CHUCK BORDEN

 

Born on March 13, 1962 in the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA, Chuck Borden moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1969. He started in America in 1983 as a stunt coordinator and worked on films like ‘Island Fury’, ‘Intruder’, ‘American Rampage’, ‘Ghetto Blaster’, ‘Ghost Writer’, ‘Circuitry Man 1 - 2’, ‘Crash and Burn’, ‘Club Fed’, ‘Puppet Master 2 - 3’, ‘Steel and Lace’, ‘Deadly Diamonds’, ‘Me, Myself and I’, ‘The Nutt House’, ‘Midnight Kiss’, ‘Bank Robber’, ‘Bikini Squad’, ‘Oblivion’, ‘Playmaker’, ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘Beanstalk’, ‘The Prophecy’, ‘No Way Back’, ‘Digital Man’, ‘Blonde Heaven’, ‘Red Ribbon Blues’, ‘The Secret Agent Club’, ‘Dead Girl’, ‘Sworn to Justice’, ‘Just Your Luck’, ‘Strawberry Fields’ ‘Sand Trap’, ‘Gods and Monsters’, ‘Sweet Jane’, ‘Denial’, ‘The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, ‘Suckers’, ‘Kiss Toledo Goodbye’, ‘100 Girls’, ‘Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes’, ‘Final Payback’, ‘Deep Freeze’, ‘Spun’, ‘Girl Fever’, ‘Thirteen’, ‘Confidence’, ‘BachelorMan’, ‘Wonderland’, ‘Bereft’, ‘Love for Rent’, ‘Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas’, ‘The Novice’, ‘Columbus Day’, ‘Jolene’, ‘Crush’, ‘Oculus’, ‘Hush’, ‘Before I Wake’, ‘Doctor Sleep’, ‘Kill Mode’, ‘The Map of Tiny Perfect Things’ en ‘Grace Point’, the TV Movies ‘Back to Back’, ‘Arthur’s Quest’, ‘Lightning: Fire from the Sky’, ‘Trapped: Buried Alive’, ‘Frozen Impact’, ‘Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Brooke’, ‘Hollywood Division’ and ‘Landslide’, the miniseries ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and ‘Skin’, the music video Trouble by P!nk, the short films ‘Platinum Blonde’, ‘Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man’, ‘Cliché’, ‘The Way Down’ and ‘Fuk It’ and the TV series “Mr. Show with Bob and David”, “The Man Show”, “I Dare You”, “Senseless Acts of Video”, “Greek” and “The Haunting of Hill House”. Since 1987 Chuck also does stunts for films like ‘Red Surf’, ‘Peacemaker’, ‘Fire Birds’, ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘Darkman’, ‘Soldier’s Fortune’, ‘UFO Abductions’, ‘Blackbelt’, ‘Death Ring’, ‘Mom and Dad Save the World’, ‘Guncrazy’, ‘Army of Darkness’, ‘Mission of Justice’, ‘Monolith’, ‘Private Wars’, ‘CIA II: Taret Alexa’, ‘Direct Hit’, ‘Zero Tolerance’, ‘Ice’, ‘The Glass Shield’, ‘Twin Sisters’, ‘Prehysteria! 2 - 3’, ‘Stranger by Night’, ‘Love Is a Gun’, ‘T-Force’, ‘Carnosaur 2 - 3’, ‘Midnight Man’, ‘Project Shadowchaser 3000’, ‘Galaxis’, ‘Timemaster’, ‘Digital Man’, ‘White Man’s Burden’, ‘Phoenix’, ‘Cyber Tracker 2’, ‘Savage’, ‘Skycraper’, ‘Oblivion 2: Backlash’, ‘The Silencers’, ‘Eraser’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Mercenary’, ‘Prey of the Jaguar’, ‘Little Cobras: Operation Dalmatian’, ‘Eight Days a Week’, ‘Executive Target’, ‘Mars’, ‘The Shadow Men’, ‘Playing God’, ‘The Sea Wolf’, ‘Scorpio One’, ‘The Sender’, ‘Counter Measures’, ‘Land of the Free’, ‘High Voltage’, ‘The Assault’, ‘Overdrive’, ‘Avalanche’, ‘Stealth Fighter’, ‘Scream 3’, ‘The Chaos Factor’, ‘Peril’, ‘Radical Jack’, ‘Undisputed’, ‘Dead Above Ground’, ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’, ‘Chaos’, ‘Special Ops: Delta Force’, ‘Reno 911!: Miami’, ‘Hannah Montana: The Movie’, ‘Street of Blood’, ‘Gentlemen Broncos’, ‘Little Hercules in 3-D’, ‘Angel Camouflaged’, ‘Where the Road Runs Out’, ‘Masterminds’, ‘Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine’, ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’, ‘Den of Thieves’, ‘Sextuplets’, ‘Fast & Furious 9 – 10’, ‘Paradise Highway’, ‘Do Revenge’, ‘Paradise City’ and ‘Murder Mystery 2’, the TV Movies ‘In the Deep Woods’, ‘Suspects Device’, ‘Stolen Innocence’, ‘The Right to Remain Silent’, ‘Hijacked: Flight 285’, ‘All Lies End in Murder’, ‘The Outsider’, ‘Skeletons’, ‘Black Scorpion 2: Aftershock’, ‘Legion’, ‘The Cowboy and the Movie Star’, ‘Men in White’ and ‘Windfall’, the miniseries ‘OP Center’, the short movie ‘Harbour’ and the TV series “Unsolved Mysteries”, “The Arsenio Hall Show”, “FBI: The Untold Stories”, “Stuntmasters”, “Renegade”, “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.”, “Diagnosis Murder”, “Signs and Wonders”, “Land’s End”, “Pacific Blue”, “High Incident”, “Nash Bridges”, “Tenacious D”, “L.A. Heat”, “Nikki”, “Six Feet Under”, “Reno 911!”, “Castle”, “How Do They Do It?”, “Insatiable”, “Raising Dion” and “The First Lady”. He was between 1988 and 2010 also a stunt driver for the film ‘The Invited’, the TV movie ‘Finish Line’ and the TV series “Sonny Spoon”. In 1989, Chuck was a stuntman and director of the second unit of the movie ‘Dark Nova’, in 2006 actor and director of the third unit of the movie ‘Soft Target’ and in 1989 responsible for the transportation of the movie ‘Ghost Writer’. Between 1999 and 2022 he was a stunt double in films such as ‘Fallout’, ‘The Debtors’, ‘Tripfall’, ‘Poolhall Junkies’, ‘Blind Horizon’, ‘Conspiracy’, ‘The Devil’s Tomb’, ‘Haunting of Winchester House’, ‘Horror Noire’ en ‘Deep Water’, the TV movies ‘A Deadly Adoption’ and the TV series “The Righteous Gemstones”. In 2003 he met the Dutch Karin Derks in Las Vegas in America, with whom he lived there until 2004. From 2004 to 2009 they then lived together in Los Angeles in America. In 2005 their twin daughters Jessie and Lily were born. Chuck and Karin got married in September 2006. In 2014, Chuck was a stunt consultant for the short film 'The Final Girl Movie’. He was both stuntman, stunt coordinator and second unit director on the movies ‘Dr. Alien’, ‘Curfew’, ‘Trancers 2’ and ‘Little Bigfoot 2’ and was both stunt coordinator and second unit director on the films ‘Caged Hearts’, ‘Under Lock and Key’, ‘California Convertible’, ‘Final Payback’, ‘Gangland’, ‘The Six Wives of Henry Lefay’ and ‘1 Mile to You’. Chuck was also a stunt coordinator and stunt double for the movie ‘Totem’. He produced and directed the movie 'Purgatorium' and the short film 'Super Hero Steve'. Chuck also wrote this short film. He was an actor, stunt coordinator and second unit director on the movies ‘The Base’, ‘Point Doom’, ‘Redemption’, ’20 Years After’ and ‘Fanboys’. Chuck was also an actor and stunt coordinator for the films ‘American Rampage’, ‘Sworn to Justice’, ‘Clockwatchers’, ‘Drive, ‘Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home’, ‘Girl Fever’, ‘Come Early Morning’ and ‘Gerald’s Game’, the TV movie ‘Lightning: Fire from the Sky’ and the short films ‘Platinum Blonde’ and ‘Solitary’. He could be seen as an actor and also did the stunts for the movies ‘Monkey Business’, ‘Knifepoint’ and ‘Lansky’ and the TV series “Constantine”. Chuck also acted in movies like ‘Mission of Justice’, ‘Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000’, ‘Street War’, ‘Land of the Free’, ‘Devious Beings’ and ‘Cloud 9’ and with guest roles in TV series like “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager”.

 

In 2008 he did the stunts for the Dutch TV program “I bet I can”. In 2009 Chuck emigrated to Raalte in Overijssel in the Netherlands. Since then he has worked in the Netherlands on stunts for the films 'Degrees van Mike!', 'Cornea', 'Ron Goossens, Lowbudget Stuntman', 'Brothers' and 'Black Girl Magic', the TV film 'Stay!', the video clip Sad Singalongs by Anouk, the TV program “We bet that I can do it”, the short films “Fairly unhappy” and “Limbugia” and the TV series “Bagels & Bubbles”, “The fraction”, “ Trecx” and “Bonnie & Clyde”. Chuck worked as a stunt double in the TV series "The Dik Voormekaar Show" and "Life song". Homerun' and the TV series “Doctor Tinus”. Chuck was stunt coordinator on the TV Movies' Cops vs. Killer' and 'Just Friends', the short films 'Empty' and 'View' and the TV series “New Kids on the Block”, “Doctor Tinus”, “Cell Block H” and “Central”, while he was fight coordinator in the films 'Claustrofobia' and 'My Foolish Heart', the short TV films 'The Death Show' and 'Intruder' and the TV series “The 12 of Oldenheim”, “Heat” and “Sleepers”. He provided stunt safety for the TV series “Sams Christmas” and “Vlucht HS13” and was assistant stunt coordinator for the films “Catacomb”, “Fight Girl”, “Sisyphus at Work” and “Mess”. As an actor, Chuck had a guest role in the TV series “Bonnie & Clyde”.

 

He also worked in other countries. For example, Chuck was stunt coordinator for the film 'ID:A' in Denmark, was stunt coordinator for the TV-Film 'A yummy thing' in Germany and did the stunts for the miniseries 'The Amsterdam crime thriller' and in Belgium he did the stunts for the short film 'The day my house fell' and the TV series “Lisa” and “Family”. Perry got in touch with the very friendly Chuck Borden because of an interview for the internet site.

 

001.You are stunt coordinator, do stunts and stunt double. If you had to make a choice out of all your work that you like to do most, what would

       it be?

       That has changed. My first movie 'Island Fury' from 1983 was I a stuntman and stunt coordinator. On bigger shows a stunt coordinator in charge of

       the stunt people and you don't actually do stunts yourself, simply because you have to manage everything in the right direction. I have been stunt

       doubling since I started. Then you often do the stunts for a certain actor.

002.At what moment in your career are you most proud and/or do you have the best memories?

       I find that difficult. I don't have many bad memories. The difference in work is just so nice.I really enjoy doing car stunts. That's what I started with. I

       have been racing cars and bikes for as long as I can remember. Occasionally something goes wrong. With car stunts, we stunt people are then in a

       suit of armor to protect us. In the movie ‘Redemption’ from 2002 I played police officer Wes and my behind-the-scenes job was that of stunt               

       coordinator. As a police officer I had to take my car into the air, make a turn and end up upside down. When I ended up on the head, however, I shot

       out of my harness and I dislocated my shoulder during the crash. I was even knocked out for a while.

003.You have been working in the TV and film industry since 1983. The question is, do you have anything left to wish for in your career?

       I think it would be great to work on a James Bond film. I would also love to work with actor and former stuntman Jackie Chan. He is now 69 years old

       and his last job for which he did stunts was the movie 'Kung Fu Yoga' from 2017. But since the short English-language film 'Super Hero Steve' from

       2017, I have also been directing myself. It would therefore be great to be able to direct Jackie Chan in one of my films.

004.Throughout the years you have already worked with the necessary stars. However, who has impressed you the most?

       I worked on seven films with Val Kilmer between 1996 and 2009. The first was 'Dead Girl' and this was followed by 'Wonderland', 'Blind Horizon', 'Kiss

       Kiss Bang Bang', 'Conspiracy', 'Columbus Day' and 'Streets of Blood'. The last time we worked together was fourteen years ago. It was always very

       pleasant to work with him. I also enjoyed working with actress Rebecca Ferguson. I worked with her in 2019 on the movie 'Doctor Sleep' where I was

       involved as a stunt coordinator. I have already worked with actress Jordana Brewster on 'Fast & Furious 9 and 10', but I never got to actually meet or

       work with her. I would like to work with her at some point though, not just share a film that we never meet.

005.How did the idea of 'StuntCamp' come about?

       At first I wanted to do it in America, but it never happened. The insurance there is very High. In addition, Las Vegas is a real tourist destination, which

       would mean that you should keep advertising. In the end I did start with it in 2013 in Raalte in the Netherlands. It started with the idea as a team

       outing. We are also there as an outing for children. They tell you honestly what they think of something. It is for at least groups of ten people.

006.What can we expect from you in the future in showbiz?

       In the Netherlands I am stunt coordinator for the film 'Game On' that can be seen from Wednesday, February 7, 2024. I have also several film

       projects of my own that are very close to getting funded.

 

For more information on Chuck Borden and his StuntCamp, visit https://faceplantfilms.com/chuck-borden/.

Interview: Perry Krootjes