“Dope” Starring Kimberly Elise

I doubled #KimberlyElise in the movie #Dope. This job called for me to drive a #Bus! Yes I said Bus a full size #Metro Bus! With people getting on and off in Live Traffic. By Live I mean real LA drivers that have no idea that we were shooting a movie. Most times you have Stunt ND (Non-Descript) drivers in the scene. These drivers would act as traffic to make the scene look real like any normal day in LA. We didn’t have any for this scene. This may sound easy to some of you but I had never driven a Bus in Live traffic. I drove a bus (which is whole another story) on a TV show called The Enforcers with stunt people  getting shot at and falling of the roof of the bus. Like I said that’s another Blog post!  I got the call to the drive the bus and I told the coordinator  I had only drive a bus one other time. He said ok I know you can do this. I got to work and the Bus “driver’ was there and he basically talked me through what I had to do while I was standing behind him watching. After a few times now its my turn. I sit down in the seat with the coordinator and the driver as they watched me go through the actions of driving this bus. Now its time to do it. Oh and not only did I have to drive the bus but there was  going to be some action going on in front of my bus that  was involved in. ( gotta go see the movie or I’ll tell that lata after it comes out. At this point I had to drive down the street at speed and stop on a mark.  I had Kimberly on the Bus (so we could switch)  and  some (extras) people were talking and laughing. Kimberly was so sweet she actually took some pictures and a video of me driving the bus!!! Love her!  After that stunt the Director wanted some shots of the Bus driving down the street and people getting on and off. This meant driving in real LA traffic. I had to drive round the block a few times and pull to the side to let people on and off. Again this may sound easy to some but having to make sure you have enough room to pull over and not hit the curb and more importantly turn a corner in a bus is different from driving a car not only is much longer but taller as well. You have to look out for trees hanging in the road,people waiting to cross the street and oncoming traffic and listen for your cues when to pull over. It was a lot to do. I had a great time doing it and laughing to my self.  It was one of those jobs where I had to dig into my stunt driving skills and pull out Bus driver! Preparation met opportunity! Thank You Larnell Stovall and Bus Driver Bill..