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You’ve seen him ripping a motorboat through the canals of Venice, Italy, during the opening heist of The Italian Job, dodging flying cars in the Fast and the Furious films, and doubling for Harrison Ford, most recently in the blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He was even standing offscreen when Ford accidentally socked co-star Ryan Gosling during filming of Blade Runner 2049, recalling, “Ryan took it like a champ!”
But Mike Massa, a Hollywood stunt performer for three decades, had never received the headlines he did on July 24, when, during a rally of thousands of striking stunt performers in Fayetteville, Georgia, he walked out onstage in a suit engulfed in flames, holding a fist up high and raising a sign in the other hand that read, “SAG-AFTRA ON STRIKE!” The crowd roared, “We are tired of being burned!” While the image brought to mind the iconic cover of Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here.
And the clip of the stunt, predictably, went viral — helping shine a light on the plight of the many stunt performers who’ve been striking alongside their fellow actors’ union members since July 14.
“I didn’t think it would go nationwide!” Massa tells Rolling Stone.
Massa, 55, wanted to send a message to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that stunt performers are vital to the film and television industry and assume tremendous risk to ensure that Hollywood productions boast spectacular action sequences.
“The AMPTP came out and said that we don’t bear any of the risk,” says Massa. “We risk our lives for film and television all the time. We get hurt. We go to the hospital. We break limbs. I’ve had first-degree burns on my face and second-degree burns on my arms. We put a lot of effort and love into making film and television.”
“Here’s a demonstration of what risk is and what we do,” he adds of his rally stunt. “We set ourselves on fire. We jump off buildings. We crash and flip cars. We do some of the gnarliest stuff you’ve ever seen on film. We do bear the risk and want to share in some of the profits as well, because we’ve lost a lot in the last 15 years.”
According to Massa, stunt performers are concerned about new media revenue sharing, wages, per diems, and a number of other things. But it’s been an uphill battle for stunt performers to get recognition from SAG-AFTRA.
“It’s tough with our union. We pay in a very large percent, but we make up about one to five percent of the union,” he says. “So, it’s hard to get a union as big as SAG, with 160,000 members, to stand up and fight for the stunt community. We end up losing a lot in negotiations because it feels nobody is fighting for us. We get abused on a lot of fronts.”
One of those has to do with working hours. Massa reveals that, as a stunt coordinator who’s paid a flat rate, “They can run me 80, 90 hours and then give me a very short turnaround with no overtime, no meals,” which he calls “dangerous.” Stunt performers are also fighting to end the ridiculous practices of “wigging” (throwing a wig on a male stunt performer so they can play a woman) and “paintdowns” (using makeup so a stunt performer can double as someone of a different ethnicity).
“We need people to have awareness that we’re there, and that we should have the same rights as everybody else in the union,” he declares.
Here’s how Massa and his team pulled off the stunt seen ‘round the world.
His pal Regis Harrington, also a member of the stuntmen organization Stunts Unlimited, hosted the rally at his tracking-vehicle company Covert Camera Vehicles, in Fayetteville. And, in the days leading up to it, he floated an idea to Massa: “Maybe we should set somebody on fire?” Since Massa was the only one with plenty of experience being lit on fire, it was decided that he would be the one feeling the heat. Veteran stuntman Paul E. Short, head of the International Stunt Association, subsequently assembled a “fire team” of stunt performers to handle the stunt.
“We did it just like on a movie or a television show: We scouted the area, prepped it with clothing, had fire gel — a fire-retardant gel — for my face, staged it like a stunt, went through all the safety procedures,” Massa says. “We did all of this in three days. I went to Goodwill and bought me a cheap suit; we got everybody together on a Friday to walk through the area and discuss what we wanted to do.”
According to Massa, it was “supposed to be a 10-second burn,” but he got so fired up — sorry — about it that he ended up on fire for a total of 18 seconds.
“Not a mark,” he says of the aftermath.
To accomplish this feat, Massa put on a dry layer of Nomex fire-retardant clothing, followed by two wet layers that had been kept cool in a freezer and doused in fire-retardant gel. Then, he put on a rain suit to separate the wet barrier from his wardrobe. After that, he put the Goodwill suit on, and the fire team covered his face with fire-retardant gel, getting every orifice, and walked him to the edge of the stage. The prep took about 10 minutes.
“Then, they put the fuel on me which is gonna burn, brought out a butane torch, and set me on fire,” chuckles Massa.
It’s here that Massa requests I add a Jackass-style disclaimer: Kids, it is not smart to light yourself on fire, and Massa only allowed seasoned professionals to set him on fire because he, too, is a pro.
As for the ongoing strike, Massa feels as though the studios are playing a game of chicken with SAG-AFTRA.
“It hits your pocketbook pretty big,” he admits. “I’ve been in the business for three decades, so I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, but it’s a drain on everything we have. It’s this waiting game of, ‘Who’s going to wait the longest? Who’s going to suffer the most?’”
