Rick LeFever Sr. (4:31)

When I grew up was all westerns on tv and I just always wanted to be a cowboy. So long story short, I got into horses and through a friend of a friend, there was a guy named Casey Tibbs who was like a cowboy legend, was a movie guy too. He doubled Glenn Ford for years. I met him and we became friends. He's like my dad's age. But there was a movie called Junior Bonner with Steve McQueen and I worked as an extra on that with him. We rounded up like 300 horses and drove them across South Dakota and all the film crews came here to film it. There was a. That. There was a Marlboro commercials back then, and then was a documentary. So we did that for a couple years, a couple film jobs like that. And then he was taking a Wild west show to Japan for a year. So the day I graduated from high school, I got on a plane, went to Japan for a year in a Wild west show. And we did all the stunts and the rodeos. So we did all the western stunts, the hots. I started doing high falls and saddle falls, getting shot of horses in the fights. And then we did a rodeo every day. So this sounds weird, but we had to ride wild buffaloes.

Brian Lucci (5:30)

No, that don't sound weird at all.

Rick LeFever Sr. (5:32)

We had to jump down on these buffaloes and ride those in the rodeo. And my only instruction was just get down and monkey up. So my whole life, just monkey up.

Brian Lucci (5:39)

Wow. Monkey up.

Rick LeFever Sr. (5:40)

That's why I started. So I came back from la, I didn't know anybody in the business and there was really no business here in Chicago. I got lucky when it all started here. It was like, right when I was getting into it. The old Mayor Daley didn't want to do movies there because he wanted gangster movies. Look like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. So when he passed and we started doing movies, there was a Kirk Douglas movie. The first one I worked was called the Fury. And then the Blues Brothers came after that. And the Blues Brothers put Chicago on the map. It's 106 miles to Chicago.

Rick LeFever Jr. (6:08)

We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.

Rick LeFever Sr. (6:13)

Hit it, L.A. was starting to get harder to work out there, you know, more restrictive. So they came here. If everybody's seen the movie, Jane Byrne was the mayor that let them do. Everybody started coming from LA here and, like, the cameras got smaller, the lighting packages. So we became very viable after.

Brian Lucci (6:30)

Did you work on Blues Brothers?

Rick LeFever Sr. (6:31)

I did.

Brian Lucci (6:32)

You drove a car, like, through that mall and all?

Rick LeFever Sr. (6:34)

I wish I did. That was Gary McLarty that summer, because the Blues Brothers was here. Also McQueen, Steve McQueen's last movie, the Hunter was here. So there was, like, almost 200 stuntmen in Chicago that whole summer of 79.

Brian Lucci (6:46)

Oh, my God. That's awesome.

Rick LeFever Sr. (6:47)

So I met them all doing those two movies.

Brian Lucci (6:49)

Okay, for you, Junior, I'm going to jump to you. Did you all your life say, this is what I'm going to do, or did you, like, go to college and you're going to be a dentist or something? What?

Rick LeFever Jr. (6:57)

I. I think growing up, whether he knew it or not, he was training all of us to us, me and my brother and sister to be stunt people with horses, dirt bikes. We did high falls when we were, like, 5 and 6, but he always told us to have another option. So we did all go off to college to, like, try other things. But ultimately I got into rodeo because I wanted to be like my dad.

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:16)

I want him to go off and play tennis.

Brian Lucci (7:17)

I didn't want to go to the Rio.

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:18)

It didn't work.

Brian Lucci (7:19)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (7:19)

So they tried to get me into golf. I did that for a bit, but ultimately I got into rodeo, college level and then pro.

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:25)

I just want to say he's been coordinating since he was 3. Tell me what to do.

Brian Lucci (7:29)

No, no.

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:30)

So we were doing a movie called Stranger and Fiction. Will Ferrell. And then I think you were like, 10 or 11.

Rick LeFever Jr. (7:34)

I was 13 on that one.

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:35)

So Will goes like, is he 30? He's telling Will, like, great job, Will. That was a good Scene, you know, telling Will's like, ricky, thank you, that's awesome.

Brian Lucci (7:42)

Who brought you into the Wolf entertainment world? Like, when this started to kick off,

Rick LeFever Sr. (7:46)

I met Mr. Wolf. Name of the movie was the movie of the week, kind of. I can't remember it right now, but I met him on that. I was a stunt queer in that. And he liked our work. And then there's John Roman was the first AD on that, and he liked John Roman. So John left, went to the Wolf's world, worked in New York for years and some of the shows. He's the one who was instrumental in bringing Chicago Fire here to Chicago. So I met Mr. Wolf again when we did the pilot for fire and the pilot for PD. He rode in a car with me, actually.

Brian Lucci (8:17)

Wow.

Rick LeFever Sr. (8:17)

He threw a 90 with me.

Brian Lucci (8:19)

So when I interviewed Chikarotis, he brought up John Roman, too. And ironically, so did Voight. So John Roman, I mean, it sounds like nothing, but he's one of the guys who first kicked this off. He was the guy I knew from being a copper working on movie details.

Rick LeFever Sr. (8:33)

He was an AD or a upm.

Brian Lucci (8:34)

So all these familiar faces and family like you guys. I remember coming here and I. I was like a Duran Headlights. Oh, you're going to be a tech advisor. Like, I can't even spell tech advisor. And I seen you and it was on. It was on the pilot for a pd. You were already rolling with fire, right? Since day one.

Rick LeFever Sr. (8:48)

We did the pilot in the final episode of the first season of Fire.

Brian Lucci (8:51)

Yeah, but you were already the stunt guy.

Rick LeFever Sr. (8:54)

Oh, yeah.

Brian Lucci (8:55)

On Fire. Right. How old were you back then? That was 13 years ago.

Rick LeFever Jr. (8:58)

I would have been 18.

Brian Lucci (8:59)

Were you playing with us?

Rick LeFever Sr. (9:00)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (9:00)

First season of Fire. I hadn't left for my big college yet, so, yeah, I was working. I did like four or five episodes.

Rick LeFever Sr. (9:08)

His first job was a Nicholas Cage movie.

Rick LeFever Jr. (9:11)

Oh, yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (9:11)

Like when I was the weatherman, he was on a hockey skate. He had a hip check. Nicolas Cage.

Brian Lucci (9:17)

Oh, really?

Rick LeFever Jr. (9:18)

But no, my first one on Fire was when we introduced Voight. It was his son had caused a car wreck on Southern Upper Wacker, and it was a van up on a retaining wall and they had to break the windshield and pull us out.

Rick LeFever Sr. (9:33)

They actually introduced Jason on that scene.

Brian Lucci (9:34)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (9:35)

Did you bag the beer can?

Brian Lucci (9:38)

Look, Detective Voight behind me. Guy in the jacket. That was his son driving this car. Tell me about the first time you saw someone doing a stunt live or on TV or on a movie. And you said, I gotta do that for me.

Rick LeFever Sr. (9:57)

I saw the movie bullet with Steve McQueen, that car chase. I just knew I had to do that someday.

Brian Lucci (10:09)

I remember watching a movie, I think it was with Steve McQueen, and he was on a motorcycle. He's breaking out of someone jumping. Is that the movie? Yeah. He was the bomb.

Rick LeFever Sr. (10:17)

He could drive a bike. He used to race, and he used to win races. So he was a stuntman.

Brian Lucci (10:21)

Yeah, he's great. On my show with the cops, almost every firefight will end up with hands on, close quarters kind of fight. And it's difficult, very difficult. And then you have to be able to coordinate these actors who have to look like the other actors to do these incredible things that make our people look incredible. And I know that there's times that the actor's like, oh, I want to do that. And you're like, do you really want to do that? Like, you're jumping from garage to garage, 15ft down. Like, we need you. Nothing against the actors, but what you guys put yourself through and the dangers and all these things. Like, no way we'd look that cool.

Rick LeFever Sr. (10:57)

I've been really lucky. I know Tom has, too. On pd, we've had some actors are very physical, good athletes. The men and the women on the shows want to try everything really into it, and then we'll let them go to the point where, like, this one should be the stunt guy.

Brian Lucci (11:13)

Yeah, yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (11:14)

Because, you know, unfortunately, if we do tweak ourselves, break a bone or something, like, we can be replaced. You got to see Taylor or Jason, you know, in those shows that can't shut down the show for two weeks if they, you know, injured himself somehow.

Brian Lucci (11:28)

Right.

Rick LeFever Sr. (11:29)

That's what we're there for.

Brian Lucci (11:30)

And it's not just get like the car chases and taken off and getting hit by a car being blown out of building. I don't think people realize how much the stuntmen are in there working with us, Collaborating.

Rick LeFever Jr. (11:41)

Yeah. You're talking about the Chicago Med fight that we did with the. Gosh, it was three seasons ago now.

Brian Lucci (11:47)

Yeah, it's a while ago.

Rick LeFever Jr. (11:47)

It was with. We had a Mexican gang that was infiltrating the hospital, and we had our doctor, he catches one of them while he's trying to stab the.

Brian Lucci (11:56)

The witness or something.

Rick LeFever Jr. (11:57)

The witness? Yeah, to the murder or whatever it was. And you came in with me and we designed the fight.

Brian Lucci (12:02)

No, no, you. You designed the fight. You can take credit for credit. You did. I. You blew me away that day. I'm not. I'm not blowing smoke up your ass. You really did a nice job.

Rick LeFever Sr. (12:10)

Hey, I'm here To give you guys a hand.

UPS Store Announcer (12:12)

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Brian Lucci (12:19)

Please don't move.

Rick LeFever Sr. (12:21)

Fights can be challenging because even though their physicality, everybody's learned to hit the target. We got to teach the actors to throw a punch like they're going to hit the target, but don't hit the target. So some people never can get over that. Some people are uncomfortable throwing a punch at someone, so you got to feel the room a little bit, like, maybe you shouldn't do this one.

Brian Lucci (12:39)

So I know there's a lot of hard work and training off camera that nobody realizes.

Rick LeFever Jr. (12:46)

You know, when we talk about it, it's like the days we work on set, we're working. But our days off, we're also working. When you're not working, you're working.

Brian Lucci (12:52)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (12:53)

A lot of training. They do a lot of training.

Brian Lucci (12:55)

But also, I think where I'm lucky is like, I don't. I don't lie. I just won't lie. You know what I mean? I've said that to the actors. If you want to know the fricking truth and you're coming to me, brace yourself, because I'm about to tell you, no, it didn't look good. No, we did this. No, we missed that. No, there's a copper that would not have went through that door like that. Because they're trained. This is how we do that. And they want to get it right. They want to get it so right that the guys have been here for 13 years, are agile, mobile, and hostile. They're rocking and rolling, and they look good. Other cops will come and watch and go, oh, my God, they move so good because they look so real. When the stuntmen go into that stack and they've been trained for the last 10, 12 years, like, you guys don't pretend like you shoot. You really shoot.

Rick LeFever Sr. (13:36)

But like you said over the years, handled everything from Thompsons to Uzis and Macs. So we. We get a chance to handle a lot of weapons. A lot of people don't. The right way to handle with the armor or with your, you know, expertise on that. So it looks legit.

Brian Lucci (13:48)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (13:48)

If the gun looks like it's going to bite them and they're holding it, it's like, okay, come here. Like, we need to work on this really quick because no one's gonna see the guys that know what they're doing. They're gonna see you. Especially in our day and age now with firearms on sets, safety's everything. And knowing what to do with firearms, it's not A toy, Even if it's a rubber or a plastic gun. Like, it's not a toy.

Brian Lucci (14:09)

That's my speech. If you play with it, you're gonna be playing with it at home.

Rick LeFever Sr. (14:12)

I've had a rubber gun. I want to hand it to me just like it was a live gun that. Like, it's not the real one.

Rick LeFever Jr. (14:17)

And if it's never. If you're not playing a character that has to draw that gun, but it's a prop in a holster, it stays there. Yeah, it's not coming out.

Brian Lucci (14:24)

Was there a stunt school that either one of you attended or someone that mentored either one of you?

Rick LeFever Sr. (14:31)

Stunt schools, it's a tricky thing. You know, there's some better ones now, back then, the guys running them, usually the guys that don't work, because if you're a good stunt person or stunt woman, you don't have time to be running a school. So it was buyer beware. There were a couple out there that I tell people, if you want to go, I've heard these guys, you know, they're whatever. But a lot of them weren't so good. And a lot of people come out there and think, I'm ready to go. And they've never spent any time on a set. So I tell my kids or other people, why don't you be an extra? First, learn the cadence, what everything we say in the set means, the timing, the hours. And we'll plug you in a couple spots close to the action. Watch how Rick does a fall or Tom Lowell does a fall, or Tobias does a fall. Watch why they come a certain speed on a car or hold a weapon the way you show them how to hold a weapon. You know, just training. So you'll come to the set, the first stage, like a deer in the headlights.

Brian Lucci (15:20)

Right, right, right. That's a great note.

Rick LeFever Sr. (15:22)

And then also now there are the live shows, like Universal. So I tell people, if you want to go to training, go there. You get paid. They actually do some pretty good stunt gags on those shows. Then you have something to come offer just.

Brian Lucci (15:36)

Just for everybody listening. And I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but you said live shows before. Like you said Great America, actual stunt live shows that are at the theme parks.

Rick LeFever Sr. (15:44)

Correct. So you learn how many do high falls or shoulder rolls. That kind of. So at least you have something to offer a coordinator when you come. So I got this resume, and I find nothing against guys that never did live shows, but since you're doing to an audience, we're more animated. I Started doing live shows like one in Japan. So you got to present to an audience so they're more animated. There's more physicality and their animation. So where I find people who are very physical but never done a live show are kind of flat. Sometimes you got to get them energized. You're actually acting too, besides just being real physical.

Brian Lucci (16:17)

I know this is tough because he's. Because that young man is sitting next to you. There you go. Who was your idol? Was it your father?

Rick LeFever Jr. (16:23)

Oh, yeah.

Brian Lucci (16:24)

Yeah. By far, huh?

Rick LeFever Sr. (16:25)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (16:25)

I mean, a little funny story. When I was in, like, kindergarten, first grade, we had a family friend that used to pick me up for school, and they thought I was telling lies about what my dad did for work. I'd be like, my dad, you know, he get. He's got blown up today, or he jumped out of building, or he was working with whomever at the time. I was in first grade, and she told my mom, he's. Or the babysitter or whoever was like, he's great, but he just tells these massive stories.

Brian Lucci (16:50)

They thought you were lying.

Rick LeFever Jr. (16:52)

So in first grade, he came to my class and did a whole. Had his resume play and showed fake blood and let me break a bottle over his head. And I was the coolest kid for, like, you know, two weeks. And then the kids all forgot. But, yeah, it was my dad. Cause it was everything I wanted to be growing up, right? I watched him do all these amazing stunts on so many different films. And, you know, the cowboy lifestyle that we grew up in and like, motocross and cars and high, all of it, it was just like, yeah, I want to be like my dad.

Brian Lucci (17:28)

We gotta take a quick break, but when we come back, more from the father son duo behind the action and the great stunts on Chicago Fire and Chicago Med. We'll be back.

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Brian Lucci (20:29)

We're back talking with stuntman and stunt coordinator Rick Lefever and his son Rick Jr. Let's pick it up with Junior talking about how CGI and green screens have changed the stunt business and how they keep it real. On the one Chicago sets we do big stuff.

Rick LeFever Jr. (20:46)

Still to this day it's just a little different. And I also think there's so many stunt people now with such incredible talent, it's probably the hardest ever to get into stunts than it's ever been. You have to bring such a level of talent on lots of different levels to the table and then that the technology of the industry too. Our audience is asking for more. You know, they did massive stunts back then, but now because of CGI and AI and stuff like that, or vfx.

Rick LeFever Sr. (21:15)

It used to be like, if I was doubling an actor in the old days, I couldn't go on set unless they needed me because we were protecting their image. They were doing all the stunts. Oh, and then like in the 80s and 90s was that, you know, they do behind the scenes and they'd see like, oh, there, there's Rick LeFever that, you know, this guy's not doing the stunt. And it kind of opened up and they showed how we did a lot of the stuff we did. So it wasn't like you leave a movie like how they do that. They'd show you. So it's harder for us to, I won't say fool the audience, but like kind of some exciting. They don't know how we did it. And it was a lot of that in the older days.

Brian Lucci (21:45)

But what's wonderful is like our actors take pictures side by side when they're dressed the same and they, they give them like, this is what they're doing. They're risking their lives out here, you know, like there are the ones that are running into that fire or that gunfire, getting beat up or thrown or jumped.

Rick LeFever Jr. (22:00)

I don't know.

Brian Lucci (22:01)

I'm glad that it changed. I guess what I'm getting at, it's

Rick LeFever Sr. (22:04)

even back then, no one wanted to. Everybody wanted to go home at the end of the night. But there's technology better. Some of the equipment's better. You know, when I started out, there was actually a stuntman or stunt woman that was physically talented to do these big stunts. Now there's, like Rick said, there's a lot more CG or visual effects type things that augment that, which is not going to change. So I had to do a hundred foot high fall. You had to do it. Now you can do it on a green screen from like 20ft, get the same effect. So is that better? Probably. But there used to be people who could do that, you know, and you don't see some of the same things. It's probably better like now, you know, it's probably gonna like, we're like cavemen. We actually had squibs on us, which are, you know, bullet hits and like charges on our body, which we're not doing anymore after some tragic things have happened lately. Even like blanks in the guns.

Brian Lucci (22:50)

So, no, we don't squib stunt guys no more either. Very rare.

Rick LeFever Sr. (22:54)

None of the shows in town or anymore. Maybe some features do. But it's all put in post now. And I think someday, like, let me get this straight. So you guys actually put charges on your body?

Brian Lucci (23:03)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (23:04)

And they shot full, full low blanks at you with gunpowder. And like that's how we did it for years.

Brian Lucci (23:08)

But like I said, paintballs with zerkits and all this other stuff. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the old days on that?

Rick LeFever Sr. (23:14)

Yeah, it's still like the black and blue division. It was back then too. You know, a lot of those westerns, those guys coming off horses, you know, you're hitting the ground. So it was like a lot of ground pounding we call it back then. Then it evolved into car chases where the car takes a lot of the punishment. But still when you do a cannon roll as a car flips several times, or a pipe ramp, you're pulling all those GS. So it's. It's either falling off a horse at 30 miles an hour or a pipe ramping a car at 50 miles an hour. It's still a shot.

Rick LeFever Jr. (23:39)

Talking about the grab straps though.

Rick LeFever Sr. (23:41)

Yeah. Well, before we put like the full harness and I rolled one time, you come in, you pitch it, you take the seat belt, lock your arm underneath and ride it over that way. That was the way they used to do it, really.

Rick LeFever Jr. (23:52)

You see us when we do car wrecks now. We have the five point harnesses, the race seats, full cage. They'd cage them, but there was no five point harnesses.

Brian Lucci (24:00)

What was your first gig in Movie Piss Junior?

Rick LeFever Jr. (24:03)

Mine was on. He kind of brought it up earlier. It's the movie called Weatherman with Nicholas cage. I turned 11 on that film and I had to do a three legged race on ice skates at Millennium park for a big ice skating scene. Jim, an old stunt guy friend of my dad's, he's retired now, his name's Jim Manmoser, was my partner and we literally put a bag over our right and left leg respectfully and hugged each other. And I had to go across the ice and like run into people. And like when I got the script,

Rick LeFever Sr. (24:32)

I go, is this a. Because it was a winter movie?

Brian Lucci (24:35)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (24:35)

I go, is this like a flashback to a picnic? He goes, it was Gore Vensky did the pirates movies. He goes, no, it's so wrong.

Rick LeFever Jr. (24:42)

I want it.

Rick LeFever Sr. (24:42)

I want them to do a relay race with skates on and a foot in a bag. Like, you know, a three legged.

Brian Lucci (24:48)

Were you scared right before they called action? Is this your first time or you just watch your old. Your father so much?

Rick LeFever Jr. (24:54)

Yeah, I knew my dad and then I also grew up with all the guys that were there. That day. So, like, Rich Wilkie, Jim Amos, or I think Toby Ash might have been there, and. And Tom Lowell, I think was there as well. They're like my uncles. I've known them my whole life. So it was just very much like the same way. I'd see them come over to the house when we were kids, riding dirt bikes and, you know, bringing whatever Crown Victoria car and throwing in 90s. It was just like, I'm hanging with the guys that I know already, so I love that they kind of just took me in and was like, here, you got it, kid. Have fun.

Brian Lucci (25:21)

Yeah. I can't say enough. It's a great group of people. You know, cops and stunt guys kind of get. You know, it's like the real people. You know what I mean? I don't mean in a bad way.

Rick LeFever Sr. (25:29)

Well, you got. You guys have each other's back. Have each other's back, too. You got to. It's wonderful.

Brian Lucci (25:33)

What was your first.

Rick LeFever Sr. (25:35)

First one?

Brian Lucci (25:36)

And were you scared out of your mind right before they said action?

Rick LeFever Sr. (25:39)

Nervous because you want to do it, right? I mean, I. I did some live show stuff, like the saddle fall stuff, but my first big movie I thought was out in LA trying to make it was called Chesty Anderson in the Navy. I thought I made it. You know, they go. This producer goes, I'll keep you on as a PA in between. But you want to do stunts maybe. I did a lot of stunts. I did a fight scene and through a car. And, like, I get beat up by the girls. Which wasn't all that bad, but it was a very 70s. I should have quit then. It's been downhill ever since.

Brian Lucci (26:08)

No, no, I love it. It's been uphill ever since. You've been a coordinator for Med since it began, too, right?

Rick LeFever Jr. (26:14)

No.

Brian Lucci (26:15)

Who started out?

Rick LeFever Jr. (26:17)

Rick did. Yeah, I took it over. This is my.

Brian Lucci (26:20)

For the people out there. Rick did. I got two Rick sitting in front of me.

Rick LeFever Jr. (26:23)

So Rick, Rick and then Rick Jr. This is my seventh season with them.

Brian Lucci (26:28)

Oh, wow. That's a lot.

Rick LeFever Jr. (26:29)

Yeah. So I started right before 2020. I started, like, covering days when he had double stuff on fire and couldn't make it over there. And I started kind of cutting my teeth and learning. And then in 2020, it was easier for us to keep one designated stunt coordinator per show. And that's when I kind of stepped in and just kind of took over.

Brian Lucci (26:47)

You're also stunt coordinator, so if you could explain how that process works. Like, when do you get a script and how long do you get it do you get to meet up with the director and start telling us how you plan some of these stunt scenes. You know, in the, in the prep process, if you could either one, if you want to jump in, feel free.

Rick LeFever Sr. (27:05)

Features are different than TV features get more time obviously. So the process is like for fire. I will get a script. We'll see who the director is. Sometimes a director we've worked with before, see how they want the fight or the car chase to go or something like that. Some directors know exactly what they want to do. Some directors are open to suggestions and some directors may be new and not sure how to get an action scene. I've learned everything in camera. You know, a fight, car chase. We do it for real, which. Thank you, Mr. Wolf. Most of the stuff we do on our show is 99% in camera, very little visual effects. And some new directors don't know how to do it in camera. They're used to being taught how to do it in post. So we show them like John Melnick is our special effects foreman. Our show is amazing. Incredible guys how we can do these things. And so it's a learning process for them. And it's a. It's a combination of all that together and how we like a high fall, how we lay out where we have to put an airbag so the director of photography can miss it. The angles we have to shoot, same with a car chase. What's safe for the actors may get their close ups where the car is going to slide in for camera. So it's a combination of all different department heads. Everybody signs off. We think it's all safe first. Gotta be safe for us, the actors and the crew.

Brian Lucci (28:18)

So you get the script. Do you get the outline at all? Did he tell you? We got some stuff coming up. Right.

Rick LeFever Sr. (28:23)

We do get an outline first there's the basic points and then the script is more thorough.

Brian Lucci (28:27)

Yeah, we work very tight with the writers on PD and I think you guys do too with Andrea Newman, who's awesome. Whoever the writers do they sometimes say before I write this, is this possible? Do you get those things every once

Rick LeFever Sr. (28:40)

in a while, is it something they haven't seen before? They'll ask us, you know, how would we do this? But most of the time we get, I'd say about 80% of the time we'll get the script finished and we have to figure out how we're going to do it. I tell them we may not be do it this way, you know, would be safe or how we could do it. Stunt Wise or for the crew too.

Brian Lucci (28:58)

And as a coordinator, you have to have this incredible, incredible. You have an incredible responsibility, but you also have to be able to work with like special effects who may put a rail through the car. Right. And then like you said, the dp, the director of photography. Are we gonna be able to capture this? The wardrobe, what costumes say wardrobe.

Rick LeFever Jr. (29:16)

Hair.

Rick LeFever Sr. (29:17)

Hair and makeup.

Rick LeFever Jr. (29:18)

Everybody, Every department involved with art department.

Rick LeFever Sr. (29:21)

You know what we may need on the street or in a building getting doubles approved.

Rick LeFever Jr. (29:25)

If we, you know, we wanna make sure our doubles are really good if we need them. So like I'll send doubles and I know Rick does too, ahead of time. Like if we know a scene's gonna require it, we know that what the actress looks like or actor, I'll send them ahead of time to a hair, makeup, wardrobe, the director. Do you like this person? Does this work for you? And if they say, yep, green light, Then we start the process of.

Brian Lucci (29:44)

Yeah. Cause I mean, so you got a car that's driving down the street, it's gonna hit another car. So you guys call that on a rail, right? Am I correct? It's gonna flip, it's gonna roll.

Rick LeFever Sr. (29:53)

Pipe ramp.

Rick LeFever Jr. (29:53)

Pipe ramp.

Brian Lucci (29:54)

A pipe ramp.

Rick LeFever Jr. (29:54)

Yep.

Brian Lucci (29:55)

Comes off the pipe ramp. That who builds special, who got you the car?

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:00)

Picture cars.

Brian Lucci (30:01)

And you had to have a conversation with picture car.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:03)

Yep. You have to talk to them. What kind of car you want, what the car, what the director wants.

Rick LeFever Sr. (30:06)

Put a roll cage in there, you the gas tank out, put a fuel cell in, all these safety things. If you're going to roll a car, leave.

Brian Lucci (30:13)

So a fuel cell means the gas tank left and you have minimal amount of gas to do what you have to do in that stunt, right?

Rick LeFever Sr. (30:18)

Correct.

Brian Lucci (30:18)

Now you talked about a five buckles

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:20)

or some crazy five point harness. Six point harness. Yeah. So what you want?

Brian Lucci (30:23)

Do you pick who the bestest driver is in Chicago or do you. It depends on what the stunt is.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:27)

It depends on the job because we have incredible drivers here in Chicago.

Brian Lucci (30:31)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:32)

And it really depends if the double. The double, like you kind of have to see who the actor is in the scene and be like, okay. Like, yeah, we might not see the driver. So sometimes you can get away with using whoever you need because most time we have a helmet on.

Brian Lucci (30:44)

Yeah.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:44)

So you don't really see the driver anyway. But normally it's like if you're the double and you're a good driver, I would just put you in to be

Brian Lucci (30:51)

the guy that does like Cheyenne.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:53)

Cheyenne Watson is a fantastic driver.

Brian Lucci (30:55)

He's A great driver, and he. He's big. So he's an Atwater guy.

Rick LeFever Jr. (30:59)

Yep.

Brian Lucci (31:00)

I love when a stunt guy shows up and he got a stupid wig on. Oh, I don't stop rats.

Rick LeFever Jr. (31:04)

There's some good ones. I've had some fun ones.

Brian Lucci (31:07)

People don't. Don't get that.

Rick LeFever Sr. (31:08)

I always said if you. If I got this on something bad, don't take me to the hospital with this on.

Rick LeFever Jr. (31:12)

Yeah, yeah, Take it off. Yeah.

Brian Lucci (31:13)

They'll show up with, like, the worst wigs in the world. I'll go take pictures with them. I love doing it, so it's amazing. So you got three stunt coordinators, basically. Right? So we got Rick LeFever, who's on fire, started it.

Rick LeFever Sr. (31:25)

All right.

Brian Lucci (31:26)

You got Tom Lowe, who's doing pd. Wonderful man that you've been working with for a very long time. And then we got junior Rick on Med, all three coordinators and all three. What would you say your most important part of your job is?

Rick LeFever Jr. (31:38)

Safety.

Brian Lucci (31:39)

Safety number one.

Rick LeFever Sr. (31:40)

I agree.

Brian Lucci (31:41)

Yeah. Making sure everything's good.

Rick LeFever Sr. (31:43)

Safety first. But then you want to bring something to the audience that is an old wow moment, like we do on our shows. You know, it's part of the entertainment, you know, to see a script and like to actually make it work. The director's happy. Our producers are happy. You guys did a great job. But the written word is what. You guys put it on film for us.

Rick LeFever Jr. (32:01)

Telling stories with action.

Brian Lucci (32:03)

Right, right, right. And your executive producer on Med is new this year.

Rick LeFever Jr. (32:06)

Jonathan Brown.

Rick LeFever Sr. (32:07)

JB Good people.

Rick LeFever Jr. (32:09)

Awesome. Yeah, I've worked with Jonathan in the past. He directed on a couple episodes of Med. Actually, I got to do a car wreck for him that I got to hire my dad to do the wreck.

Brian Lucci (32:19)

Did you pay him well?

Rick LeFever Jr. (32:20)

He did okay. And it was a very cool full circle moment.

Rick LeFever Sr. (32:25)

Go to the lunch line twice.

Brian Lucci (32:26)

But, yeah, full circle moment.

Rick LeFever Jr. (32:27)

It was a really cool full circle moment for me on med. Like, I think it was, like, three years ago now. But, yeah, he hit a Monte Carlo with a pickup truck with two stunt people driving the Monte Carlo, and he T boned him, spun him around an intersection. But yeah.

Brian Lucci (32:41)

Is there a stunt that you both love setting up and that you did on the one Chicago shows where you put it all together, you made it work, and that you guys were just, like, blown away and impressed. Like, wow, this thing really. This really looked cool.

Rick LeFever Sr. (32:53)

Tough one. Because over the years, they've gave us a lot of opportunities to do some really big stuff. We did one a few years ago where a boat Sank in the lake. We had the whole cast underwater. All our actors were actually underwater in a tank with a sunken boat, which was a very big challenge. And all the actors nailed it.

Brian Lucci (33:09)

Okay, look, there's an opening in that corner. As you're swimming. Can you hold your breath? I can damn.

Rick LeFever Sr. (33:16)

Swim out of here.

Brian Lucci (33:17)

Okay, get. Hey, guys. That's our way up.

Rick LeFever Sr. (33:28)

Last year, we had. When Ritter's character on fire got blown out of a second story window. And we had. It's called a zipline ratchet with John Malinac, our special effects coordinator. We timed it with a fireball. It blew him out a window and shot him across the street. It was like. It was one of those big wow moments, you know, even for the stunt people, it was. It was a big one.

Brian Lucci (33:49)

And for the actor, too, right.

Rick LeFever Sr. (33:50)

I've been lucky. We had Taylor Kinney, we had Jesse Spencer. They're all good athletes. We've had them in places like I have never had actors before. We're 90 foot up in a letter. Jesse Spencer's hanging off a rung up like this.

Brian Lucci (34:03)

Grab my. Grab my arm. Swing.

Rick LeFever Sr. (34:13)

Taylor Kinney, same deal. You know, I've been lucky. I've got good, athletic actors. And like you said, you know, that looked awesome. And, like, people aren't gonna believe you're really there. They're think you're up against a green screen.

Brian Lucci (34:24)

Right.

Rick LeFever Jr. (34:25)

I think for Med, the favorite one I set up was quite a few seasons ago now, but we did a full burn on Med's stages.

Brian Lucci (34:33)

And when you say full burn, what that.

Rick LeFever Jr. (34:35)

We had Eddie Fernandez Jr. And Eddie Fernandez set up with me. Eddie Jr. Did a. He was fully engulfed in flames, head to toe. And he starts in one of the patient rooms and comes out into what we call the football, which is our main set, and comes through and runs into a counter. Then he was tackled by me.

Redfin Announcer (34:55)

Oh, my God.

Audience/Listener Reactions (34:56)

Fire.

White Claw Surge Announcer (34:57)

Fire.

Rick LeFever Jr. (35:09)

It was in a building on the stage. A stage that is, at the time, was not fireproofed in any way. Like, when they go to the burn stage. And we made it work and it looked fantastic.

Brian Lucci (35:18)

And the actor was, like, wowed by the actors.

Rick LeFever Jr. (35:20)

Both loved it. Yeah.

Brian Lucci (35:21)

Out of both of you, Rick sr. What's your favorite stunt to do?

Rick LeFever Sr. (35:27)

Used to be high falls. But the car chase is always the best. You know, we did the Dark Knight. It was a huge car chase. So we put all that together. It was probably one of the biggest ones we've done as far as Midwest stunts.

Brian Lucci (35:36)

Lower Whacker Drive.

Rick LeFever Sr. (35:37)

Yeah. Car chases are the most fun.

Brian Lucci (35:39)

And how about you, Junior?

Rick LeFever Jr. (35:40)

I wish I could say something different, but I'm a car guy, too, so I did a pipe ramp for Chicago Med several years ago, and I think that's probably one of my favorite stunts I've ever done. I like high falls, too, but we don't get the opportunity to do them very much.

Brian Lucci (35:51)

The one question I had for you guys before we close it out is what I think is so incredible about our shows is it's three worlds living together, all first responders, and we represent those first responders, and you have respect for those first responders, whether it's in a hospital, a guy wearing boots in the fire truck, or whether it's a cop in a car. I love when we do these crossovers. Like, it's amazing. There's an old commercial, your chocolate got in my peanut butter. Yeah. But it made a really good Reese's. You know what I mean? Do you get that excitement when you read those three and you're like, I'm going to be able to work with my father. My father. This one we're going to get. Like, does that happen?

Rick LeFever Jr. (36:26)

Oh, yeah. I get really excited when I get to work with my family, I guess.

Rick LeFever Sr. (36:30)

And like you said, like, for us to step into the policeman's world or fireman's world or the doctor's world, see how they have to live. We already have that respect for them, but what they really have to do, we get to call it cut and walk away. But they're in these real life situations most of their careers, so it's a. It's an eye opener, you know, more respect.

Brian Lucci (36:47)

I just know we're surrounded by these incredibly talented people. And I just want to let you know, I mean, there's a reason why your name is so iconic and why you're legendary here in Chicago, is because not that you're so good at your job, but you're so good at being a good person doing your job.

Rick LeFever Sr. (37:03)

Thank you.

Brian Lucci (37:04)

Yeah, I mean that if, if, if you see Rick LeFever or Junior, like, there's people that, like, you just smile when you see them. You know, you're okay. You know, they're good. So I've known you for 20 over 20 something years, old man, fortunate enough to meet you. I can thank you enough for being part of the family. I'm happy to say that you're part of this family here in One Chicago. And I hope to God we got a bunch of years more to go on both PD Fire and Met.

Rick LeFever Sr. (37:27)

Keep it going.

Rick LeFever Jr. (37:28)

Yeah, let's keep going.

Rick LeFever Sr. (37:29)

Like I said. Just one more thing, if I could. So we're doing the pilot for PD. I got Mr. Wolf in the car with me. He wanted to ride with me. I got to slide it around. He's having a ball. Jason goes flying by us, he said. And he said to other crew members, you think was just being nice. He goes, I want you retired and your kids working for me. He said that? He said to the crew eventually too. I thought it was kind of a nice thing to say, but how often did that happen? Here we are.

Brian Lucci (37:51)

And here we are. Yeah.

Rick LeFever Sr. (37:51)

Thank you.

Brian Lucci (37:52)

We're very lucky. Thank you, Mr. Wolf. That was the lion hearted, lovable, legendary Lafevers working hard every day, providing the One Chicago fans with that action that keeps you on the edge of your couch. One Chicago airs on Wednesday night at 8, 7 Central on NBC and you could stream it on Peacock. The One Chicago podcast is a production of Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. The series is hosted by me, Brian Lucci. It's executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliot Wolf and Steven Michael at Wolf Entertainment, Josh Block at USG Audio and John Yell Kastner at SpokMedia. Our showrunner is Derek John, our producer is Maggie Dubrizi and our audio producer is Jason Mark. Video production by Bo Delmore Coordinating production by Tess Ryan. Our production assistant is Montserrat Rodriguez with engineering and mix by Evan Arnett and original music by John o'. Hara. This series is produced by Spoke Media and distributed by Realm. Production Support for USG Audio by Josh Lalonghi I'm Brian Lueuch. Thanks for listening and we'll see you all soon.

Audience/Listener Reactions (39:23)

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Rick LeFever Sr. (39:56)

How quick?

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