He didn’t have to wait long for his
next assignment. The same production
company called him in to handle all
the animals involved in the shooting of
“Interview with the Vampire,” starring
Cruise and Pitt, and then another film
after that: “Hard Target,” in which he
handled rattlesnakes.
Soon after that came the break that
transformed the much-in-demand animal
trainer into an actual stuntman. In 1993,
while working as a Jefferson Parish
Sheriff ’s Office deputy and moonlighting
on films, he received a phone call from
his uncle who operated a welding shop. A
group of stuntmen had come to the shop
to inquire about outfitting a bus that could
be flipped for a movie they were shooting.
“So I went
down there
and met these guys and one of them
(Denny Arnold) took a liking to me,” Jeff
said. “He told me he was going to move
here and make me a stuntman but I didn’t
believe him at first.”
However, a year or so later, Arnold
kept his word and brought Jeff into the
filming of the short-lived TV series, “The
Big Easy,” as the stunt double and technical
adviser for lead actor Tony Crane.
During filming he instructed Crane on
police tactics that he learned as both a
New Orleans cop and a JPSO deputy and
employed some of them himself when he
stunt-doubled.
“Denny taught me a lot and I learned
other things on the job,” Jeff said. “I got to
do a lot of neat stuff that he did: jumping
off a boat, driving crazy, sliding cars. Stuff
like that.”
By 2001 Jeff was getting enough steady
work from filmmakers to quit his job with
JPSO and pursue his love of adventure
and danger. Among those who employed
him were Lil Wayne, Juvenile and other
top-name rappers on the New Orleansbased
Cash Money label. He did car
flips, burns and other hazardous duties
for their music videos, often portraying
cops in pursuit.
Concurrent with his work for the Cash
Money artists, Jeff was also doing productions
that were more tame for Hallmark
and Lifetime, as well as commercials
requiring his stunting expertise. Between
2001 and 2004 he was working on 10-15
productions a year, sometimes two or
three at the same time.
In the mid-‘90s, Jeff got his sister, Holly
Oquin, into the business as a stuntwoman,
which she still is today. He also got his
oldest son, Tyler, on board as a stuntman
and his mother, Janet, as a van driver for
cast and crew members. Recently he and
Holly worked together as stunt coordinator
and assistant coordinator on the
Marvel film, “Cloak and Dagger.”
For the 2016 film, “Bad Moms,” on
which Jeff was the stunt coordinator,
he had all three of his children working
on the set. “Tyler was the stuntman, my
daughter, Alyssa, was the stunt double for
Alyssa,Tyler and Dylan Galpin
a little girl in the picture and my youngest
son, Dylan, was one of the kids in the
background,” he said. “That was cool,
having all my kids working with me at
the same time.”
In his spare time Jeff gives generously
back to the community, donating his
services and expertise to the Boy Scouts
where his nine-year-old son, Dylan, is a
member. He also guest teaches at the film
schools of the University of New Orleans
and Loyola University. Assisted by Tyler,
he instructs film students on moviemaking
techniques and performs stunts that help
them put their thesis projects together,
“and we don’t charge them,” he added.
Summing up his career, Jeff said, “Just
because you’re a stunt person doesn’t
mean you’re immune to pain. I don’t like
pain. I have a high tolerance for it but I’m
not in this business because I like to get
hurt. When I get hurt I can’t work. If I
can’t work I can’t make money and I like
to make money.
“Everything we do has a separate price
tag on it, according to each stunt’s level
of danger and preparation,” he said. “We
do the things these other people can’t do
for themselves. We get beat up in fights,
we fall down stairs, we hit concrete and
get shot. I tell people all the time, if this
job was easy the actors would be doing it
themselves.” ��
PHOTOS :COURTESY OF JEFF GALPIN
JANUARY / F E B R UARY 2 0 2 0 breakthrumediamagazine.com | BREAKTHRU MEDIA | 13
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