Professional long board skater Brian Holden was the skateboard stuntman in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty movie.

At the time, Brian Holden was a student at the University of Colorado-Denver when he got “the call of his life”. Holden picked RTP Live up his phone in February 2012 and received an out-or-the-ordinary request from skateboarder Corey Lucero, Brians cousin.

Corey asked, “Would you want to fly to Iceland and work as a longboard stunt double in a Ben Stiller movie?”

Holden (right) was interested, but concerned about missing class.

(Really dude?)

“‘Well I can’t miss out on school,'” Holden told his cousin. “And he explained, ‘No, it’s going to be in November, seven months from now.’ And Holden was like, ‘Oh OK, yeah, I can probably do that.”

At the time of the call Holden has been skateboarding for 20+ years and longboarding for 10.
He had competed as a pro longboarder across the world. Still, he had to make a real comitment to the Walter Mitty movie. Between February and August of 2012, when he was due on set in Iceland for the filming of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, he had to prepare.

To double as Ben Stiller he had to lose 20 pounds, dropping from 165 to 145. To do that he cut carbs, hit the gym three slot deposit pulsa or four times a week and started eating salads daily.

After successfully losing the weight, the pressure was still on Holden. Upon arriving in Iceland his first asignment was to teach Ben Stiller how to longboard.

Brian reported that as they were rolling to his first skate lesson with Stiller, his boss leaned over and said, ‘Actors get really into this stuff. You can’t let him get too ahead of himself because if he rolls an ankle or gets hurt or anything, and he’s not able to act, this entire movie is canned and that’s all on you.'” That was pressure Brian Holden hadn’t anticipated.

Thank God for Holden, Stiller was a natural. The 48-year-old Stiller relied on his experience skateboarding around New York City when he was a kid back in the 70’s.

 

“That was a huge relief,” Holden said of Stiller’s quick learning.

 

 

 

Holden appears in the movie, which chronicles a daydreamer (Stiller) escaping from his mundane everyday life, for about a minute or two. Regardless of what you think about the movie, it has one of the coolest down hill skateboarding clips in Hollywood history.

 

 

 

It was was Brian Holden’s first appearance in a movie, and he says if Hollywood came calling again he would “definitely not say no.” ( Are you freaking kidding me? I guess all of us are different, by I couldn’t pass up on that chance, could you?)

At the time, Holden was more concerned about finishing up his degree in marketing and graduating. I can’t help but think, for what?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was released in 2013 and starred Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig and Sean Penn. Regardless of what you think about the movie, you have to admit the downhill skateboard scene was killer.

So how well did the Secret Life of Walter Mitty do at the box office?

At the popularity of skateboarding continues to grow world-wid you have to think there will be more an more opportunities for skateboarding stuntmen and women in the future.

 

 

 

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