Meet Emmanuel Manzanares of LBP Stunts Chicago

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emmanuel Manzanares.

Emmanuel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In the early 2000s in Chicago, IL, I would browse online martial arts forums to discuss films from Hong Kong action cinema, which led me to discovering work done by indie filmmakers and martial artists that were homages of this specific style of cinema via these forums. That led me to groups and individuals such as the Zero Gravity Stunt Team, Vlad Rimburg, and The Stunt People led by Eric Jacobus. After being a fan for a few years, I got enough courage to try filming and creating fight scenes and shorts on my own in 2005. However, I would not really dive deep until the year after in 2006 and from there, the team “Lazy Brown Productions” was born!

Since its creation, I used 5 of my best high school friends, and we got to meet other like-minded martial artists and individuals that led us to creating our own YouTube channel and producing content for ourselves and our “indie” peers in the action filmmaking world. Soon after, a few of us really tried to pursue stunt work for film and television, which led to many of us eventually joining the Screen Actors Guild between the years of 2008 to 2010. This would allow us to begin working as professional stunt performers in Chicago.

Struggling to make ends meet and to gain a foothold in the Chicago film and television industry, we still continued to make videos and other online content as much as we could, eventually working with many of those same peers we mentioned above. In 2010, a collaboration between our team and Vlad Rimburg which was released in 2011, led to some of the team members (including myself) being noticed by stunt coordinator/2nd unit director Chad Stahelski, who runs and co-founded 87eleven Action Design (the same stunt team behind hits such as the John Wick series, 300, The Matrix, and many more amazing films!)

After meeting Chad and other members of the 87eleven team, many of us went back to stunt work locally in Chicago but worked harder to try to make our mark. Thanks to stunt coordinators Garrett Warren and JJ Perry, the team would finally get a chance to show our work on a film called “Divergent” that was completely shot in Chicago. Almost the entire team got hired to work on this large production as members of the stunt and fight team, and from there we all branched off and created our own paths in this industry, and continue to work with many amazing performers and teams to this day.

I moved to Los Angeles right after working “Divergent” in 2013 and lived in the Pasadena area for almost a decade. I recently moved back to my hometown to raise my family, but still travel stateside and internationally to work on various projects.

I’ve been very fortunate and honored to be a part of the fight teams on projects such as “Logan”, “Gemini Man”, “Bloodshot”, “Titans”, “Harry Haft”, and “Skyscraper”. Each project teaches me so much, and I’ve come a long way from being a kid in his backyard, alley, or park trying to make a fight scene from scratch with his friends. The only difference is that I get to take that same process and apply it to major films and television and hopefully share that same passion with the performers and artists involved from across the world! I couldn’t have done it without the help of my five friends from back home, and especially without all of the amazing performers I’ve had the honor to work with and encounter during my career thus far!

Has it been a smooth road?
It never has been a smooth road, and there have been many challenges and struggles throughout. I feel that this is a common occurrence you may hear about in our line of work or figure may happen because of the entertainment industry itself, but it’s not always vocally spoken about.

I was very fortunate to have a great support system within my family, friends, and good peers who would help guide me and express that having such career struggles whether they be financial, emotional, or social, are all ok. In our industry, there is such an emphasis on having a “strong” personality within the career professionalism, but I’ve come to find that everyone has their own individual strengths and weaknesses in many factors and that it is ok to appreciate and adapt to those personalities so that people understand the goal of working together as a team. There’s always a time and place for everything!

I feel that by adapting and seeing people for their strengths and not flaws, you gain appreciation and work together towards the common goal of making a good product together. This helps so much not only within our industry but also to anyone! Basic respect and appreciation for your fellow individual is always a commendable act.

Also, raising a family and maintaining relationships is difficult among the entertainment industry at times. The entertainment industry is always so spontaneous that it’s really key to maintain proper communication and relationships with your loved ones. Especially family and friends. Having proper outlets and being able to express yourself openly about your struggles and needs are much better than keeping them inside! Plus it allows individuals to have perspective and maintain the love for what we do. It’s a hard balance, but very much worth it, I feel.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with LBP Stunts Chicago – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
LBP Stunts Chicago is merely a team name. Though primarily based in Chicago, we have branched out nationwide. Within that “team”, we are all just like-minded performers whom help one another when we can and focus on all of our individual strengths. Some of us are amazing martial artists and fight performers, others specialize in driving and fire stunts, or wire stunts and high falls. We all love to choreograph and design or perform in fight/action sequences, and many of us continue to shoot and edit our own content for our own personal knowledge, and of course for our careers.

That being said, our main specialty is within the design of action or fight sequences, and how we can assist a stunt coordinator to realize their vision of the action on screen. Whether we are merely performers, or fight choreographers, or fight coordinators (the heads of the fight team on an action film), our job is to ensure to the stunt coordinator that we can take from their vision, as well as the production’s vision, and make it reality.

Our team has learned this methodology not only from working with one another on our personal projects but from all of the various teams and stunt coordinators we have worked for before. This allows us to be diverse, adaptable, and to be open to all facets of storytelling and filmmaking through our variety of designs learned from one another. Hopefully, we can continue to keep learning and growing!

I’d say that by having this openness as a team, that we not only strengthen each other but ourselves individually. That makes me the most proud of the work we have done together and also apart. I’ve been very fortunate to see many of the team members grow into their own and carve their own paths. I think it’s wonderful to see such diversity in our stunt community, and I’m glad the LBP Stunts team could help those performers in some small way as they grow into their careers.

I don’t like to think as what sets us apart from anyone more than we like to maintain an open door policy with one another. That means that we can be both critical and supportive, honest and thoughtful, strict and yet open to change as a team. I think it’s great that we have all shared so much with one another in terms of growth, but that it’s just as great that we have experienced so much on our own as well. We can all take from those experiences and either help those around us, ourselves as individuals, or the team itself. I don’t like to hold anything against anyone or make them feel like they own the team anything. I think by allowing the growth to happen, should hopefully allow the best of the person to grow and seek the answers they want to seek, whether it be through the help of others or our team.

At the end of it all, I want the team to continue to be diverse and allow others to grow. It has allowed me to grow so much, so why wouldn’t I want that for someone else or our community at large?

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I truly loved my time in Los Angeles, and specifically Pasadena. My family and I really enjoyed the diversity and culture, and we felt it was a great place to experience during our time there. We have a lot of memories from our time there, and can only hope to continue to return when we can to experience more!

As for the stunt community in Los Angeles, I feel it is one of the best places to go and train with like-minded people, as well as challenge yourself as a stunt performer at large. There is such a wealth of knowledge if you can go and find it, and I’m very happy to see others try to take the same culture and grow it in their own perspective parts of the nation!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lbpstuntschicago.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmanuelmanzanares
• Other: https://www.imdb.me/emstunts

Image Credit:
Amy Sturdivant, Netflix, Pyranha Stunts, Jeremy Marinas

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