Notorious local train jumper Chris Ball is continuing to work his way through the film industry, as he sits down for a phone interview with the Cochrane Eagle to discuss how he went from filming himself jumping on to trains to working on the Oscar-nominated film, The Revenant.
Five and a half years ago Chris Ball made headlines in Canada for filming himself hopping on a freight train and after outrage from Canadian Pacific Railway and concern from citizens in the community, Ball said he has learned a thing or two.
“I don’t make videos and I certainly don’t put them on YouTube any more,” Ball said with a laugh.
Ever since Ball’s train-jumping video went viral, he has been keeping busy working on various film sets in Canada for the prop department, such as Fargo, Interstellar, Forsaken, Hell on Wheels and, more recently, Oscar-nominated film, The Revenant.
“I had the most amazing experience on set. Working with the people on set was one of the best and worst experiences of my life,” Ball said with a laugh.
The Revenant, mostly shot in Kananaskis Country, has received plenty of buzz in the film world with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s shooting preferences and techniques.
“The movie has been getting a lot of press for how ‘crazy’ the director was, and not to say he wasn’t talented because he was – but he was also definitely ambitious to say the least,” Ball said.
An example of Iñárritu’s preference that Ball recalled was during the opening battle scene when the native tribes were shooting arrows at the Europeans, the extras were shooting actual arrows on set instead of Computer Generated Images (CGI).
“Originally they were just going to use CGI but the director felt it didn’t look real enough so there is one take where he got the extras to fire arrows towards the boat,” Ball said.
Ball also had a laugh as he recalled the time on set when actor Tom Hardy choked Iñárritu.
“Tom Hardy actually choked the director one day on set – it was serious at the time then all became good fun. Then for a crew gift Tom Hardy gave us a poster of him choking the director out and signed it,” Ball explained.
Or there was the time when one of the actors almost got hypothermia.
“An actor got plunged under the water and he was wearing a dry suit but his neck seal was broken and he got flooded and was near hypothermic but we kept shooting because we were losing light and the director wanted to keep going,” Ball said.
“Working on the film was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had.”
Ball explained it took him the past six years to work his way up in the film world. Coming from a family with no background in the film industry, Ball said his parents did not react well when he made the decision to not graduate high school, only a couple credits short, and announced to his family that he wanted to work in film.
“I never really cared much about school because I always knew I wanted to get into film - it was always something that fascinated me. The industry is all around you yet it is regarded as one of the most challenging industries to get into, I liked that challenge,” Ball explained.
In the beginning, Ball worked various jobs in Cochrane, including pizza delivery person, while driving to sets in Edmonton and surrounding area on weekends until he made enough income from props to quit his day job. And he laughed over the phone as he recalled his stunting days.
“It was the train-jumping that kind of made me notorious for wanting to get into the film industry. Everyone was reporting what a menace to society I was and how I would never get into the film industry, and what is ironic is I was working in the film industry at the time – in the industry you come from a background of sensationalism and excitement so people weren’t terribly unnerved by it,” Ball said.
While it has been a while since Ball has posted any extreme stunting videos, he explained that stunts is something he would like to get back into one day.
“I love being on set but I would like to do more of my own projects – I enjoyed doing stunts for real then once I learned more about the industry and how stunts are done, (sometimes) with CGI affects, it appealed to me to do my own stunts,” Ball explained.
Ball is originally from Cochrane and is currently working on a film set in Vancouver.
