Want to be a Hollywood stuntman? Clearwater now has a school.

CLEARWATER — David Siracusa thinks the movie “The Uncivil War - America Divided” came out “spectacularly.”

“Shocker that I might think so, huh?” he said. After all, he wrote, produced and starred in the film about two longtime friends, one white and one Black, who let opposing political views come between them.

But Siracusa admits that his movie, which screens locally on May 28, could have been better.

Some scenes, like one depicting a riot, had to be cut from the script. It was too costly to bring in out-of-town stunt actors and there were not enough trained locals.

Now he’s on a mission to change the local movie landscape.

Siracusa has opened K75 Stunt Academy at 614 Pinellas St. in Clearwater.

Three nights a week at the 7,500-square-foot facility, students work on skills like choreographed hand-to-hand combat, sword and gun fights. They use dull blades and toy guns for safety. They also practice how to fall and how to be pulled backward by cables that mimic being thrown from an explosion.

“With Tampa Bay becoming a place where people come to film, local stuntmen are needed,” Siracusa said.

He said the academy is for people new to the work and for those who have done it before but need to train. “With stunt training, it’s like basketball or tennis or anything else, he said. “You have to train over and over and over again.”

Before the facility opened in March, Siracusa had no stuntman training. Borrowing a line from the Hair Club for Men commercials of the 1980s, the bald Siracusa, 51, joked, “I’m not just the president, I’m also a client.” He’s learning too.

The teaching falls to his business partner Kevin Rego, a stuntman of 26 years who worked on “The Uncivil War - America Divided.” The K in K75 Stunt Academy is for Rego’s first name and the 75 is for the year he was born.

“I’ve worked on low-budget indie stuff to high-budget Hollywood stuff,” said Rego, who parlayed a passion for extreme sports into a career. “I’ve worked on jungles. I’ve worked in deserts. I’ve worked in every continent but Antarctica. I’ve worked for Apple Studios, Disney, Warner Brothers.”

His recent credits also include stunts for Bad Bunny’s “Yo Perreo Sola” music video and stunt coordinator for “Roommate Regret,” a Lifetime movie shot throughout Tampa Bay.

What makes a good stuntman?

“You have to be open to listening to instruction, trusting your partner and listening to your coordinator,” Rego said. “It’s all about safety.”

Siracusa was shocked to learn how much stunt actors must practice basics like a simple fall or a front roll.

“You have to be able to do those over and over again without getting hurt,” he said. “It takes a lot of stamina to be a stuntman. They’ll need you to do the same roll over a car or the same fall in a fight multiple times from multiple angles. You better be in shape and be able to perform when tired.”

The founder of Clearwater-based Siracusa Staffing & Leasing, he retired from day-to-day duties two years ago to focus on acting. After landing roles in about a dozen local short films, he decided to make “The Uncivil War - America Divided.”

Prolific actor Daniel Roebuck of “The Fugitive” and “The Munsters” fame and Musetta Vander of “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” were cast in featured roles.

But Siracusa didn’t listen when experienced crew members told him that certain scenes needed more shooting days because of stunts. If they couldn’t hire seasoned stuntmen, time was needed to properly train the actors.

“One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t listen and didn’t hire Kevin for longer,” Siracusa said. “There was a scene where I was supposed to be dragged out of the car in the middle of a riot. The window gets broken. It was a really central part of the movie.”

But it was too dangerous to do without the right people and Rego was booked for another job.

“It was the right thing to do to cut it,” Siracusa said.

The stunt academy currently has 10 regular students who Rego said can work on a set within a few months.

“It’s amazing to see how much they are improving,” Siracusa said. “But they train consistently. They’re going to be able to help out a lot of movies.”

If you go

“The Uncivil War - America Divided” can be seen at 7 p.m. on May 28 at the AMC Sundial 12 in St. Petersburg.

K75 Stunt Academy offers classes from 6-9 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 614 Pinellas St. in Clearwater. Visit k75stuntacademy.com for more information.