Ronnie B Goodwin

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

It's Been a While

Yes it has been a while since I last posted on my blog, and a lot has happen, some good and some bad.

So lets begin with Outlander, the amazing book series created by Diana Gabaldon and fronted by show runner Ronald D Moore, and not to mention the massive cast, crew and awesome talents of Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe.

I play a horseman and actor.

I was browsing the web way back when, and happened on an add on FB for bearded horse rider for a TV show, I ticked the like box and soon after I got an email from Seoras Wallace of the Clan Wallace, he asked me if I still had a beard and do I still ride, 'Yes', a few days later I was at a horse riding audition in Cumbernauld. 2 or 3 auditions later, and we were at a fitting having whittled a bunch of riders down to 4. Roy Ramsay, Thomas Straw and Alan Torrance. This was where we all got to mingle and introduce each other.

The journey had begun, and it was to be epic in my lifetime, freezing cold days, a few warm ones, lots of rain and still we managed to have, on reflection, a great experience.

In the picture above you can see I don't have my long grey main on my baldy head, and soon after the above image was taken, I had a wig fitting, the label in the wig read Gandalf. It was comforting to know it had been worn on LOTR.

My horse is called George, he is a beast of an animal, and getting on him was always a task, especially when its 2am and the rain is real, very real. Trying to get your leg over a Portuguese saddle in the slippery cold wet, is almost embarrassing, there was one occasion when I was already mounted, and Roy had to get on the back and we were to ride out of frame in tandem, he climbed aboard and the girth slipped, yes we both ended up upside down, made the crew smile :)

You can see Roy's foot and leg behind me

There are plenty more stories that I can talk about, I will post the later.

We finished shooting in I think September, it was a one day shoot and the short piece was for Time Warner, the Director came up to me and said, take a look at this, he showed me the story board and said, this is what I need you to do, how exciting, it was my own face on the board, and quite well drawn too