Welcome To Our Interview With Top Stunt Performer, Sarah Laidler

We are very excited today to be able to interview the lovely Sarah Laidler, stunt performer! Sarah Laidler is someone that I truly admire and believe in and think that you will too. We will be chatting with Sarah who has operated in many interesting areas including her now role as stunt performer. We’ll be seeking some background info on how she got where she is, and where she is going. Plus some all-important Jurassic Climbing Academy involvement and information. Today’s guest invites you through her motivation to live your life in true harmony with your self, your aspirations and life.

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Say Hello To Sarah Laidler

Paul: Welcome to the show Sarah and thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us. For those in the audience who don’t know would you kindly tell us a bit about yourself.

Sarah: I was born and raised in Australia. When I finished school I knew I wanted to be a stunt performer. So, I researched it online and found out what I needed to do but didn’t really have the connections I needed straight away. I started training martial arts and met some guys at the gymnastics centre who did this thing called tricking, I got into that as well. Eventually I met the right people and passed the grading to become a qualified stunt performer in Australia.

Paul: That’s a very varied and impressive career Sarah. Why did you get into stunt-work in the first place, what inspired and motivated you?

The Stunt-Work Bug!

Sarah: I love performing and I love being active and like those two things even more when combined. I enjoyed being on stage when I was part of a dance crew and doing my tricking but even more I wanted to be in film. I’d love watching fluid fight scenes and I liked the idea of being flung through the air and decided I could do that. I’m a big fan of Jackie Chan and when I read his autobiography I was inspired. I always had the support of my family and friends to go after my dreams.

Paul: What have been the significant events in your life and your work, any staring roles?

Sarah: From tricking I met new people and got involved in training parkour which opened up a lot of doors for me because it became popular for a while. I would say some of my favourite jobs have been parkour jobs for television commercials. I enjoyed them because I had the opportunity to be very involved and it took real risk to complete some of the moves they were asking for; it felt like a great achievement for me and it feels good to do a good job. As a stunt performer I’m not really going to be the star but one of the biggest productions I’ve worked on so far would be Pacific Rim Uprising for which I had the opportunity to perform one of the main stunts which looked great in the film.

Australia To England

Paul: So why did you end up coming to England?

Sarah: There wasn’t a whole mass of jobs in Australia and I also worked another job as a speech and language therapist. I wanted the opportunity to fully focus on stunts and push my skills to the next level by working on bigger productions and having more opportunity for a variety of work. England is a busy place for film work at the moment and I had dual citizenship so I figured I had nothing to lose.

Climbing Time

Paul: How long had you been climbing previously to this training?

Sarah: When I researched what was involved in passing the UK stunt grading I saw that rock climbing was involved. I had already passed some abseiling requirements for my Australian grading and often did training on the cliffs with other stunt performers back home. Although I didn’t have a lot of experience with outdoor climbing especially trad climbing. I had a stunt friend who was an instructor in Australia and she started teaching me for the month before I came over to the UK.

Paul: Which I am pleased to say is how we met. Why did you choose Jurassic Climbing Academy to train you in the skills needed for the award?

Sarah: Mainly through recommendation of a friend in the stunt work industry who had previously been trained by Jurassic.

Paul: You only started climbing a few months before we started training you. You certainly made your mark on the climbing scene and quickly excelled in the training we provided and in your climbing grade. Why do you think this was?

Sarah: I had the opportunity to go down to Swanage and meet and train with Paul on a 1:1 basis. He then offered to take me climbing on any trips I was interested in going along to. He is passionate about climbing and told me I could do certain climbs and I believed him (most of the time). I believed him even more when I made it to the top! He introduced me to some other passionate climbers and as I saw myself climbing harder grades, I became motivated to move up the grades. I had a lot of the strength required already through my other training so I needed to learn technique and movement.

Passing The Rock Climbing Instructor Award

Paul: Jurassic Climbing Academy originally trained you on a two day intensive 1:1 outdoor training and coaching course. How did you find that course and what did you gain from it?

Sarah: The course was very thorough and I learnt a massive amount of new skills. In Australia I’d mainly used ‘Friends’ as lead protection and was amazed at all the other types available. We also looked at lots of rope work, general safety aspects, group management, and the environmental impact.

Paul: We were so impressed with your motivation that we offered you the chance to work with our clients and climb with us for pleasure during your consolidation period. Was this useful?

Sarah: Extremely as I gained masses of both indoor and outdoor climbing experience both personal and with clients.

Paul: Following your initial course with Jurassic Climbing Academy you took our recommendation and booked your formal training course run by Mountaineering Training with Andy Holborn. Then after consolidation with us you returned to Andy Holborn to take your formal assessment course. How was that, and most importantly, is Sarah Laidler now a qualified Rock Climbing Instructor?

Sarah: Andy is a great guy, easy to get along with and fair to all those taking assessment. It was a great recommendation! Yes I am pleased to say that I completed and passed my ‘Rock Climbing Instructor’ award!

Exciting Times For Sarah Laidler

Paul: Right up to date now. Having successfully passed all of your stunt-work awards and now a full member of the British Stunt-Work Register, where do you go from here?

Would you like to progress further with our help? Then why not Book Some Coaching

Sarah: Now it’s back to the networking and consistent training with no excuses. Seeing how far I can go with having a full time stunt career in the UK. I do admit that I have caught a bit of the climbing bug and I have seen parts of the UK that I didn’t know existed and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed climbing trips. I know I’ve enjoyed it because I want to share it with the people who don’t climb and get them involved. So I’m sure climbing will still be in the cards.

Paul: So what does Sarah Laidler’s personal future hold?

Sarah: Hopefully a lot of work and more learning. I want to get some experience here in the UK that isn’t available to me back home and then see where that takes me. I’m proud of getting to a point that years ago I looked at as such a high level of achievement.

Paul: Thank you Sarah and good luck for the future.

Sarah: Thank you.

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