A local Marine veteran had the opportunity to train with a legend in the stunt world, Banzai Vitale, while participating in the free veterans job training program at LIMS in Castaic.

Steve Johnson — who now goes by the name Derren Fox in preparation for the launch of his Hollywood career — grew up watching the original “Power Rangers” television show, and never dreamed he would be trained by one of the show’s main stuntmen as an adult.

“It’s cool getting trained by this guy who did my favorite show back in the day,” Fox said. “He also did ‘Transformers,’ ‘Batman Forever’ — and these are all movies I remember seeing and watching… Getting personal and one-on-one training with this man is just incredible.”

Related: LIMS Veterans Job Training Program Helping Disabled Vet Find Work In Film Industry

Through the LIMS program, Fox also had the chance to meet Mark Riccardi, who has acted as celebrity John Travolta’s stunt double in a number of movies.

“It’s a lot of networking,” Fox said of finding work in the Hollywood stunt industry. “So once we get our SAG cards, we can go out to coordinators and tell them, ‘Hey, I trained with this person. I trained with Bonzai.’”

Now halfway through the 10-week training program at LIMS, Fox has learned repelling, fighting, dive rolls, falls off buildings, hitting marks off mini trampolines and much more.

“The way they put it is, to be a good stuntman, you have to be well-rounded in pretty much everything,” he said. “It’s a lot of technique and precision and timing.”

Fox noted he not only loves the adrenaline rush that comes with stunt work, but can draw on his childhood gymnastics background to help him with his training.

“It’s actually funny, my mother put me in gymnastics against my will as a child,” he said, “because I was always running and diving and jumping over things.”

After serving in the U.S. Marines for four years — two of which he spent stationed in Okinawa, Japan before he was deployed to Iraq in 2008 — Fox found himself in need of a fresh start, and decided to make the move from Washington to California.

“I wasn’t really even looking for anything in the film industry,” he said. “I didn’t think that was something within my grasp, but I found this ad on Craigslist that said veterans get free training (at LIMS), and that kind of sent up a little flag.”

Fox traveled to Castaic to tour the LIMS movie studio, and was hooked on the institute’s stunt program immediately.

“(I) decided, yeah, stunts sounds like something I can do,” he recalled. “That’s just kind of my thing. I like the adrenaline.”

The Lifton Institute of Media Arts and Sciences, or LIMS, not only offers full-service movie studios Los Angeles filmmakers can use, but also doubles as a film production school. While LIMS students usually have never worked in the industry before, President Jimmy Lifton says that most people have skills that can be easily translated into the production trade. LIMS offers 10-week film production training and veterans job training programs designed to prepare students to go out and get a paid job on a movie or TV set.

Vet 200 Program

Lifton Institute of Media Arts & Sciences (LIMS)

27567 Fantastic Lane

Castaic, CA 91384