Philippe Petit
Philippe Petit
Philippe Petitis a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on the morning of August 7, 1974. For his unauthorized feat1,350 feetabove the ground, he rigged a 450-poundcable and used a custom-made 26-footlong, 55-poundbalancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. The following week, he celebrated his 25th birthday. All charges were dismissed in exchange for him doing a...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPerformance Artist
Date of Birth13 August 1949
CityNemours, France
CountryFrance
I have been performing in the street for more than 50 years: magic for basically 60 years, and the high wire 45 years. The beauty of it is that it's never the same. It's never easy. And yet, part of my art is to make it look easy.
I didn't go to school much. I was thrown out of different schools, and my university is the street.
I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.
Certainly, in the story of my life, the walk between the Twin Towers was one of the grandest, one of the most memorable, but not solely the grandest and the most memorable.
I have a fear of water, believe it or not. To put a wire 12 feet over a swimming pool frightens me. I don't like water.
I have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself.
I hate all electronic things that are supposed to help the human being. You don't smell, you don't hear, you don't touch anymore.
I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights, and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds, but it is also what I love; it is my domain, so when you love something, you don't have fear.
I love or hate things straight away. I like to go directly to action to see the result. I think I must be difficult, but at the same time, it's not for me to say.
If I had been born in the circus, my parents would have pushed me on that little high wire at four years old. That's when the body is most limber to learn those acrobatics.
I am a thief of knowledge, and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me.
I am not up there by chance. I am there by choice. And I know the wire. And I know my limits. And I am a madman of details.
I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie.