Female stunt driver, Bri Lynch, shares how her love of dirt bikes ultimately turned into her career where she's worked with Queen Bey, Fast & Furious and more!
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00:00 My name is Bri Lynch, I'm 27 years old,
00:02 a professional stunt driver,
00:03 the owner of Chasing Checkers Racing,
00:04 and today I'm here to talk about
00:06 the business of stunt driving.
00:07 (engine revving)
00:10 I feel like I was kind of born into the industry
00:14 of stunts and stunt driving a little bit.
00:17 I got my first dirt bike when I was three years old,
00:19 because my dad was a professional motocross racer
00:22 before I was born.
00:23 So when he had his first born, he was just like,
00:24 "I'm gonna teach you how to race motocross."
00:26 And like, you know, that's all he knew how to do.
00:28 So he was like, "This is how I have fun,
00:30 hopefully you like it."
00:31 By the time I got my driver's license,
00:32 my first car was a manual transmission little sports car,
00:35 it was a Pontiac Solstice, I still have it.
00:36 My dad, you know, taught me how to do some donuts and that,
00:38 and it was kind of kept going from there,
00:40 and I learned how to drift eventually,
00:41 and started posting my videos on the internet,
00:43 and you know, that's kind of how I got into stunt driving.
00:45 (engine revving)
00:47 Starting off as a stunt driver,
00:48 I feel like within the industry,
00:51 a lot of people think that I like came out swinging,
00:52 and like started working a whole lot.
00:54 That's actually not the truth.
00:55 I moved to California from New Jersey
00:58 to go to film school at New York Film Academy,
01:00 and I was doing a little bit of drifting here and there
01:03 with my dad, on and off the track, you know,
01:05 just like kind of going as we had time.
01:07 I ended up going to work with him
01:09 on this movie called "Creed."
01:11 I wasn't initially supposed to work on the film,
01:13 but I ended up getting a spot on it
01:14 'cause I needed another dirt bike rider.
01:16 The director realized like, "Oh, we have a girl
01:17 that can ride a dirt bike, that's so cool.
01:19 Let's like put her in the front so we can see her."
01:22 And once I really started putting my videos and stuff
01:26 of drifting on the internet,
01:27 I think I started getting more and more phone calls.
01:29 And once people put the pieces together of like,
01:31 "That's Jay Lynch's daughter,"
01:32 I think it kind of really exploded from there.
01:34 But it took a couple years.
01:35 I worked on this music video for Beyoncé.
01:37 It was called "Formation."
01:39 They had my shot in the beginning of the day,
01:41 and then I showed up on set.
01:42 I was like first shot up.
01:43 I showed up on set,
01:44 and I think I was 20 years old at the time.
01:47 And they were like, "That's our stunt driver?"
01:48 And the coordinator was like, "Yeah."
01:49 And they moved my shot to the last shot of the day
01:52 immediately because they were nervous.
01:53 I didn't know why,
01:54 but it turns out Beyoncé was gonna be in the car with me.
01:57 She was basically laid across the seat
01:58 to have her head out the window
02:00 for the shot that they wanted.
02:02 So I like was doing donuts with Beyoncé's feet
02:04 basically like in my lap.
02:06 I got to work on "Black Panther" one and two,
02:08 which was huge 'cause I was a hero car for both of those.
02:12 I was like driving the main vehicle
02:14 of the chase sequence in both of those.
02:16 The first one took place in South Korea,
02:19 which was nuts.
02:19 That was my first time going out of the country for work.
02:21 And then the second one we actually filmed in Georgia,
02:24 and it finally came out, and the movie looks great.
02:27 And then obviously "Fast and Furious."
02:29 I've worked on a couple of the "Fast and Furious" movies,
02:30 and that was like big check off the bucket list.
02:34 Like huge dream come true.
02:35 I was like, "I've only been thinking about this
02:36 since I was like 10 years old."
02:38 I feel like when it comes to stunt driving,
02:39 a lot of it is a feel.
02:41 So you kind of have to feel what you're able to do
02:44 before you just decide
02:45 that you want to get into that career.
02:46 Unfortunately, I feel like with motorsports,
02:49 it's something that you kind of learn from a younger age,
02:51 and some people have the rhythm of it,
02:52 and some people don't have the rhythm of it, unfortunately.
02:54 But everything can be learned, obviously.
02:56 Like there's some basic moves that you can learn how to do
02:59 when you're trying to get into stunt driving,
03:01 like a sliding 90, a 180.
03:03 You know, people call them J-turns sometimes,
03:05 reverse 180, that kind of thing.
03:07 So there's like specific schools that you can even take
03:09 to try to learn those specific moves.
03:11 But unfortunately, when you get onto set,
03:13 it's not always a perfect environment.
03:15 So you have to be able to kind of work anywhere
03:17 with any kind of car.
03:18 And you know, any kind of surface and anything around you.
03:21 For some reason, we never get any information
03:23 before we show up.
03:25 So a lot of the times, a coordinator will call us,
03:27 ask like, "Hey, you know, I have this car chase.
03:29 "You know, are you available?"
03:30 And you're like, "What kind of car is it?"
03:31 And they're like, "I don't know yet."
03:33 I'm like, "Okay."
03:34 And then they're like, "You know, are you capable
03:36 "of doing this and this and that?"
03:37 And I'm like, "Yeah, of course."
03:38 Like, you know, or you send your driving reel,
03:39 and they don't even ask you any questions after that,
03:41 'cause they just know that you're either ready for the job
03:43 or they think that you are.
03:44 And then usually when you show up the day of,
03:47 people are like, "So what are you doing today?"
03:48 When you're like in hair and makeup,
03:49 and you're like, "I have no idea."
03:51 You know, and you just show up,
03:52 and then eventually they put you in the car,
03:54 and you get to set and see everything.
03:56 As much planning as there needs to be done,
03:58 unfortunately, the performers,
03:59 we don't really get any information prior.
04:02 So you kind of have to be ready for anything.
04:03 Even sometimes on set, like,
04:04 we still don't have time to do anything.
04:07 Like, if I bring tools on set, it's like a waste of time,
04:10 'cause we don't have time to change anything about the car.
04:13 I just have to like get in it and do whatever I can
04:15 as fast as I can.
04:16 You know, you're watching a movie,
04:17 and you're not thinking about all the people
04:18 that are actually on set,
04:19 and then everybody gets up by the time the movie's over,
04:21 and they don't look at the credits.
04:22 But the credits are always super long,
04:24 'cause there's so many people that it takes
04:25 to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
04:29 And as stunt drivers, you know, we have a day rate,
04:32 and then we have a weekly rate,
04:33 and that's usually, you usually get one or the other,
04:36 unless if you do this thing called a buyout contract,
04:38 where you get to talk about your deal prior
04:40 and negotiate it and everything.
04:41 But that doesn't happen until you've been working
04:42 for like 30 years.
04:44 Or you're really seriously putting your life at risk,
04:46 like some of the jobs that I've done,
04:47 where I've like flipped a car over, you know,
04:50 like a day rate is not gonna be enough for that,
04:52 for me risking my life to do something like that.
04:54 [engine revving]
04:57 Depending on the type of stunt that you're doing
05:00 and the skill set that it takes
05:01 and the amount of times you're gonna have to do it,
05:03 usually you get this thing called a stunt adjustment,
05:04 which is whatever falls on top of your daily rate
05:07 or weekly rate.
05:08 And that's kind of up to the coordinator
05:11 and the production, depending on like what their budget is.
05:13 And sometimes it's not a fair stunt adjustment.
05:16 And like, you just leave work and you sign the G
05:18 and you see what your stunt adjustment was.
05:19 And you're like, oh, cool.
05:20 I like risked my life for, you know, $500.
05:23 I think as far as the movie industry goes,
05:25 it's not a super diverse, you know, community to begin with.
05:28 And then in addition to that,
05:30 when you niche it down to stunt driving,
05:31 it gets less and less and less diverse, you know.
05:34 And unfortunately, I think that's just because
05:36 of the demographic of it sometimes.
05:39 And, you know, like the accessibility of it,
05:41 stunt driving is very, very, very expensive.
05:44 You know, sometimes when I go to the track,
05:46 I'm going through a set of tires,
05:48 meaning the two rear tires,
05:49 in like a matter of less than an hour.
05:52 If I'm really like driving hard
05:54 and like just focusing on what I'm doing,
05:56 and like, that's literally in an hour.
05:57 I have eight hours at the track.
05:58 So sometimes I could go through like eight sets of tires,
06:00 which if you're paying a hundred dollars a tire,
06:02 that's like almost a thousand dollar day easily after tax.
06:06 And then I still have to pay to drive.
06:07 And, you know, if my car breaks or anything like that.
06:10 So it's very expensive to get into.
06:12 And unfortunately, there's not a lot of people that do it
06:16 or not a lot of people that put in the amount of time
06:20 that you could put in to be one of the like
06:22 top tier, top notch drivers.
06:24 Thankfully for me, my dad has been working in the industry
06:27 for like 30 years.
06:28 And I've seen him go through all kinds of stuff.
06:31 For a long period of time,
06:33 we were having a big problem in the industry.
06:34 This is like right before I started working, I think.
06:37 I might've still been in high school
06:39 where they were putting wigs on men to double women.
06:42 And the women were freaking out about it
06:44 because they were feeling like
06:45 that wasn't equal opportunity.
06:46 Well, true. I agree with that.
06:48 But the problem was,
06:48 is we didn't have any women to fill the spot.
06:51 Another thing that we were having issues with was paint downs
06:54 which was another big problem that we had.
06:56 So I feel like a big driving factor for me
06:59 when I started training and started working
07:01 was I was one of the very few women of color
07:05 that was driving at the level
07:06 that I was driving at back then.
07:07 Thankfully now we have some more people
07:10 and it's starting to become more accessible.
07:11 And especially because of the internet,
07:13 people are seeing it all the time
07:14 and trying to do things on their own.
07:17 But yeah, it really, it kind of motivated me a lot
07:19 because I knew when I showed up to work
07:22 that I had to fill certain shoes, obviously,
07:26 because of my father.
07:27 I knew that people were immediately comparing me to him.
07:29 So if you're a hot seat driver,
07:30 usually you're doing a lot of car chases
07:32 and you're in the hero vehicle,
07:34 which means the main vehicle
07:36 that's being focused on in the chase.
07:37 And the vehicle that's doing all the crazy stuff,
07:39 like crashing or drifting around a corner or whatever.
07:42 And sometimes when you are a hot seat driver,
07:46 you get put in the position
07:47 where you get to do this thing called a turnover,
07:49 which is a humongous opportunity.
07:52 I did a turnover alongside of somebody
07:53 that had been working in the industry already for 25 years.
07:57 And I was turning 25 the day that we did the turnover
08:00 and I was on my second one
08:01 and he had still never done one before.
08:03 So it's a really big deal to be able to do that
08:07 and have somebody trust you to do that
08:08 'cause you only get one shot at doing it.
08:10 Okay, I have all this pressure on me
08:11 'cause we can only do this one time
08:13 and hopefully I don't mess it up.
08:14 Especially, it's not something you can practice.
08:17 Can't practice flipping a car over.
08:20 You know what I mean?
08:20 It takes a whole crew of people and weeks prior
08:24 to build the roll cage properly for the car.
08:26 And it's not just a roll cage,
08:28 like a roll cage you can order on the internet.
08:29 It's like we have very specific ways
08:31 that we curate the roll cages
08:33 to keep us safe during the crash.
08:35 And then obviously you have your own protective seat
08:37 and helmets and harnesses and all that kind of stuff.
08:40 So, you know, it's a lot.
08:44 But thankfully, I think I'm a little bit more prepared
08:46 for it just because I've been watching my dad do that
08:49 my whole life and I've seen so many other people
08:51 do that in the industry and I've safety for other people
08:53 and I know what's going on because I've studied it so much
08:57 and talked to so many veterans about turnovers
09:00 and cannons and stuff like that.
09:02 Turnover essentially is exactly what I'm saying out loud.
09:04 It's literally turning a car over.
09:06 So like the car might end up on its roof
09:08 or it might end up on the driver's side door
09:09 or the passenger side door.
09:11 So that's literally what the car is.
09:13 The intention of the stunt is to get the car
09:15 to roll over in some way, shape or form.
09:17 The car is gonna do this big crash that you would like,
09:19 you know, stop and look at on the side of the highway
09:21 kind of thing.
09:22 And then a cannon is,
09:25 that's like creme de la creme of stunt driving.
09:27 In my personal opinion, I always say
09:28 you can't get bigger than that
09:29 unless if you set the car on fire
09:30 and send it through a hoop that's also on fire
09:32 over a tank of sharks.
09:33 Basically, if you think of like having like
09:36 something like a cylinder, like a telephone pole, right?
09:38 And you put that in the back of the car
09:40 or in the front of the car,
09:41 depending on where the car needs to do the cannon.
09:44 Let's just say that it's gonna be
09:45 in the back center of the car.
09:46 So right in between the two back wheels of the car.
09:49 As a driver, you have a button in your hand,
09:52 like a literal physical button that you'd be holding.
09:55 And you drive the car to do whatever the car
09:58 is supposed to do in the chase.
09:59 And when you press the button,
10:00 it was like a pneumatic like explosion
10:02 that sends the cylinder out of the bottom of the car.
10:05 So the car flips up into the air
10:07 and goes over and over and over and over again.
10:08 You have like a bomb like strapped to the car basically.
10:11 And like, you're just like, okay,
10:12 I'm gonna like press this button at this time
10:13 when I get to this mark on the street, you know,
10:15 and you're driving like however many miles an hour,
10:17 40, 50 miles an hour.
10:18 And you have to do it at the specific time
10:20 so you don't ruin anything else.
10:22 So yeah, it's a lot.
10:23 And cannons definitely are very, you know,
10:27 they take a lot on you physically.
10:28 It's like a very big physical toll.
10:30 And you're really sore afterwards.
10:32 I usually take Advil prior.
10:34 Learned that trick from a veteran.
10:35 What a lot of people don't realize
10:36 is they think that people that are stunt drivers
10:38 are like daredevils and we just like don't care,
10:40 you know, about our life or our livelihood or anything.
10:42 But it's, they're very calculated.
10:45 You know, we try to be as calculated as we can
10:46 and try to make sure that we can get everything done
10:49 as safely as possible so that we can move on
10:50 to the next shot before lunch.
10:52 You know, I have like one of the coolest jobs in the world
10:55 and I love that I get to travel
10:56 to go to these different places.
10:58 I actually do this thing where I get a mug
11:00 in every like country that I go to to work.
11:02 And I have this like cool little shelf
11:04 where I have all of my mugs
11:05 from like all over the world and stuff.
11:07 So I've gotten to work in Portugal, Croatia,
11:11 Slovenia, London, Budapest, South Korea.
11:16 I feel like I'm missing a couple.
11:22 But those are like probably just within the past
11:23 like five or six years that I've gotten to work
11:26 in all those different places.
11:27 So it's kind of crazy.
11:28 My mug wall is getting like really full.
11:30 I have a second shelf now for it.
11:31 Yeah, I'm gonna have to get a third one.
11:35 My name is Bre Lynch
11:36 and that's the business of stunt driving.
11:38 (upbeat music)
11:40 (electronic beeping)