Interview: Travis Pastrana Talks 'Nitro Circus'

Interview: Travis Pastrana Talks 'Nitro Circus,' Written by: Karen Benardello

Performing and/or watching suspenseful, death-defying stunts has always been a major adrenaline rush for many people interested in high-risk sports. The stunt performance genre has naturally become successful in the past decade with the help of MTV's popular stunt and prank television and film series 'Jackass.' Taking inspiration from the franchise's star, Johnny Knoxville, motorsports competitor and stunt performer Travis Pastrana showed off his own daring stunt abilities in his new film documentary, 'Nitro Circus,' which is based on his Fuel and MTV show of the same name.

'Nitro Circus' follows Pastrana and his tight-knit, highly-skilled, adrenaline-addicted friends as they bring their adventures to the big screen for the first time. They dream of the most dangerous stunts in the world of action sports, including back-flipping a bike between two 60-story buildings and going air-born and destroying their friends in a life size, high-speed game of Freedom Flyer. Their high risk stunts are made even more dangerous, as no safety nets were allowed during filming.

Pastrana generously took the time to answer questions about what it was like filming the action comedy documentary, which is now available on DVD. Among other things, he spoke about why he decided to shoot his stunts for a film, what it was like working with Knoxville on the movie and why he decided to co-write the script for 'Nitro Circus' with its co-directors, Gregg Godfrey and Jeremy Rawle.

Question (Q): 'Nitro Circus' follows you and your friends as you film your most dangerous stunts in action sports in your first DVD. Why did you decide to shoot your stunts and include them in a movie?

Travis Pastrana (TP): Our goal with 'Nitro Circus' is to be able to travel around the world, push our limits and have a lot of fun. A movie is something we had always wanted to do. We had a lot of stunts that we hadn't tried. We thought it would be wildly entertaining and in some cases, ground breaking. But we needed a reason to push ourselves that hard. All of that, plus the advances in 3D cameras and the timing seemed perfect.

Q: Some of the stunts you include in 'Nitro Circus' include back-flipping a bike between two 60-story buildings and going air-born in a high-speed game of Freedom Flyers. How did you decide which stunts you would include in the film?

TP: We did about three times as many stunts as we put in the film. It's frustrating when you do something that you are really proud of and it doesn't make the cut. We all had those moments, but we are all proud of the finished product. At the end of the day, we compete as athletes, but we make movies for entertainment.

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