Never Faking Stunts

“A lot of these young bucks don’t know me, but they know of me. And that’s out of respect,” acknowledges Bob Apisa. Before his trailblazing work in Hollywood, Apisa was making his mark on the football field as one of the first All-Americans of Samoan extraction. As a member of the ‘65 and ‘66 Michigan State Big Ten and National Championship squads, the fullback would be one of the first to prove the power of Samoan athletes while plowing through the defensive line. He also played in the legendary 1966 Michigan State–Notre Dame game. Billed as “The Game of the Century,” it made history in his home state as the first live football telecast in Hawaii. He would go on to play a short stint in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers under legendary coach Vince Lombardi. After a knee injury forced Apisa to retire early, he made his way back to Hawaii, only to find himself fortuitously drawn into a Hollywood career. Currently living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Bob Apisa invited us to his home to discuss his illustrious career.

Frank151: Let’s talk about the jump from athletics to Hollywood.
Bob Apisa: In 1970 I had just gotten out of graduate school at Western Michigan University, and I went back home for a two-week vacation, and went to Waikiki to visit some high-school buddies. I was at Before & After, a nightclub discotech. We were having a couple of drinks and this one guy came up to me, and he looked at me, and I didn’t know what to make of it. He kept looking at me, I didn’t know if I owed him money or something. He walked up to me and he introduced himself. His name was Bob Bush, he was the casting director for Hawaii Five-0 at that time. He didn’t know me, but then he knew who I was after we made the introduction. So he asked me if I had ever done any film work and I said, “No, never.”

He invited me to come to the studio the next day, and I met Jack Lord, and he put me in. Two days later I was on as one of the jailbirds in this one scene. Jack Lord asked a question and none of us responded because we didn’t have a line, and he says, “Bob, why don’t you say this, when I say this.”

So I was Taft-Hartleyed into the Screen Actors Guild in 48 hours, without doing any work at all, or having any previous experience. Taft-Hartley means you are brought into the Guild, but you have a probationary period where you have to pay a certain amount of money and a fee on the membership, and at that time my fee was 75 bucks. Now it’s over 2,000. So times have changed.
F151: How did you become a stuntman?
BA: It was two weeks later in 1970, on Hawaii Five-0, when I took a jeep and they rigged up the windshield and I went right into the bushes and they were shooting bullets. I had to do a 45-degree turn and go right into a tree. So that took off and I said, “Hey, I can do this!” But the only reason why I said that is because of my athletic background. My football career had been cut short by injuries. You have to maintain a certain physical level in the NFL. I didn’t have the means for that because of my injuries. But I had enough in the gas tank to parlay this into a stunt career, and there you go. So I became one of the very first guys of Samoan extraction to do this thing.

I rode horses, fell off of trains, did high-falls off of helicopters. It was all a matter of coordination and skill level, and I knew I had it, because it was in me. If I had to do something, I would size it up, strategically put the focus on it, and do it. Not that I was gifted, just that I had confidence. Ninety-nine percent of the time it was well received and they put it in the can, and it was a cut and a print.

So 1970 until now, is what, 38 years? I’ve done it all. I’ve been in a lot of speaking parts in movies like Fled, Last Boy Scout, Executive Decision. I did the first movie for John Woo when he came to the mainland, which is Hard Target.



F151: What about training?
BA: I had training from friends of mine who worked along with me, who were proficient in certain things. And they showed me how to do that, and they asked me for certain things that I was proficient in. So we helped each other.

The old-time stunt guys were all-around athletes, that’s really what they were. They were rodeo guys, gymnasts, circus people. And you’d be surprised that when you’re asked to do something, you have an innate sense of coordination that just comes to the forefront. And I found that out with a lot of stunt people of the past.
F151: What are some examples?
BA: High-falls, car chases, doing a 360, doing a 180, a reverse 180. I can do that closing my eyes. I can get in the car and you buckle up your seatbelt, and your heart will be racing, but I’ll be fine with it.

My wife is a retired stuntwoman. She doubled Teri Hatcher. I met her in Hawaii, and she got involved with Magnum P.I. She is a stock-car racer by trade, in her younger years. She used to race Kurt Russell, and a lot of these young guys in their younger days, here in Simi Valley and up in Saugus. She is a very gifted driver, and not many stuntwomen can do that. I mean some can, but you have to be proficient at hitting the mark.

F151: So when you came into the industry, were you looking to act more?
BA: It came on in happenstance. Because after a while producers and directors became budget conscious, because geographically we were away from the other 49 states. So they couldn’t afford to wait another 24 hours to take the shot, to fly in a guy. So they said, “Hey, can you do this part?” and I said, “Yeah.” I was there at the right time and right place. So a lot of those opportunities were available for me at that time, then I honed that. And when I came to LA in ‘85, the fact is, I knew exactly what to do. Camera angles, camera right, camera left, entering frame, exiting frame, and making sure that you listen to the dialogue so that you can respond accordingly with the emotions that you need to put in the scene. So I worked on it, like anything else I’ve done in life.

I’ve put in a lot of work. When I left the business three years ago, and that’s after 35 years, I said I need something else. It wasn’t stimulating enough for me anymore. It’s like football was a passion for me, but there’s got to be something more stimulating. So when I closed my career, I didn’t have any regrets. I’m happy with my accomplishments. I’ve gotten to a level where I need to get to. My boyhood dreams were realized and I still have a lot of notoriety as a result of that. Not to boast or anything, but that’s the truth of the matter.

Today Bob Apisa runs Pacific Rim Sports Agency, a boutique sports agency specializing in representing Polynesian football players.

www.pacificrimsportsagency.com