DeWet: from Tarzan to Troy
The latest big-budget TV series airing on BBC and Netflix, Troy: Fall of a City, was an exciting production to be involved in, said filmmaker / actor DeWet du Toit, who worked as a stuntman handling the horses on set in this adventure drama filmed in the Cape Town area.
DeWet, best known for his YouTube Tarzan films, said that to be a horse wrangler on a movie set such as Troy is not as simple as one thinks. "Some of the horses are tame, but then there are the ones that are not.
The wranglers must be in complete control of the horses at all times, because when a horse decides to break free from the harnessed carriage, people can get injured. The stunt training I received for
Troy was intense and almost on a military level. We were tested in various fields, such as sword fighting choreography, spear fighting and shield wielding. And the physical training truly separated the men from the boys. I enjoyed it tremendously, as it made you feel part of an actual Spartan team, working together on chants. While fighting together with your "comrades" on the battlefield, the director would call "Action!" and everyone would be running towards you and horse chariots would be passing you and you were one of a hundred fighting alongside your fellow warriors. This created camaraderie and felt like a real war in Spartan times. During the battle action shots I felt like like shouting out loud, "This is Sparta!"