I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond... or better still his stunt double
IF you’re going to ski with a man, make it a stuntman I say. So let me introduce you to Bond: Stefan Bond... or as he’s known in real life, Stefan Zurcher.
Stefan, who hails from Wengen in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, has worked on Bond movies for the past 50 years, starting with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969 (which featured Australian actor George Lazenby and was partly shot at the nearby Schilthorn station) and, most recently, on Spectre with Daniel Craig.
I had the privilege of skiing the undulating slopes of Wengen with Stefan recently and in between admiring the peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, I got the inside track on his fascinating Bond career.
Now aged 73, he skis beautifully and it’s easy to see why he was chosen to act as a double for Robert Redford and Roger Moore.
At the age of 20, Stefan had moved to Vail, Colorado, to work as a ski instructor. His perfect English, along with his skill as an extreme skier, helped get him into the world of movies.
One of his most daring stunts involved jumping 120ft onto a moving car and he has worked on a total of ten Bond films including Golden Eye, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.
In Goldeneye, he had to arrange for Bond to catch up with an aircraft in free-fall, climb into the cockpit and fly away – a scene that
many of us still remember.
‘There’s a bunch of ‘nuts’ sitting around a table coming up with one crazy idea after another and you’re the guy who’s got to make it all happen’ he says of those daring days.
Over the years, Stefan has given up the daredevil stunts of his 20s to take on the roles of assistant director and production manager, scouting Alpine locations for Bond shoots through his own production company.
For one production, he recalls a 700-strong crew taking over a little Austrian village (population 400) and spending 15 months filming what ended up as a 15-minute sequence. The incredible infrastructure around that shoot involved building 15 houses to blow up in a single scene. Such is the power and wealth of the Bond family.
As we ski below the imposing Eiger glacier, stopping for lunch at the Klein Scheidegg restaurant, Stefan tells me about the watch he’s wearing. It’s the exploding watch from Spectre, a gift from Bond bosses for his many years of service. Thankfully, it doesn’t explode during our ski session.
While he says he will never retire from movie-making, he also loves spending time in his beloved Wengen and who could blame him? It’s a special mountain village with around 60km of pistes and railway access to more skiing at Grindelwald, Murren and the must-visit attraction at Jungfraujoch, the ‘top of Europe’ at 3,454 metres.
As we admire the stunning views of the Jungfrau region, Stefan whispers in my ear the eye-watering amounts of money that Daniel Craig has been paid to play Bond. He also whispers that Pierce Brosnan is his favourite Bond actor. Well said Mr Zurcher!
For more info on Wengen go to wengen.swiss and myswitzerland. com.