RIDING UP A STORM

Equestrian stuntwoman, van life adventurer, Harley^® rider – now Laura Vörtler has added motorcycle stunt riding to her bag of tricks

AS TOLD TO JEREMY PICK
PHOTOS BY ALEX IRVINE / LAURA VÖRTLER

I was always a bit of a daredevil growing up. As a kid, I had a pony named Sunny, but riding wasn’t enough – I was always trying to ride standing on her back, or jumping down and trick riding. My parents both come from families of actors and creatives, so they were always encouraging my crazy side as a youth.

When I turned 18, I moved from my home in Bavaria, Germany to France and began an apprenticeship in an equestrian yard, where we trained horses for films and live shows. From there, I went on to work in live stunt shows in Holland, Spain and France. Those connections led me to performing equestrian stunt work in films, then to a 12-month stint in the world’s biggest horse show, Cavalia, which toured across China.

My equestrian stunt work involves all sorts of skills: hanging off the horse or jumping down, or Roman riding, where you ride standing with one foot on each horse. There’s also liberty training, where the horses react simply to body language with no reins or equipment – when you have six horses galloping at full speed toward you and you need to make them stop an inch in front of you just with your body language, it can be kind of gnarly!

Equestrian stuntwoman, van life adventurer, Harley® rider – now Laura Vörtler has added motorcycle stunt riding to her bag of tricks I got into motorcycle stunt work by chance. I was working on a film in Morocco and my boss needed a girl to do a motorcycle stunt – a lay down of a motorcycle at speed. At that time, I didn’t even know how to properly ride a motorcycle, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard, right? If I can fall off a horse, I can fall off a motorcycle. That first stunt involved weaving through traffic at speed on a motorcycle with a passenger on the back, slapping an electronic bomb onto a car and riding off as the bomb exploded, then laying the bike down at a precise point to avoid hitting people on the street. Fortunately, the team had a lot of trust in me – they helped me learn how to ride a motorcycle, quickly, which led to a whole new passion.

Training myself to always know what a horse is doing underneath me through my hips and muscle structure really helped me with riding bikes. The principle is basically the same – I can tell at which point either a horse or a motorcycle will lose or regain traction. Although it’s psychologically difficult to lay a bike down to order because it’s the exact opposite of what you know you should be doing, if you learn the techniques you need and start building up to it in little steps eventually it becomes like a
reflex, and you can just go for it.

Although I still do equestrian stunt work, I’m now doing more and more motorcycle stunt work in TV series and films. So far I’ve been mainly working as a stunt double – I’ve doubled for many actresses including Claire Danes, Blake Lively and Jessica Chastain; and there’s a film coming out soon called Borderlands, where I double for Cate Blanchett. I’ve appeared in Charlie’s Angels, Deep State and in season 8 of Homeland, and and I’ll also be in the upcoming Mission: Impossible 7 and Disney’s The Princess. I plan to increasingly move toward action/acting roles in the future,
as well as being a stunt double.

With stunt work, the key is to be able to replicate the same action and be really precise, and that means being able to understand and control every movement of a bike. Adding more skills to my motorcycle riding repertoire is my focus at the moment, so I’m working on perfecting wheelies, stoppies, skids and jumps. That’s what I really love about my job: continually learning and pushing my boundaries to do something new and different.

I’ve always had a fascination with Harley-Davidson® bikes; they have so much history and heritage attached. Even people who don’t know anything about motorcycles know what a Harley is. Owning one was a dream of mine since I was a teenager, but it always seemed unattainable until recently when I moved to London.

I bought myself a 2003 100TH Anniversary Sportster® 883 and immediately started turning it into the custom project I had dreamed about for some time. I wanted to push the boundaries of this bike and turn it into one I could use off-road as well as for my commuting to stunt jobs and training. My first steps were upgrading to Öhlins suspension for a taller ride height; performance upgrades for the engine; a 2-into-1 stainless exhaust and motocross-style handlebar.

The bike originally came in a glossy pearl white, which wasn’t really my style, so I cheekily borrowed some black bodywork and a black gas tank with a sparkly gold flame off my boyfriend’s flat track race bike. Currently I’m designing my own custom paint, and I’ll be changing the wheels, tyres and brakes to something more suitable. To further facilitate my adventures and allow me to take along my stunt kit, I’m working on a bespoke rack, bag and saddle system. That way it can be my partner to take on adventures, or I can strip it back, so it looks really cool to ride on weekends. I really love that about Harley motorcycles: you can make the bike your own and adapt it so easily to do the things you want to do.

As you can probably guess, my latest Harley crush is the new Pan America™ model. For me, it’s the ultimate bike that crosses over between on- and off-road. I tried it last year on a video shoot in Albany, New York, with my friend Damien Bray, Jason Momoa and the Frozen Few – a badass bunch of kind-hearted enthusiasts notorious for racing vintage Harley-Davidson bikes on ice and snow. They taught me to kick-start and ride their incredible tankshift and foot-clutch bikes on a frozen lake, which was probably one of my favourite experiences ever.

Back in 2016, my dad and I converted a van that became my little house on wheels for the past five years. It has all my stunt gear, riding equipment and climbing gear, as well as a leather workshop where I can repair equipment and riding tack, or make bags, belts and leather jewellery, which is my hobby. It has a tow hitch and a motorcycle rack on the back, allowing me to load up my Sportster, motocross bike and horse trailer, so if stunt jobs come up anywhere in Europe or even Morocco I can just pack everything in my van and drive there. I don’t have to worry about security because of my Czech Wolfdog, Nouka – she’s an impressive sight really, even though she’s rather scared of people! I’ve had her since a puppy, and she has adapted well to travelling and new surroundings. She’s my best friend, and has made me
become more mindful and slow my pace a little – we kind of take care of each other.

I’ve been working solidly for the past year, so now I’m on a break, which gives me some time to invest in my training and future. This means acting lessons, weekly martial arts and kickboxing training, rally and stunt driving training, my scuba dive master certificate, horse riding and rock climbing when I have the time, or riding my Harley or dirt bike to improve my bike skills – there’s literally not one minute when I’m not out trying to push myself a little bit further in some way. And when my body hurts too much to do
anything else, I sit down and do my leatherwork!

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