Skateboarding Legend Tony Hawk Breaks Ice on Bitter Memory With a Franchise Worth Over $70 Million: “I Got Fired”

Tony Hawk, the skateboarding legend, began competing at the age of 12, and by 14, he turned into a pro. Before turning 25, Hawk completed 100 competitions and secured a multitude of accolades. Besides his professional skateboarding career, many fans often ask ‘Has Hawk ever worked in films?’ Well, yes. He did not only perform as a professional skateboarder, but he also worked as a stunt double. 

Tony Hawk was offered the role of a stunt double in a film in 1987’s Police Academy 4: Citizen Patrol, the 4th part of the $70 million franchise ‘Police Academy’. He played the role of David Spade’s stunt double. Spade, the well-known actor, stand-up comedian, writer, and producer played the character of Kyle Rumford, a skating delinquent. However, the experience included a lot of complexities with the role which was explained by Tony Hawk.

Tony Hawk recalls his bitter-sweet memory

In the podcast ‘Fly On The Wall’, Spade’s skating double revealed his experience. Hawk told that when he first visited the studio in his first week, the director said that Hawk was too tall for the role. Hawk is 6’3’’ while Spade is 5’7’’, so it could appear as a bad fit according to the director. Hawk said, “And I remember the director saying ‘y’know, he’s a pretty good skater but he’s a bad stunt double!’ and so then Stacy [Peralta, second unit director for skateboarding] kept telling me like ‘Stay low. Stay low!’ And I go… I was trying, and then they just quietly sent me home. Basically, I got fired.“

Eventually, Hawk was denied the role of Spade’s double and he was replaced by another skater, Chris Miller. Despite being dismissed as a stunt double, Tony Hawk had little appearance in the film. According to Yahoo Sport, after Spade crashed his role as a stuntman, the role was offered to Hawk. the situation was very complicated but the athlete managed to make a learning. 

Despite entanglements, Hawk ended up receiving credits

Spade said he had experience of skateboarding and he thought that he could perform one of the stunts by himself. Spade was told to jump five steps for the stunt he took but it did not go so well. Then, Peralta asked Tony Hawk to complete the stunt. Hawk explained what he learned from this experience and said, “What we learned in that shoot is we learned about stunt bumps. And we didn’t know anything about that. So if we pretended like something was really hard, they would give us extra money.”

Read More: “Can’t Get Crazy”: Fear of Injury Stopped Tony Hawk From Turning Into a Pro Snowboarder Like His Friend Shaun White

After so much chaos and complexity, Tony Hawk still got credit as a skateboarder. Hawk illustrates his love and passion for skateboarding by saying, “If you get a taste of it and you enjoy it, you’ll just keep chasing it to the point where you lose yourself.” After his role in 1987’s Police Academy 4, Tony Hawk was offered many different roles in various films, and he appeared in numerous of them.

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