ken cool

Remember the Bat-bike coming out shattering through a sheet of glass and zooming past in The Dark Knight? This movie directed by Christopher Nolan used stuntman Jean-Pierre Goy for these amazing sequences on the Bat-bike. Jean-Pierre who…? In the select land of showbiz stuntmen, Jean-Pierre Goy (pronounced “GOA”) has become a legend by his own right and his claims to fame are far numerous than the space available here to enumerate. I had the honour and privilege to meet this extraordinary soft spoken gentleman, a stuntman par excellence.

Jean-Pierre Goy was born in North Isère, France in 1961 and he received his first Trial bike, a Yamaha TY125, when he was 16. He started riding the Trial at the sawmill that was owned by his family. He was initially into equestrian sports but soon got passionately involved with stunting with his new bike. Jean-Pierre Goy landed his first contract with Fantic Motor, Italy to do tests and stunts with Trial Bikes at age 18.



I present excerpts of an exciting conversation that I managed to have with JP Goy.

JPG: When I decided to shift to motorsports and stunts thereafter, I was largely helped, encouraged and supported by my family. And soon it became a way of life for me. After my first contract and the World Cup in 1981and the French Championship in 1982, I started getting smaller offers to do stunt shows and telefilms and serials. During one such shooting in Yugoslavia, I managed to do a jump where others could not and impressed thus and I left my visiting card to someone important. My career took off thereon.

I landed a contract with BMW in 1986 and started doing personal stunt shows for promotional events and advertisements for endorsements. This remained my staple performance routine that earned my bread and butter and still is.

A lot changed when one day in 1997, I received a call from the USA to do stunts for a James Bond movie. In the world of cinema, there are about a dozen good motorcycle stuntmen. And I was chosen as one among them. This was the highlight of my career. Needless to say, I accepted the invitation without hesitation and went to meet the producers and the director of the film.



K: Yes. No one can forget that amazing scene from Tomorrow Never Dies where you jump with a motorcycle from a building, atop a helicopter and land on the roof of another building.

JPG: Even I will not forget that amazing day where for the final take, even Pierce Brosnan was watching with anxious eyes from the crane and Michelle Yeoh was waiting looking up. The building from where I jumped was 21 meters high. The blades of the helicopter had been removed ofcourse and they were later added on with editing software. I had to jump to the roof of a building that was 15 metres high. I refused the safety wire and I also refused to use a Trial bike for the shot. I wanted to use the bike that Bond was supposed to be riding. I had done 200 practice jumps before doing the final take which turned out to be the tensest moments of the day and the perfect jump.

A lot of things could have gone wrong, I could have miscalculated the speed, the angle, the deviation from wind factors, the heat of the engine and exhausts could have got the cartons where I was landing in flames. Nothing of that sort happened and I managed to give the perfect stunt sequence. And I was hugged and congratulated by Brosnan, Michelle Yeoh and the entire crew. These are memorable moments of my life.



K: I suppose that changed a lot of things in your life thereon.

JPG: Absolutely. When Tomorrow Never Dies was released, I became a celebrity. My financial and social status changed. Working for cinema is a different proposition altogether. One has to be available while doing nothing for long periods. And for your shot you have to practice really a lot. There is a certain respect that you earn for your work. There is the pleasure and prestige of working for cinema. This brings in the glamour side to your life and adds sheen to my personal shows.

Whereas when I do my personal shows, which last from 30minutes to 45minutes are mostly for promotional events for various MNCs, there is a coordinator-presenter-host who dials in the show and presents me and my acts as I go along through the whole process of making it spectacular. It is an orchestrated process well prepared in advance, but it is LIVE! Though cinema is not live, it is way more dangerous and requires a different mindset, preparation and mental skills.



K: How was your experience with The Dark Knight?

JPG: When I was contracted to do ride the Batpod, I was thrilled. It was an exciting affair to ride a motorcycle that was straight out of a comic book and was being shot on film. The Batpod looked interesting with these really huge tyres. But when I had the vehicle in hand, I wondered whether it could be really ridden hard. I took it for a test and it really vibrates a lot. I managed to ride that thing at 130km/h. But it was all over the place. Nonetheless, I enjoyed working in the movie with Christopher Nolan. They used 8 such Batpods!



K: What are your plans for the future?

JPG: I am still doing personal shows. But with age catching up, I do not want to be caught on the wrong foot. I have been thinking of training youngsters how to ride Trial on dirt. I want to make one thing clear though; I am NOT a biker, I am a STUNTPERSON. I do not ride a bike on the roads. I find it too dangerous. I do stunts in a protected environment which does not involve risks to others around.



I had spent a great afternoon with this phenomenon of stunts who also showed me his garage, stack of tyres that he has to change ceaselessly. Each morning JP Goy spends a considerable amount of time doing safety inspections on his bikes. He has to maintain them at top notch levels. It is but obvious that a lot of hard work has gone in to become what he has become today. He has achieved levels of stunting that look easy and appear to be a walk in the park. I hope he continues thus for a long time and inspires generations of stuntpersons in the future.

Some more photos:









A big thanks to Mr. Jean Pierre GOY who agreed to do this interview despite being on a very tight schedule and being 7 hour jet-lagged coming from shows in South East Asia the previous night.
And a big thanks to Mme Valérie Honoré, a member of xBhp chapter in France, who managed to get hold of Jean Pierre GOY and convince him for an interview with me on behalf of xBhp and without whose help I would not have managed to present this here.

Read it on Hard Torque : Interview with Jean Pierre Goa | Hard Torque, Straight Face

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Sunny

Hard Torque Approved

Fantastic guy and interview. It must have been difficult getting hold of him, now if next could be Chris Pfeiffer!

Aryan

Wow! What an interview; makes one think seriously about getting into stunting!

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rockrider

thanks Ken for bringing this to us.

myg124

Ken da, firstly many many thanks to you!! i really admire mr. Goy and the terrific work he did with The Dark Knight and am a big time fan of him. One more thing that we all know, but tend to ignore is, he got the oppurtunity to wear the famed Cape n cowl!! all the time people wonder its Bale doing the stunts but unfortunately no! Makes me remember Chris Corbould mention,' I knew only one guy in the world can ride this thing and thats Jean Pierre'

How did you get this gr8 oppurtunity to meet him??? please share with us!

M sharing a pic here..during the subway chase with Mr. Goy.

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Old Fox

Amazing man! And the interview, though brief, pretty much sums up JP's life. Wish skills like these were valued in the same manner here too! But then, if wishes were horses...

Xbhp owes you one for this Ken.

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niks_devil666

great interview .... although , this -> "I want to make one thing clear though; I am NOT a biker, I am a STUNTPERSON. I do not ride a bike on the roads. I find it too dangerous." was unexpected , but seems true.

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suhail_kapoor

Ken da thanks fro bring this really interesting read to us ... now only if we could manage half the control he has on machines ....

ken cool

Practice man practice and endurance and perseverance.

I even have some videos of his shows that he gave me. They are simply amazing.

He loves stunting. That is his passion, life and daily bread. But not motorcycling.

I wish so too; skills in any domain actually...

Hey, thanks for sharing that rare pic of the preps and props. How did you manage to get hold of that picture?

As for how I managed to get hold of JP Goy is a kind of tall story. There is a tiny xBhp chapter that I have managed to start in France. There are some members who visit but do not post. One of them being Valérie Honoré without whose help this article would not have been possible. She managed to get hold of JP Goy, convince him for an interview, despite a tight schedule and I managed to get this work done. JP Goy is one great guy, down to earth and easy-going. He was 7 hours jet lagged when I met him. But he did not hesitate to talk to me, show me around and even entertain Maël, my 8 year old son.

My pleasure! I am glad you read through the article.

Why dont you? If you feel interested, inspired, want to do it, you should go ahead... there will be another good stunter amongst us then.

(Aside: As the grapevine goes, apparently you have taken an interest in developing stunting skills!)

I could get you Chris Pfeiffer too if he lived in France

Thanks for the approval.

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rx100.7050

[quote=ken cool;143106]Practice man practice and endurance and perseverance.

I even have some videos of his shows that he gave me. They are simply amazing.


Sir,
Please share those videos. If its not too much to ask, could you please burn a CD & bring it along with you in the next G2G. I am not a stunt person. Most of us are not actually. But we do want to get AWED by seeing some spectacular piece of art.

Many thanks for this Post. Simply put, fantastic

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