My Most Tragic Movie Experience (And the Life Lesson I Learned)

This quick tip video is going to be very different than all the other quick tip videos I've ever shared with you, and part of that is because I feel more of a connection with those of you who followed me on— or follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my channel, because we're having more of a personal connection, especially when you leave comments and I respond and Get to know each other a little bit more. And so I decided I'm going to share the story with you. It is the most tragic experience I've ever had on a movie set and possibly in, in my life. And I do feel comfortable sharing this with you. Also, as in all these quick tip videos, I do have a, a really good bonus video for you, and it's the 4 words You absolutely need to say when turning down an audition or a job. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. So this is going back decades, didn't happen very recently, still remember it very, very clearly, and I don't want to mention The name of the movie, just in case there are any family members who might be watching this, and I just don't want to bring things up that could be very hurtful to them. So here was the situation. It was an evening shoot. I think we were working, and I was just doing extra work, by the way. Um, I don't know, 1 o'clock in the morning. We're on a busy street, although at that time period it wasn't busy, but it's a major street. And there was a rain scene that was going to take place in the scene. So the way they were creating it was there was a large metal pole that went up in the air, and then it kind of hooked over. There was an opening. It was on a set of wheels. And There was— there were 2 crew members. One was holding on to the metal part and was pushing it. The other was pushing the bottom part that was on the wheels. And I don't know, I was like 8 feet away, something like that, and I was just talking with somebody, another extra. And all of a sudden, behind me, I heard somebody scream, watch! And what the guy was trying to say was, watch out. The metal pole hit this high-intensity wire that was running up and down the street. And once again, it was dark out, it was late, and the person who was pushing just the wheels Literally was blown off. He was like thrown back. He was fine, but just very shaken up. The guy who had his hands on the pole, who was guiding it, he got electrocuted. I could see his body shaking. His muscles contracted and were just— it just tightened up on, on this metal pole. My initial instinct was to run over and try to pull the guy off, and I took like 2 steps, and I, I don't know what happened. Something stopped me. I don't know. I've had a lot of experiences— I shouldn't say a lot— I've had a number of experiences in my life where I really can't explain why things happen. They just did. And I just stood there and I was frozen for a second. And then he eventually collapses to the ground. There was a supermarket across the street. I ran across the street and I run inside the supermarket. I'm screaming for a doctor. They did not have a medic on the set. Not really sure why. Maybe it wasn't a big enough scene or shoot. Whatever it was, there were no medics there. And there was a woman who came running over, and she looked at the gentleman, and he died. He died instantly. I think, if I had this correct, it's like 40,000 volts. I could be wrong about that number, but I think that's what this high-intensity wire— Had running through it, and when he hit the wire with the metal pole, it just shocked him. And somebody— and I was pretty shaken by the experience. Somebody told me later, had I done what I was planning on doing, was running over and pulling the guy off, I would have been electrocuted. Because all that energy would have transferred from his body to mine. I was told you could try throwing something at the guy to try to pull him away. I'm not even really sure if hitting, hitting with my shoulder to knock him off, whether I would have been electrocuted or not. But yeah, you definitely did not want to put your hands on somebody in that kind of situation. And, you know, I thought about this a lot afterwards. Like, here's this guy. He was a crew guy, just went to work one day, one evening, doesn't come back home. And it— I don't know, it just made me think a lot about life and how quickly things can change and the unexpected and things you, you just can't count on, you know, in life, because things do happen. And it also really helped make me think of Enjoying life as much as I can while I'm here, and appreciating things even when things are tough. So anyhow, I wanted to share that story with you and ask you if you've ever had any tough experiences. Share it, share it here, you know, and if you don't want to give out specifics, that's fine. I think it's just really helpful for us to have this community of people sharing information and helping each other. If you, if you like this, please subscribe if you haven't done it, click the notification bell, give it a thumbs up, and please share it with other, other folks as well. I also did, did mention You can be on my free email list where I do send out helpful information. It's just howtoactandmodel.com. I know it feels a little weird, me talking about these other things when I'm in this place, but I think it's important and I wanted to share it. I did promise this other video. It's up here. If for some reason you're not seeing the link for the 4 words, you absolutely need to say when turning down an audition or job. I will post the link in the description section here so you can see it. But anyhow, I wanted to share this with you, and I hope you find this helpful. I'm Aaron Marcus, and can't wait to talk with you again soon.