christopher’s medal in his hand. That was tough. Then later I’m thinking I’m done, no one is going to hire me, but oddly enough, from that day, my career took off.
What’s the hardest part of being a Stunt Coordinator? Has anyone ever been badly hurt?
The hardest part about being a stuntman is staying healthy. If you can’t perform, you don’t get paid. The hardest part about being a stunt coordinator is watching people that I care about puts them into dangerous situations. Sometimes stunts end up looking great because something unexpected happens that makes it look great. It’s hard when anyone gets hurt because I know these people, I think of them as my own children, but you say to yourself this is our job. When someone gets hurt I’m have to be the first person who says, ok guys we gotta get back to work, cause if we don’t, everybody’s going to shut down. Inside I’m dying but I can’t let anyone else know that because they’ll see I’m freaked out and they’ll shut us down, and if your people see that you’re freaked out then they’ll be freaked out too. It’s cruel but it’s the reality of the business.
That’s the pressure we live under as stunt coordinators & stunt performers. When people say “I can do that”, well sure you can, but can you do it now, when the camera’s rolling and your marks are tight? And can you do it over and over again after you get hurt doing it the first time? That’s the difference between staying in the business or not. Can you do this stuff when there are millions of dollars on the line, at this moment, with this car, with these shitty brakes, with this windshield blacked out and not kill anybody?
What’s your favorite stunt?
My favorite thing is fighting. To me fights are like dances; I love the choreography. If you jump off something, that doesn’t take physical ability. With fighting you can really see if there is a physical ability there or not.
Do you think that Stuntmen deserve Academy Awards?
Yes I do. If you’re looking at the business aspect, we bring in a lot money. We have the World Stunt Awards but it’s so political that if you don’t work for the big LA guys you’re not winning. (The best stunt coordinator category was proposed in both 1999 and 2005. Both times rejected.) My own opinion is they want the audience to believe that actors are performing these things. Why steal their thunder. That’s the only reason I can think of for why the Academy would fight giving us credit.
How do you go from Stunt Performer to Stunt Coordinator?
One has nothing to do with the other. If you’re lucky you get them both in one person but that’s rare. A performer comes in, does the job, but has no idea what the camera is seeing. A coordinator becomes a manager as well. I understand what a camera sees. If there is a scene where a car is about to hit someone, instead of getting them close to each other, I get a long lens that makes everything look closer, so the car could be 50 feet away but it looks like the car is seconds away from running them over. The only correlation as a coordinator is that you understand what it’s like to be in the performer’s position, but that what works for me normally wouldn’t work for someone else, so I never venture to tell a performer how to approach a stunt. Someone my height is going to approach a car hit much different than someone who is totally a different size.
Do you feel added pressure to make a stunt more extreme than the last, to out-do what you did before?
I think there’s a little too much gluttony. In those types of extreme action films, it becomes a matter of having to out-do the film that came before and to me that’s not what filmmaking is about. The “Bourne Identity” movies are an exception because they have wonderful stories; those are films I can watch, but I don’t like it when it becomes just about action for action’s sake. Also, anyone going to direct should go into the editing room. You’ll get a coordinator who says I need a car to drive 80 miles an hour and then do 10 turnovers without cutting. Why? At that point it just becomes a macho thing. How bout going 40 miles an hour, 5 cameras, turning it over twice, and then cutting it in the editing room?
What was it like directing a film?
It was great. It was my vision, what was real to me. I always have this saying that two people can direct from the same script but have two different movies. Their life experience is going to be totally different from mine.
Was directing your father any added pressure?
I had directed for my father before on his show “Dellaventura” but on my movie it was a different dynamic. First day on the set there was a scene where he has to take a tray of food from one apartment to the next. It’s a heavy tray so he opens up the door, he’s balancing this tray and one of his friends is behind the camera. After the first take, my father yells to him “how was that?” I said to my wife “he didn’t just ask this guy how it was.” I said “ok, let’s go back to number one.” We did it 18 times till he finally asked “me” how it was. I made a point. He was the boss on his shows, but now I’m the boss on my movie.
Have you ever wanted to go back to directing again?
Sure, I will direct something again but directing television for example is very different from film because you’re not the boss; you’re a guest. Directors just come in for an episode here, an episode there, but here other elements drive the show. I feel extremely comfortable on the set. I know exactly where I fit in.
What are your most memorable moments?
I love just being in this business. Meeting Harrison Ford was great. He was wonderful doing his own stunts. He has an “everyman” quality that I love. I loved working on Hudson Hawk with my dad, spent 3 months filming in Italy with him. I got to spend time in Thailand for “Good Morning Vietnam” working with Robin Williams and Barry Levinson. Listen, I grew up an uneducated kid from the Bronx who was never supposed to amount to very much, and this business has taken me all over the world and I’m a much different person because of that. It’s given me opportunities that I never could have dreamed of having otherwise.
Was there any particular experience that you hated?
Yes, I was stunt coordinating a film with a director that was used to making films in Mexico City, and this was his first big U.S. feature. There are rules that we live by in the business here that they don’t live by in Mexico. I had a scene where I had to hang an Academy Award winning actor and we did it and it was so real looking that the producers kept grabbing my arm asking “is he ok, is he ok?” The director hated it. He wanted ‘a real hanging’ and so we kept going at it. I had created something that looked frighteningly real; but eventually the actor started doing stuff where he really was choking himself just to get it over with. The actor was truly endangering his life for this director. I told the director that I think you are a very dangerous man and I quit. We had words, I walked out and never went back. I told the producers “this guy is not going to ruin my career”. That’s the only film I could say I was really miserable on.
Do you feel that stunt work is changing now with the introduction of CGI and motion capture animation?
When I got in the business 30 years ago people had told me to get another job, that computers are going to take over our work. Our work has doubled. There is more action than ever. You still need the people to do these things to make it look real. I don’t think computers will ever be at the believability level of a real person being in these places.
What is your opinion on shows like Jackass?
I say God bless them but that’s not stunt work, it’s being daredevils. As a stunt person, you work to take out the danger. For them it’s about putting more in. Could they be stuntmen? No, cause they can’t live within the guidelines of being stuntman.
What are your thoughts on Rescue Me?
This is a very good show because it’s real. If you ask firemen about the show, they’ll always say they hate it because it’s real or they love it because it’s real. And Denis does it all. He truly is amazing. He’s one of the more talented people I’ve ever met because of his eye as a director, producing, his writing style, his acting. He’s a guy that has four jobs. The show runs on his back. Denis Leary is the first actor I’ve seen get hit by a car 4 or 5 times at 20 miles an hour. He’s one of those guys who would have been a great stunt man. You have to respect that.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I really do believe I’m one of most fortunate people I know. I feel embarrassed sometimes, especially with the economy the way it is, having as many jobs as I have when there are plumbers, people building cars, digging ditches who can’t support their families anymore. I feel very blessed. I’m not a religious person but I’ve had 2 people who were very close to me in stunts, who basically started me, a man named Allan Gibbs and Vic Magnotta, and I truly believe that they have been watching over me. There are a small number of coordinators who make a living doing this and I feel really fortunate to be one of them because I love what I do.