FULLERTON, CA—Having grown up seeing few characters he could relate to on the big screen, local man Jake Champney, who once jumped a motorcycle onto a hijacked bullet train, told reporters Tuesday that he never thought he’d see the day when Hollywood would tell stories like his. “After all these years, it’s really validating to finally see movies where a guy launches his Kawasaki Ninja H2R off a bridge, lands it cleanly atop a train speeding toward Tokyo at 200 mph, and then disconnects the passenger cars right before the engine explodes,” said Champney, 35, adding that he was grateful his children will be able to grow up watching films in which a person leaps from a train at the last possible second to escape the ball of flame erupting behind him. “Representation is so important. When I was a kid, it felt as if no one cared about the experiences of the guy who was clinging to the landing skids of an airborne helicopter or inching his way along the bottom of a moving semi truck and up toward the cab. Thankfully we’ve made a lot of progress since then.” Champney went on to say that he wouldn’t get complacent, noting that bullied teenagers mentored by martial-arts masters living in their apartment complex only got to see themselves in a handful of movies before Hollywood turned its back on them completely.

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