Bear wrestling is dangerous
The bear was unharmed but I have two cracked ribs. My wife said that that’s the type of injury you’d expect when a friend, or past friend actually, dressed in a bear costume, smacks down on you while you lay in the fetal position on the forest floor.
The film producer thought the bear attack, he proudly titled the “Rodney King in the Woods” scene, would be a humorous ending to the Bear Wise video we were working on. So did the co-producer (a.k.a. bear costume boy). I didn’t. But I agreed to take one for the team and have the bear beat me up at the end of the film. After all, he endured some harassment from me prior to that. The script had me explain, in detail, how to deal with nuisance black bears at the campsite. I thoroughly went over how to be aggressive with a black bear, and, I do admit, that I went somewhat overboard (and unscripted) when throwing the rock at the bear and yelling obscenities at him. But the bear, I mean Scott dressed up as a bear, threw the rock back at me, stricking my elbow really hard. Then, out of nowhere, he tripped me on the second last take of me wandering through the woods making verbal noises to warn the black bear of my approach. Yes, I’ll admit that we had to do seven takes in total of that scene because I kept forgetting my lines, and that I shouldn’t have said that one comment about his mother. But that gave him no right to crack my ribs. Heck, the bear wasn’t even scripted to smack down on me. He was simply instructed to kick me in the gut, an action I was ready for. But nooooo…Scott had to kiss up to the producer and over act by punching me with his paw and then throw his entire weight — and that of the rented bear costume — on top of me.
What was the bear’s excuse? He couldn’t see out of the cheap mask we rented for him and never thought he’d make full contact! Ya, right.
Needless to say, I’ll have more about this film project we’re working on for the fall release date in a future blog — including information on another episode we’ve decided to include titled “how to be Kevin Wise in cheap bear-costume country.” It’s sure to be a hit.