I'm a stuntman who has worked on 'The Dark Knight' and 'Star Wars.' Here's what it's like working with A-list stars, and getting set on fire.

• Steen Young is a stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on many Hollywood movies.
• He has worked on movies like "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight," and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Steen Young about his experiences working as a stuntman in Hollywood. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm originally a bonny Scottish lad. I always wanted to be an actor, but they kept trying to make me into a mechanic at school. They wouldn't let me be an actor, so I went into doing martial arts. Then I got into acting, before auditioning for colleges in England.

And that was it. I was off.

I starred in a number of West End musicals over the years, and eventually used the money to pay for the training to get onto the stunt register and get a few more qualifications.

Like any business, you start from the bottom rung. No matter how experienced anyone is, you have to work your way up and get trusted by coordinators to be used by them. It takes years. You might be lucky enough to be a stunt double, but you still need that experience and training.

For example, many A-listers can be brilliant because they've done it before and have that experience. They know what they're doing. I've had a few that want to do everything and I've had to pull them back — which is a lot better than them not wanting to do anything.

Some of them don't want to do any stunt work, which is understandable. It's hard physically and mentally to be in character while doing stunts.

I played ping-pong with Batman — and Gary Oldman looked on in disbelief

Sometimes on set, you are just sitting around having a coffee, preparing for the next scene.

On "Batman Begins," I played ping-pong with Christian Bale's stunt double, who was wearing the Batsuit, while I was in a black ninja costume. We were at the bottom of a skyscraper and Gary Oldman was going up to do his scene. I looked over his shoulder, and Gary looked at Batman and then looked at me, and he was just in disbelief.

Christian Bale was incredible to work with too. He came down after hours of being in that costume and got photos with everyone.

"The Dark Knight" is probably one of the best films that I've ever done as a performer. It's all real. "We want to flip a truck. Can we flip a truck for real?" "Yeah!" They flipped the whole thing up on its nose. Then, let's have eight people being kicked out of a 200-foot-high skyscraper. It was just unbelievable.

I also doubled for the mob villain, Lau (Chin Han), so I was lucky enough to be in the scene where Batman goes to Hong Kong to kidnap him. He flies in, blows out the windows, grabs me, throws out a balloon that a plane catches, and snatches both of us up into the sky. We did it for real. So me and Batman got a 100-foot jerk out of the side of a skyscraper.

Doing stunts might seem fun, but it takes a lot of paperwork

What people don't realize is the amount of paperwork that goes into these stunts.

As a coordinator, I start a month before stunt performers. I'm on paperwork, phone calls, and organizing. I've got my iPad attached to me to do risk assessments for the next week. I've also got five businesses I run within the industry as well. Paperwork is nonstop.

The stunt guy turns up on the day and goes, "What am I doing?" Bang, does the job, goes home, and that's it.

But I'm practicing the day before as the coordinator. I'm running through it during the day with the performer. And then I'm doing stuff that night for the next day. It's your whole life.

When you're on set, sometimes celebrities will turn up

On "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," I was standing in a trench and the director was standing with me, holding a laser gun and blasting at TIE fighters and bad guys. Just brilliant.

Celebrities even turned up on that one just to get in the costumes and wear the helmets. You'd turn around like, "Oh, Beckham! How are you doing mate?" He's an absolutely gorgeous, lovely guy. He'd queue with everyone for coffee and just talk to everyone. I've worked with David Beckham a few times now — we were on Guy Ritchie's "King Arthur" together.

On "King Arthur," I think I got set on fire 15 times in one day. For one shot, I had to run 200 yards to the castle before dropping, where I'd be put out safely. But in one of the first takes, they yelled "Cut," and hundreds of extras just stopped while I was running and screaming for them to get out of the way. That's why training is important.

As well as performing, I now train other stunt performers to do the job well — and safely

There used to be a negative atmosphere about up-and-coming stunt workers from a couple of people in the industry. "Don't teach them too much or they'll take our jobs."

I said, "We need to train people." Let's teach them how to throw themselves down the stairs. Or how to hold a bow and arrow. Most coordinators don't have time or the money to train anyone on a production. They expect you to already be trained in it.

So with my company, Stunt Courses Ltd, we prepare and educate performers for a variety of skills, like wirework, combat, falls, and firearms.

We've got the only firearms course in the UK to teach performers to use full-blank, front-venting firearms with Home Office and police approval.

I've got serving military and police firearms instructors, as well as a fully qualified armorer, plus myself, and we teach it properly. It's important, but it's worth it.