Matt Archbold Talks Stunt-Doubling for ‘Point Break’ (Video)

Turns out, originally, Archy was going to star in the film as one of the bank-robbing band of surfers, the Dead Presidents. Archy recalled:

“I went up to LA for, like, a casting call. Actually, they wanted me to be one of the bank robbers, a speaking part. Kathryn Bigelow, the director, was like, ‘no.’ They hired me to stunt double for Patrick Swayze. I would also coordinate with all the surfers, teach people how to surf – like Anthony [Kiedis] from the Red Hot Chili Peppers…all the guys…Keanu Reeves. So, that was really cool.”

Like a lot of Hollywood productions, the locations weren’t always the same as they stated in the movie. For instance, the final scene of the “50 year storm,” which was said to be at Bells Beach, Australia, was actually filmed in Oregon (for the land scenes), then Waimea Bay (for the waves).

Archy continued:

“We started filming at Lowers, but we only filmed there for, like, a week. For some reason they didn’t like it. So, the whole crew flew out to Hawaii. We were in Hawaii for, like, months. They put me up at Turtle Bay, I had my own dressing room down here on the beach at Pipe. It was so sick. The only bummer was I had to wear a full suit the whole time, because it was supposed to be like it was filmed in California. It was gnarly. Big, thick, animal-skin O’Neill suit. I’d be in the water for, like, four hours. They’d close down Pipe…that was pretty sick.”

Speaking to that lasting legacy of the film, Archy added:

“It's like a cult movie. People are so stoked on it. And they still talk about it. It was a super cool experience. Kathryn always wanted me behind the scenes. It was pretty cool that she actually listened to me. That’s why she’s such a good director, because she actually listened. Just how big of a director she is, she actually still listened to the little dude.”