Meet Rustic Bodomov | Hollywood Stuntman & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rustic Bodomov and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rustic, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I’m a professional stuntman. So you could say that my job is inherently dangerous, and therefore full of risks! But as a deeper answer to your question, “risk tolerance” is something I’ve had to learn, not something I started with. You see, I grew up in a strict Russian immigrant family, which meant I always had to be the best student in my class, and I had to follow along a prescribed path laid out by my parents. So when I made the decision to take some time out of college, and move out to Los Angeles to get into the film industry.. you could say that was a pretty big risk! Calculated, but still a risk.. Since then, I’ve taken hundreds of physical risks (through my career in stunts) and business/creative risks (through my creative projects), and I’ve grown more accustomed to uncertainty. In my view, the core of a successful creative entrepreneur lies in the ability to take calculated risks. That’s where you make your profit.. you assume the risk, you do the thing that other’s aren’t willing to do.. and then you charge a premium for your work!

What should our readers know about your business?
So I have a couple of “businesses” going at the same time.. my film/tv career as a professional stuntman/stunt-coordinator, and my personal career as a Youtuber/Content Creator. They overlap to form my “calling”, which I like to call “Action Designer”. What sets me apart as an Action Designer, is that I pride myself in knowing how every piece of the action filmmaking puzzle goes together. I love performing both in front, and behind the camera. I love to produce projects, and to help others realize their action filmmaking vision. There are some people in my field who only focus on the job that they currently identify with, and don’t look forward. (For example, the stuntman who is only interested in performing and nothing else.) These people don’t spend too much time learning, and are happy to “conform” to what they think is their job description. Now don’t get me wrong, if you are hired as a stuntman or an actor, you better deliver and be professional! But I’m speaking more about the internal drive to learn more, to grow, to understand every aspect of the thing that you’re doing.. And while my career hasn’t been easy so far (9 years in Hollywood now), I can tell you that my love for learning has enabled me to achieve a lot of happiness even in dark times! Even during this time with Covid, I have been able to keep myself constantly moving forward with new projects! If I was to share only one thing with the world during my time here, it would be to always keep learning as you go! Don’t get stuck in the planning phase, but integrate small pieces of information into your process as you rise in your career! Once you know every aspect of the business/project that you’re working on, it makes you much more valuable as a performer, producer, and person! Also, perseverance! A lot of people jump into the Film industry thinking they’ll make a quick buck (I certainly did!) but it’s the ones that have the “sticking factor” and are able to stay here longer than 2-5 years, that make it through to the other side!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I absolutely love nature, and eating out at restaurants! So I would take them around all of the beaches, we would go surfing at El Porto and have breakfast at Uncle Bill’s in Manhattan beach. We would take a day trip out to Ventura, have some brews on the wooden pier, and dinner at Finneys! There are a lot of beautiful hikes all around the area, from Santa Clarita to the Pasadena mountains! Speaking of Santa Clarita, we have some of the best (in my opinion) breakfast places! Egg Plantation in Newhall, Lily’s Cafe, Crazy Otto’s and the Saugus Cafe are all amazing! Santa Monica would be a definite stop, especially to go play on the rings and do some slacklining on the beach. And the bike path from Redondo beach goes all the way up to Santa Monica! That would be an awesome way to spend the day, longboarding or rollerblading on the beach!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely! I would love to give a shoutout to Eric Jacobus, who is an indie action filmmaker and stuntman that inspired me to get into the industry! www.EricJacobus.com Back in the day, Eric ran an online forum called “The Stunt People”, where a bunch of us indie guys would go to discuss Jackie Chan movies, and film our own fight scenes to show each other! Eric inspired a BUNCH of stuntmen and women in my generation, and he continues to write very valuable content through his website to this day! He also recently started a company called “Super Alloy Interactive”, where he is pushing the creative boundaries in motion capture services for the Video Game and Film industries! Super cool, motivated, and intelligent guy! Here’s a wonderful article Eric wrote on his action design process: https://ericjacobus.com/man-who-feels-no-pain-a-new-process-for-action/

Website: http://www.rusticb.com/blog
Instagram: http://instagram.com/ruustic
Youtube: http://youtube.com/rusticb