Motocross
Maddo's 007 adventure
The FMX superstar on standing in for Daniel Craig during the filming of Skyfall...
They both trot the globe in search of adventure, they both put their lives on the line on a daily basis and they both shoot to thrill as a matter of course... In fact, possibly the only difference between James Bond and Robbie Maddison is that the latter rocks a snapback with more style.
With so much in common, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Australian FMX star was asked to stand in for Daniel Craig’s 007 during the filming of a key scene from Skyfall.
Just a few days after being given the all-clear for back surgery following his New Year No Limits long-distance jump, Maddo flew off to Istanbul in Turkey to take part in a tricky rooftop bike chase scene.
"At times it was challenging," said Robbie about shooting the scenes. “One stunt where I crashed, if I would've rolled a few feet further, I would've impaled myself into some rickety, old metal stuff.
“A lot of the rooftops have old air conditioning units with metal stakes coming up, things that can stab yourself if you were to fall on them. It definitely was not a place you'd want to ride with no helmet."
Chasing the bad guy
© Skyfall ©2012 Danjaq, LLC, United Artists Corporation, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
Happily for Robbie, it wasn’t all life-threatening work thanks to the intervention of some movie magic: “The one section that I did where I come along on the rooftop and the bad guy hits the water cart, falls and splashes and I make a right-hand turn and drop down was super safe but it actually didn't exist,” he says.
“The special effects guys made that whole thing look like it was part of the other existing roofs. It's insane the work the special effects did. All the work they did looked like it was actually part of the Grand Bazaar.”
Unfortunately, Istanbul’s historic shopping district didn’t escape totally unharmed following a mishap with a stunt man and a historic glass window.
“On my very first day on set, they said to me, ‘This is the stunt you're going to do: You're going to ride off this scaffolding and through this window and drop down here into the Bazaar and so when you land down there you head straight ahead to the left up a small incline,’ but it was on these shiny, polished ancient tiles that were slippery at the best of times with shoes on, let alone trying to make a 90-degree turn on a dirt bike.
“Lee Morrison, who doubled the bad guy, I think he went off of it and just flat landed it a bit. I think it was a 350-year-old jewellery store and that definitely put a hurt on production. Even when we left after finishing filming, that store was still closed. But I just want to make it clear that mishap wasn't me!”