Brent Woolsey charged through enemy lines in World War I, he was a samurai warrior, an Indian brave, a Canadian Mountie, and a Civil War soldier. He’s ridden bulls, wrestled steers, and been an outrider in chuckwagon races.
From Gunsmoke to Legends of the Fall to Shanghai Noon to the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford to Hell on Wheels to the forthcoming Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Revenant, Woolsey has served as a stuntman and stunt coordinator on over 100 films. Though his stunt career continues to thrive, you’re just as likely to find Woolsey backing into the box at an arena near his winter home in Arizona than you are on a movie set.
“You know how it goes, you meet one person and they take you to another person and on it goes,”
Whether it’s roping horses or stunt horses, Brent Woolsey believes horsemanship is everything.
“It’s like golf,” Woolsey said of team roping. “One day you think you’re a hero and the next day you’re not. I love it because it’s competitive. We went to Oklahoma one year and I was third high team back for a lot of money and I missed that steer. Then I was hooked. I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life.” Woolsey’s stunt career began in 1984 on a Kirk Douglas picture called Draw! Competing as a stunt rider in the Calgary Stampede’s chuckwagon races, Woolsey caught the eye of Tommy Glass, a stunt man and chuckwagon racer who worked with legendary Canadian rancher and movie stock provider John Scott. Producers were looking for someone brave enough to reenact Yakima Canutt’s famous stunt from Stagecoach of dragging under a runaway stagecoach, crawling up the back, across the top, jumping onto the horses and working his way up to the leaders to stop the runaway. Together, Glass and Woolsey completed the stunt.
One thing led to another, and Woolsey found a career.
“You know how it goes, you meet one person and they take “I you to another person and on it goes,” he said.
Perhaps the most compelling example of the interwoven nature of Hollywood filmmaking and Woolsey’s part in it came in 1994 when he doubled for a yet-unknown Brad Pitt on Legends of the Fall. Not only did he become well-acquainted with a future mega-star, he began showcasing a stunt horse named Reba— who would go on to be recognized by the stunt community as one of the best of all time. The mare appears in several scenes in the film, but most famously in the scene where Tristan (Pitt) charges behind enemy lines, his horse rears, cantilevers in the air and falls before Tristan kills the advancing Germans. Reba’s fall in that scene, Woolsey relates, was one of the best caught on film.
“She was fantastic,” he said. “She’d run through bombs. When Brad is going to save his brother behind enemy lines, when the bomb goes off, that’s Reba, that’s not computer graphics. They blew her up and she pipe rolled in the air. I rode her in a lot of movies. She was a classic.”
As an aside there’s a nice Vimeo documentary that includes many of her stunts called Welcome to Reba’s World. The next year, a movie starring Jon Voight called Convict Cowboy was released. Voight and Woolsey became friends and the actor came and visited him at his Nanton, Alberta, ranch.
“He asked if he could bring his daughter,” Woolsey remembers.
“I said, ‘Heck ya, bring her.’ We rode and had a little party there and it was fun.”
Twelve years later, Woolsey again teamed up with Pitt on Jesse James. By that time Pitt and the young woman Voight brought along for the Canadian ranch adventure, Angelina Jolie, had become a Hollywood mega couple. “I just thought, Wow, how the world has changed. It was great,” he said.
ABOVE: Woolsey is well-known in the movie industry for his horse falls.
Woolsey’s IMDb page lists dozens of movies and television projects even casual pop culture observers would recognize. He just wrapped five years of working as a stunt coordinator on AMC’s Hell On Wheels television series about building the trans-continental railroad. Most recently, he worked on Alejandro G. Inarritu’s film starring Leonardo DiCaprio called The Revenant.
“When I got the chance to work on that movie, I thought, I just want to work on one more classic before I was done,” he said. “If it’s what I see in the teasers, I think everyone should see it.”
Interestingly, Inarritu became infamous for his demanding expectations while filming The Revenant in grueling conditions.
“I love the guy because whatever he wanted he got,” Woolsey said of Inarritu.
“I love somebody who can stomp their feet and say this is what I want and the studio would give it to him. He had every toy there was, a great cast and a great film. He won the Academy Award (for Birdman) so what are they going to say to him? No you can’t?” Woolsey’s off to work on the third Planet of the Apes film next. But in between, he’s building a home in Gilbert, Ariz., and roping all he can. While he ropes wherever it’s handy, he’s come to appreciate the National Team Roping format and atmosphere.
“I like Ty Yost’s ropings because he knows everybody’s name, but he’s fair,” he said. “He’s a promoter and he runs a good show. He takes the time to sort his cattle. If you’re just there to collect the ropers’ money, you’re not going to do a good job. If you’re there working for the people and working to make sure that everything’s fair and sorting your cattle, then the ropers are happy.”
As a lifetime horseman, Woolsey sounds happiest talking about his horses.
Whether it’s the legendary Reba, the 17-year-old head horse he rides now, or the colts he and his son, Tristan, are training.
“I think horsemanship is everything,” he said. “For me, I’m getting older, but five, 10 years ago, it was everything, from fall horses and all that to team roping horses. I’ve got a son, 20 years old, and I watch him and he’s so correct. I don’t think I do that. I got bad habits and I got lazy. If you watch the guys who rope outstanding, their horsemanship is correct.”
And if you’re watching a movie in which a horse makes a spectacular fall, chances are, you’d be correct in thinking that Woolsey had something to do with it.
BELOW: Woolsey at the 2009 USTRC Lasso del Sol in Scottsdale, Ariz.
WSTR FINALE PHOTO BY JENNINGS
