Shropshire stuntman thought Star Wars call 'was a prank'

A stuntman who got his break in the movie business working on Star Wars says he thought it was a "prank call" when he was first offered the job.

Justin Pearson, of Shropshire, has been in James Bond films, Fast & Furious and TV shows such as Peaky Blinders.

"I've broken a few bones, been burnt a couple of times, but after 30 years I've come out the other side reasonably unscathed I would say," he said.

He has talked to the BBC about a new book on his career in film and TV.

He said he had only just qualified as a stuntman when he received a call about working in Star Wars.

"I got phone call from a chap called Nick Gillard who said 'how would you like to work on Star Wars?' and I'd just qualified as a stunt performer then," he said.

"I thought it was a bit of a prank call, you know?

"But that was the first major movie I worked on. That was a week down at Elstree Studios. I was a Jedi Knight and I got to twiddle around a lightsaber for a week and that was the start of it all really."

He said he had been set on fire, fallen off buildings and been in car crashes and was happier to have moved into a stunt coordinator role over the past five years.

"You can get badly hurt, but we have a pretty good safety record here in the UK. It's all about trusting your stunt coordinator," he said.

"At the end of the day, if you're not happy about something you should always flag it."

He added: "As a stunt performer, [I] probably don't want to be hit by a car, or [be] falling off horses too much now, but we'll see how we get on."

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