(Photo credit to Richie Lubaton)
Skyler Mowatt is a top stunt performer and firearms expert whose passion for film started at just five years old when he had a spot on the film “The 13th Warrior” with his dad. He was hooked, and has since worked on such high-profile series as CW’s “Supernatural”, Netflix’s “Wu Assassins” and “Altered Carbon”, SyFy’s “Van Helsing” and Amazon Prime’s “Man in the High Castle”. His upcoming projects include HBO Max’s “Peacemaker,” Disney+’s “Turner and Hooch.” “Motherland Fort Salem” for Freeform, and a zombie first-person shooter game “Back 4 Blood.”
This talented badass has his 2nd-degree black belt, and when he is not performing he spends time in shooting competitions and doing dry training at home. People who know Skyler know that he loves podcasts, audiobooks, history, politics, technology, and more. He is also a big “Lord of the Rings” fan and assembled and painted miniatures in his youth. He even started a club in 6th grade. Nerds unite!
Colleen Bement: I read that your passion for the film industry started when you were just five years old as an extra on your father’s set of “The 13th Warrior.” How did that transform into becoming one of Canada’s stuntmen on the rise?
Skyler Mowatt: That experience really was the spark that lit the fire that I’m riding to this day. I think being that young, it was about getting transported into another world and time. It was truly playing pretend as all kids do, just at the biggest scale. That seed being planted so young informed my passion for movies as I grew up, which only grew more intense by my teen years. Specifically action, martial arts, and sci-fi. Being a kid who was training in martial arts since shortly after my first film experience, as soon as I learned of stunts as a career choice, that was all I wanted to do.
CB: Your first stunt role was on CW’s “Supernatural.” What was your experience on the set like?
SM: Ah yes, the one that started it all. I remember getting the phone call from Lou Bollo, telling me I’d be doubling an actor jumping through a window onto a bed. I was absolutely jacked with excitement. This was my shot. I remember getting into the stage, and Lou took me to a ramp where he had me do a few practice jumps through a mock frame. Then I’d go through hair makeup wardrobe, and there I met my actor Reilly Dolman, who was playing the bad guy on that episode. We got along great right away, both were just excited to be there.
The moment before the call of action, to run up the ramp and jump through a candy glass window, I was full of adrenaline. I’d never done anything like this and wasn’t sure what to expect. Then the call came of “THREE, TWO, ONE, ACTION” and I ran up and smashed through the window surprisingly easily, landed on the bed, looking as menacing as I could. Cut! Then the crew applauded in appreciation, which took me aback, I didn’t think that was a thing. It felt great though. Lou was pleased, as we got it in one take. The best result you could hope for, especially on your first gig. I’ll always be incredibly thankful to Lou for taking the chance on me, a kid with no experience at the time. It meant the world to me.
CB: What are the latest projects that you are working on?
SM: The latest projects I’ve been working on have been an upcoming show called “Peacemaker” for HBOMax, another one called “Turner and Hooch” for Disney+, a remake of an old classic I’m told. “Motherland Fort Salem” for Freeform, another tv show. The rest in between those have been a lot of motion capture work, which is essentially wearing a skintight suit with reflective balls on them capturing movement for use in video games. Most of the game projects I can’t name, due to strict NDA’s, but one I did work on that’s announced already is “Back 4 Blood,” a zombie first person shooter.
CB: I love it that you’re a big “Lord of the Rings” nerd. Tell our readers about the tabletop
miniatures that you assembled and painted as a kid. Do you still have any of them?
SM: Oh yeah, “Lord of the Rings” has always been dear to my heart. These miniatures I had were for a tabletop wargame similar to Warhammer. I’d assemble and paint them, I must admit, not all that well. The thing about it I got into like crazy was making set pieces for the tabletop landscape to play on. I remember I walked over to some construction site that had insulation foam cutaways in piles, and I’d come home with an armload, bring it to the basement, and start making them into rocks, ruins, hills, fortifications, anything I could dream up to fill the game space to make things interesting. I even made castle walls, siege ladders, trees, and ships.
I would bring this stuff with me to school in an old camera case, so I could get my friends into it. Before long I had a club of friends that would bring their own miniatures to school with them to play at lunchtime. I don’t remember if I was ever any good at the game itself, it was more a social and artistic outlet than anything. As far as having any of it still, I think there’s some of it packed away in deep storage with other sentimental family stuff, but no, no elaborate diorama in my room or anything like that.
CB: Tell us a little about your passion for firearms. I read that you pride yourself in influencing and informing the culture of firearms ownership.
SM: My passion for firearms has been an intense transformation over the last five years or so. Before owning any myself, I think I was drawn to them through movies and video games. I would get locked into researching what weapons different characters were using, and got completely sucked down the rabbit hole. To me they were and still are, a vital part of a character.
What really kicked it off was I was an extra on the show “Wayward Pines,” and I met the military advisor P.J. Miller, who as it turns out served in an elite Canadian special forces unit. We became fast friends, and before long, he had me out to the shooting range to show me the ropes. I had my Sig Sauer 226, I hadn’t owned long, didn’t know a thing. He taught me the basic fundamentals of pistol shooting, and I was completely hooked. I was from that point forward, determined to devour all information pertaining to shooting techniques available. Like a lot of people who get into shooting, I found the Magpul Dynamics videos and got even more fired up to train the drills. I was also competing in every shooting competition I could find, putting the skills to the test, making tons of mistakes, and making adjustments along the way. From there, I made a hobby of posting dynamic shooting to Instagram, which over time gained a lot of interest. “John Wick” had already been out for a year or two, so this kind of thing had a renewed appeal.
Through the modest following, I’ve built over time, I try to be the best representative of the Canadian gun-owning community I can be. I do what I can to expose new people to the discipline, with a martial arts mindset. It’s my opinion that training gun techniques and marksmanship are not separate from martial arts, but an extension of it. Gun owners are too often unfairly maligned by governments and media. It’s a source of great satisfaction for me to show someone another angle on a subject that they either don’t think much about or have their minds made up on incomplete information. For me, it’s like the quote goes: tend to the garden you can touch.
CB: I’m with you on not liking Country Music. So what type of music do you enjoy?
SM: The one exception I’d make here is for Johnny Cash and John Denver. They’re great, despite my bias against Country. My music tastes span quite far afield actually. I grew up on Classic Rock, but expanded to metal, rap, classical music, 80’s pop, and lately a subgenre of techno called Synth Wave. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite band, I’d have to say Metallica. I always find myself coming back to the 90’s and early 2000’s rap though. My preferences float around depending on my mood.
CB: Do you happen to have a “walk-up” song? A song that gets you pumped up before a task?
SM: It really depends if that task will benefit from being pumped up or not. I have personally learned that for most things, I actually benefit from calming down, breathing, controlling the heart rate for better clarity of thought. That being said, if it’s time to really turn it on, for me, it’s “Disposable Heroes” by Metallica. The world war one setting and tone of the song conjures a strong, but useful darkness in me, as well as reminds me that however hard anything might seem, it’s not a trench in World War I.
Written by Colleen Bement
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