#Bikes from rad movie movie

Number one, as an actor, you think-“Hey, I got an acting job, that’s great! Someone wants to pay me to stand in front of a movie camera.” I’ve had a couple opportunities to be hired because someone was a fan of RAD, so you walk on the set, and people are aware of the legacy and that’s nice-you don’t walk onto the set as an unknown actor. This was a while back in Allentown and they’re just now getting around to releasing the movie. He reached out to me to be a part of it, to play the curmudgeonly dad of the lead kid. How did the opportunity to play a role as the lead’s father in Heroes of Dirt come about?Įric Bugbee, the director, grew up watching RAD became a BMXer himself went to film school started his own production company and decided to do a BMX-themed movie for his feature. For a certain portion of the population, it’s their It’s a Wonderful Life or their Sergeant Pepper’s-they go back to it again and again. I just showed up and filmed a movie for six weeks, but once in awhile these movies will have a life outside of the theatrical. I get a nice amount of recognition if I go to a BMX event and hear that I was part of someone’s youth.

That’s one of the reasons it caught on so much in home video-people had literally not seen that sport before. I had no idea people could do backflips on bicycles and tailspins and cherry-pickers-it was all very new at the time. It was my first introduction to these guys, and it was mind-bending. What did you think of the BMX community as an outsider? It was cool to hang out with all the stunt guys and all the actual bicycle riders and just be immersed in that world. It was a very stunt-heavy thing and a very testosterone-heavy movie. It was like Orson Welles said, “the biggest train set anyone could hope for” with Helltrack, the big climactic race. What are some of your favorite memories from that movie?īeing on a huge bicycle extravaganza with the greatest stunt director in the business out there. RELATED: 10 Bicycling Movies You Need to Watch They can be disappointed but that’s movie magic-that’s how it’s done. I spent a lot of time with the stuntmen in the movie, so I’ll go to an event and people will say, “What do you mean these are your stunt guys? I thought YOU were the guy.” Sorry! I’m not Superman.

#Bikes from rad movie pro

People still to this day think I did all my own riding.ĭo people expect you to be a pro BMXer when they meet you? I just had to show up and do the light riding in and out of shots, but as soon as I was under the hockey helmet, no one could tell who was under that thing. My stunt doubles were so good and looked so much like me. I wasn’t familiar with the sport then, so I didn’t have a lot of preparation. What did you have to do to prepare for the role? Did you start riding? I think somehow the universe made my childhood wish possible. Like I said, I always had that longing to become a bicyclist and now I connect that to somehow becoming known for it. They said, “Okay, enough bikes-we’ll buy you a car when you’re 16.” But that didn’t have a lot of meaning to an 8-year-old kid, and it made me different in a lot of ways. They saw my brother nearly get killed on his bicycle and that was it. Was there a reason your parents wouldn’t let you ride? Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play It’s kind of funny-it’s something I always aspired to but never really had the opportunity to until just recently. I rode my friends’ bikes often and without my parents’ permission, so I’d always dreamed of having a bicycle and being a cyclist for many years then it just happened by accident. I was over-protected as a child and wasn’t even allowed a bicycle. They had me sit on a Mongoose bicycle, and probably six weeks later I was up in Calgary shooting. Hal Needham saw me on that show and brought me in to read for RAD, which consisted of just a quick read. Plus, he shares a few details about a third BMX film on the way.īicycling: Were you a BMX rider before getting cast in RAD?īill Allen: No I came out to Los Angeles as an actor with no real experience with BMX, and I was on an episode of Hill Street Blues, which is an old cop show. Here he talks about how he started riding BMX, what it’s like to be a cult hero, and some of the biggest changes in the sport since RAD came out. Now, after a 30-year drought in BMX film, the 52-year-old actor has a new role in Heroes of Dirt, the first cinematic BMX movie to be released since. Since 1986, Bill Allen has been primarily recognized for one iconic part-the role of BMX racer Cru Jones in the cult classic RAD.