This is Matt reporting for KryptonSite. My mission, which I obviously chose to accept, was conducting an interview with one of the meanest stunt guys in the business. His name, Lauro Chartrand. His game, setting Allison Mack on fire and throwing Kristin Kreuk off of 40 foot towers. Chatrand was responsible for many of the stunts both performed and coordinated throughout the duration of season one. Read on to find out exactly what its like in the day of a stunt coordinator/guy working on the set of Smallville:

MATT: At what point in your life did you realise that stunts were for you?

LAURO CHARTRAND: At age 8 I decided that I wanted to be a stuntman in the movies. My mom took me to an action movie starring Chuck Norris and during the movie I told her that I wanted to be just like the guy he was kicking through the window. It looked like so much fun flying through the air and smashing things! From that age on I held on to my dream and told everyone that I would be a stuntman someday.

MATT: What was your first job in the field and how did you get it? What did it involve you doing?

LAURO: Through the AS I trained in Martial Arts. I did a lot of live shows, getting beaten up and thrown around by my instructors for demonstrations and shows. That was kind of my first taste of doing any kind of stunt work in front of anyone. Finally, when I moved to a city where there was filming going on, I started doing extra work so I could get on set and learn the way things worked on a film set. I quickly let everyone that I met know that I was planning to get into the stunt business. I handed out my resume constantly to stunt coordinators and offered help to them as much as possible hoping to get a chance one day to work as a stunt man. My first Union stunt came on a T.V. series called "MacGyver". It was an easy stunt were I just got slammed into a wall and knocked down, but a stunt just the same.

MATT: You worked on "Smallville" as a stunt coordinator and a stunt performer. What is the difference between the two positions? Do you like one more than the other? And why?

LAURO: The difference between the two positions is this. As the stunt coordinator you have all the responsibility. You are in charge of everything to do with stunts on the show. You have to figure out how to help the director and the producers bring the action from the page to the screen without breaking the bank and of course without getting any one hurt. It entails lots of meetings with the rest of the production crew and lots of organizing, paperwork, and rehearsals. Plus you are in charge of casting and hiring all of your stunt crew, the doubles for the actors and any bad guys or non discript stunt performers for the show.

As a performer you are hired to double for a specific actor or to play a role and perform a stunt, or sequence of stunts, on a daily or weekly basis. You had better be able to do what you say you can do or you may never work again but basically you are responsible for your performance. You bring your pad bag and show up for work, when your wrapped, thats it you are finished until the next day or your next gig.

As the stunt coordinator you are on the clock after wrap, there's lots of things that you have to take care of at home and after hours. That makes it a bit tough on the family sometimes. One of the best things about coordinating is that since you are in charge of hiring who does the stunts, you can pick some of the best ones for yourself if it is appropriate at the time. So that should help answer the question which one I like best, performing of course!

MATT: Could you describe us a day as a stunt coordinator/performer on a show like "Smallville"?

LAURO: As the stunt coordinator for a show like "Smallville" your day never starts with what you are doing when you arrive on set. Everything that you are doing that day started a week or so prior in meetings and rehearsals. When I arrive on set I already know the order that the stunt sequence will be shot in from the call sheet that the A.D.'s prepared the day before. So usually on my way to work I go over who I will be having perform for me that day, who I will be having doing stunt safety if it's needed and what we will set up first.

When I arrive I'll report to the A.D.'s and get my radio and share my plan of attack with them so we are all on the same page and to make sure nothing has changed, because it usually does. Then either by myself or with my stunt crew I will set up pads or rehearse or even just talk through the events as they should unfold for the day. Then I'll usually talk with the director and we will run through the scene with the actors and stunt performers so everyone including the crew is aware of how we will make the stunt happen within the scene. I will supervise the shooting prior to the stunt sequence for the safety of the actors and to make sure the actions they perform will match with what I plan to have my stunt performers do. We'll finally get into the stunt sequence, I'll double check that everyone is clear on their action and in the right position and hopefully we only have to do it once. Once the stunt is over the stunt crew wraps up the pads or any other equipment we might be using like air rams or ratchets. The director continues to finish off the scene and I stay to supervise again making sure the end of the sequence is safe and matches with what the stunt performers did. This whole process can take anywhere from 4 hrs to 4 days depending on the size of the stunt and the stunt sequence.

As a performer things are much less complicated. I would show up at my designated call time and go through hair, make-up, and wardrobe. That can take anywhere from 1/2 hr to 6 hrs depending if prosthetics are involved. Once I'm ready I am usually called to set to watch the lead up to the scene I will perform the stunt in so I know how the actors are moving and what all the prior action is. I will help any actors that the stunt coordinator asks me to safety until it is my time to step in and perform. Prior to being called to do my stunt I will pad up as needed for the stunt I'm about to perform and be ready when they are. Finally they are ready and we go through the stunt sequence for camera as much as possible, then we go back to our original positions and get ready to shoot it. Once the stunt coordinator and the 1st A.D decide everything is safe to go we shoot the stunt. After we have successfully completed the stunt the whole stunt crew helps to wrap up any stunt equipment and get it off set as quick as possible. I stand by to see if the stunt coordinator or the director needs me for any other shots, and if not then I am wrapped for the day. I change out of wardrobe, get the make-up off, sign out and head home. This process can take from 4 to 18 hrs depending on the shoot and of course could last several days depending on the stunt sequence.

Many of my days were mixed between both senarios, since I coordinated and performed.

MATT: How is it behind the scenes on a show like "Smallville" from your point of view? Is there anyone that you got on particularly well with and are you still friends with?

LAURO: "Smallville" was and still is a very unique show. It has one of the nicest and hard working crews that I have ever worked with. I had worked with many of the crew members on past projects so I had prior friendships going into the show. I also made many new friends going in as well. The cast were also one of the best casts I had ever worked with. It was great because they were all very nice and great to work with, no ego problems anywhere. The whole cast were very eager to perform as much of their own stunts as possible. They are very trusting and talented people. I set Allison Mack on fire, she did great. I dropped Kristen Kreuk off a 40 foot tower on a wire right into Tom Welling's arms. We had John Schneider doing a lot of his own stunt driving (of course he had lots of experience from "Dukes"). Michael Rosenbaum did his own sword fighting, as did John (Lionel Luther). And I can't even begin to tell you all the things we got Tom Welling to do! Even Annette O'Toole got into some action a few times and sold out! I can only repeat that they are all awesome. Probably the best friendship that I made on the show was with Tom Welling's stunt double Christopher Sayour. He is an amazing all around stuntman, and helped make my life alot easier on that show. Mainly because I trusted him and I knew he could do what I needed him to do when ever I needed it. We stay in touch a lot and we will work together again soon.

MATT: Can you tell us a few of the stunts in "Smallville" that you performed? Do you always do stunts for the same characters?

LAURO: On "Smallville" I didn't do any stunts for the same characters because I wasn't a good double for any of the characters. Although I did double Eric Johnson (Whitney) a few times whenever he would crash his truck or roll it (KS: You mean every episode right? ;-)). I don't look like Eric, but when your rolling a truck at 60 m.p.h. you'd never tell!

I also played a character called the "Feral Man" in an episode where Clark loses his powers to another kid (KS: Leech). I steal Chloe's laptop and the kid superspeeds in front of me and stops me. I go to stab him with a knife and it shatters on his hand. He grabs me and throws me across the street (on a wire being pulled by a ratchet). While I'm flying across the street a glass truck is driving by and I fly right through the glass, bounce off the truck and land on the pavement. Most of the stunts I did were driving stunts though. A cannon roll for "Metamorphosis", crashed a bus, did some stunt driving in Lex's Porcshe, pipe rolled a suburban in "Nicodemus", stuff like that.

MATT: Which is your favorite stunt out of those you performed or coordinated on "Smallville"? Also were there any stunts that went wrong, or ended up with people laughing because they went wrong in a funny way?

LAURO: I had to many favorites on "Smallville" because we had so many good ones. Chris did so many great stunts for Tom and I was really pleased with the fire gags we did on the episode with the coach that started things on fire (KS: Hothead), especially when Allison was on fire. Her stunt double Kathy Hubble was on fire and tumbled over this desk, then Allison took over from there. It wasn't a really big deal but it tied in really well and usually people are very afraid of fire. The cannon roll was great too, they are always a good tumble.

One of the funny ones, well it wasn't funny right away, but once we found out he was okay we laughed our heads off for days. Tom was being doubled by another stunt guy who we won't name, bacause Chris wasn't available. Anyway he was doing a backwards air ram through a window, because Lex Luthor was pushing him (X-Ray). The stunt guy was all psyched and ready, the count down 3-2-1-go and he flew back but not from the air ram, it miss fired. So he only flew back as far as he could on his own steam, which landed him right on his butt on the side walk! He was expecting to be thrown back 14ft through a glass window and onto some pads. Well you should have seen the look on his face when his ass hit the concrete! I played it back on my video camera over and over and cried laughing each time I watched it. Of course it could have turned out really bad had he jumped back a little further and hit his head on the brick wall or worse. Fortunately it turned out funny and not serious.

MATT: How does working on "Smallville" compare to the other projects you have worked on so far? Is it better? worse?

LAURO: "Smallville" was better in the sense that the cast and crew were so great to work with but it was worse than a lot of shows. They wanted feature type stunts but only gave us the time T.V. allows. It was a great challenge especially in the begining when the show was trying to find it's legs. It was tough on my family life because with the hours I didn't see them much the whole season. I hear now it's a little more under control.

MATT: Would you like to work on "Smallville" again? And why? Do you think that there are any advantages to working on the show for your future career.

LAURO: I can never say never, but kind of been there done that. Time to move on to bigger and better things. This is a funny business though, you never know where your next job may come from. I would definately love to work with the cast and crew from that show again. I do miss the variety of stunts that "Smallville" gave our stunt department. With a show like that the writers can pretty much work anything in to the story. "Smallville" was a great show for me because as a young coordinator it gave me a chance to show my versatility and creativeness, with all the different stunts that we had to do in such a short time. As far as my future career I am trying to work on feature films more, you get the chance to do better work.

MATT: On your profile at IMDB.com, we see that you did a lot of different jobs, from stunts to acting, not forgetting fight coordination, and production. Why is it that you do such a large range of different jobs? Is there one you prefer most?

LAURO: I prefer performing action acting roles the most. I can get my stunt fix and be creative at the same time. But all those jobs you mentioned can be all rolled into one as well, then you really get to stretch, it's all about the challenge.

MATT: Do you watch the TV Shows or movies you work for?

LAURO: Yes, usually I always do, so I can see how my performance or work came across so I can make it better the next time. It's all about getting better.

MATT: What projects are you currently working on?

LAURO: I am currently working on a film called "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. I am the assistant fight arranger. It's a huge epic Samurai film, so my job is to put all the fights together or come with the ideas and then try to perfect them or go over them with stunt coordinator Nick Powell. I started prepping July 22, 2002 in Los Angeles and will finish work on the film some time in May of 2003 in New Zealand. So if you know of any good films starting up in, oh, say July 2003 that could use me, just let me know!

MATT: Any tips to give to those who would like to get a guest star role on a tv show or start in the business?

LAURO: Hold on to your dream, it's not an easy business to get into. Train, practice, look, listen, and learn. Get a job as an extra so you can see how the whole film process works and then decide if you have what it takes to go after it. Some jobs look easy, but it can be almost impossible to get there.

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