Stuntwomen
Page 23
Lynn Salvatori and Nancy Thurston expected to be called for stunts involving falls, but Bonnie Happy didn’t normally do falls. She was faced with a choice: “not do the fall and have Chris Howell, the coordinator, tell the story behind my back the rest of my life, or suck it up and do it.” A stately five-foot-nine blonde, Bonnie sought the advice of her brother, Clifford. He told her, “If you’re really scared you shouldn’t do the stunt. It should just get your attention.” Bonnie’s fall in The Fisher King (1991) got her attention.18 “I was to sit on a barstool next to Robin Williams, not all bad,” Bonnie said. “A guy shoots up the place, blows the back of my head off, and I fall off the barstool.” Then the complications started. “The director was a Monty Python type of director,” she said. “He wanted me to fall backwards from a distance so he could slow the shot to make it look like slow motion onscreen. That meant I had to fall about twenty feet. I told Chris I don’t do high falls. ‘Sorry, babe, you’ve already got the job,’” he told her. So off they went to Chris’s barn. Bonnie climbed into the scoop on the front of his tractor, and Chris hoisted her higher and higher toward the top of the barn. “In an hour he had me going backwards off the roof,” she said. On the day of the stunt, they stuck a blood pack under her wig that was rigged to pop open when she fell off the barstool, spraying blood everywhere. “Now I love falls,” Bonnie said happily, “but I’m not a high-fall girl like Nancy Thurston or Leigh Hennessy. I’d never go as high as they do.”
Nancy Thurston does a handstand on the perch leading to a sixty-foot fall with American acrobats Karen and Danny Castle at the Chico County Fair. (Courtesy of Danny Castle)
“Nancy is the most supportive stuntwoman I know,” Leigh Hennessy said. “Must be something about high-fallers. We’re confident of who we are.” Leigh’s website shows her at age one, balancing on one leg while standing on her father’s hand. She was an athlete throughout her academic career. Her father taught physical education at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and “he pioneered and coached the sport of trampoline.” Leigh competed in events and achieved international status as a trampoline champion. Stunts were never part of her plan, but after working for Louisiana congressman James A. Hayes in Washington, D.C., Leigh realized she needed a more physically active life. She resigned her Capitol Hill job in 1991, bought a used car, and drove to Los Angeles. “The first three years were hell, but I got my SAG card quickly. I was in a gym, some guys saw me doing flips on a trampoline, [and] my name went into a pile for a Ralph Lauren ad.”19
On one of her first stunt jobs, Leigh learned what a good coordinator can achieve. While doubling Téa Leoni in Bad Boys (1995), Leigh was supposed to jump out of a moving car and hit the pavement wearing a miniskirt and a midriff. “Dar Robinson’s son, Troy, taped pieces of neoprene, the spongy stuff wetsuits are made of, to my hipbones and tailbone. That was it.” Then the stunt changed, and the jump was replaced by a little movie trickery. “A cameraman lay on the ground to shoot the scene: a stunt driver in the car takes off, I run very fast, dive over the cameraman and his gear to land lengthwise in the center of the frame so they can see my entire body. I didn’t have to jump out of the car because as the car sped past the cameraman, the stunt driver opened the door as I dived over the cameraman. It looked like I jumped from the car. It was a creative and clever decision. Kenny Bates designed the gag, and it worked.”20 Diving out of a moving car can be dangerous, but this stunt faked the jump and delivered the same effect.
Leigh Hennessy flying high. (Courtesy of William Bradford)
After that, Leigh’s stunt work picked up. “I’m never called to ‘fall this way and hit the ground.’ I get these calls: ‘Will you jump off the Sixth Street Bridge?’” Or how about playing a mother forced to leap with her daughter from a four-story building? With a heavy dummy strapped to her back, Leigh was supposed to break through a candy glass window, take a step, and jump. “A lot of preparation went into that stunt,” she said. “Safety meetings are often held even for little gags, but when it’s a big gag everyone on the crew is in the meeting to hear what’s been set up.” That fall had its quirks. When Leigh was inside the room, she couldn’t see the airbag below. “Once I crashed through the glass, I had to step on a precise spot on the ledge. I couldn’t step over it or I’d miss the bag below. I could only see the airbag when I leaned over one second before the jump. That’s a leap of faith. All one take. Before the stunt, I leaned against the glass, stood on tippy-toes to see the bag and tell the crew to move it right or left until they got it right. I have to trust my experience, judge the distance, judge the bag, take three steps back, then go for the fall. It’s all about me trusting me.”21
In 1999, on the energetic remake of Charlie’s Angels (2000), Nancy Thurston, Leigh Hennessy, and Lisa Hoyle doubled the three stars.22 They were on the roof of a ten-story building, preparing to do a ninety-five-foot fall. “I looked down at the bag nine or ten stories below,” Leigh remembered, “and I was muttering to myself, ‘Never take a job like this again.’” She had never done a fall that high; at the time, her biggest fall had been a seventy-five-foot training jump. Nancy and Lisa had jumped sixty-five feet, and Lisa had trained for falls up to ninety feet. “The jump was shot in a unique way because at that height no airbag is big enough to accommodate three or even two people,” Leigh said. “We each jumped individually, one right after the other, so that when it was edited together the sunlight wouldn’t change.” The backdrop of their jump was supposed to be an explosion; therefore, in editing, the footage of their separate jumps would make it seem like the explosion had blown them into the air.
Each of the women determined where she wanted the bag, and the riggers on the ground blocked off its placement for each jump. After one woman jumped, the crew quickly moved the bag to the next place and refilled it with air. “It was a forward fall, a fireman’s jump,” Nancy said. “You jump, kick out, and then drop. You’re not poised in the air, it’s like you have no choice except to jump. I wasn’t scared, but I did have butterflies. I call them respectful butterflies.” Just standing on the roof looking down was riveting. Because the women had to be off-camera, they couldn’t watch each other jump. “As you’re waiting, anticipation drives through you,” Leigh said. “In those eternal minutes before it’s your turn, you learn about your own character.” Lisa was up first. They heard, “Rolling, action!” and then heard her fall into the bag. Nancy was next. “I’m ready, I’m looking down, I hear ‘Rolling camera, 1, 2—Hold the roll!’” She was one second from pitching herself into the air. “There was some technical problem,” she said calmly. “I backed up. After a while it was fixed, and I was back at the edge of the roof.” She heard, “Rolling camera! Action!” and Nancy hit the bag. “My turn,” Leigh said. “My heart was about to beat out of my chest, but as soon as I heard the director, ‘One, two, three, action!’ anxiety flowed out of my body. I was confident, and I jumped. I remember rolling out of the bag and wanting to climb up there and do it again right away.”
Behind every stunt is a unique story—the performers’ different techniques, their emotions before and after the stunt, the kind of characters they’re doubling. In this case, after all the preparation, this spectacular stunt ended up on the cutting-room floor. That was very disappointing, but Nancy, Lisa, and Leigh had performed perfectly. They had taken the risk, executed the vital act that, Leigh wrote, “builds my character, my confidence and makes me stronger.”23
14
Stunt Fights
In a fight today it’s a fine line between aggression and femininity.
—Shauna Duggins
The movie remake of Charlie’s Angels launched that saga into the twenty-first century.1 Stuntwomen had been struggling for decades to secure their place in the action, and they were still far from equal in number and position. But more than ever before, new and seasoned stuntwomen were crashing cars, jumping off buildings, and taking part in slam-bang, kick-ass fights.
“Women’s roles aren’t
sidekicks or wives or girlfriends or damsels in distress—we’re action heroes,” declared stuntwoman Shauna Duggins. She began working in 1998 and was too young to have seen Charlie’s Angels on television, but she knew that “all the women who’d worked so hard in the last twenty years—they made it possible for us to work today.” They had certainly made a difference. Sometime during the 1990s, being a feminist had became old hat, but young women like Shauna had grown up in that world. “My mom said, ‘You want to be a nurse? Be a doctor! If a guy can do it, so can a girl,’” Shauna recalled. “There were no limits, go after what you want. That’s how I grew up.” Raised in the Imperial Valley east of San Diego, Shauna was a gymnast and a high-diver. For fun, she, her brother, and her dad had jumped off thirty- or forty-foot cliffs into the water. “My mom was a pilot for recreation,” Shauna said. “We’d land somewhere, the ground crew asked my dad if we needed fuel, and he’d say, ‘I don’t know, ask the pilot.’ It’s hard to believe that in the 1990s people were shocked a woman was flying the plane!”
On the new Charlie’s Angels movie, Shauna worked with Donna Evans, who was known for her skill as well as her generosity. “She was an amazing mentor for me,” Shauna said, “so professional, so talented—and she’s married with two kids. How does she do all that?” Compared with the many martial arts clashes in Charlie’s Angels, Shauna and Donna’s “gnarly, messy” fight on a stone staircase is short and vivid. Shauna doubled Kelly Lynch (playing the evil Vivian), and Donna doubled the star, Cameron Diaz. Shauna’s long-sleeved black leather suit was made of rubber “as thin as a balloon,” she said. “They had to put baby powder all over it and me, then roll the suit on me.” Wardrobe told her she couldn’t wear any pads because they would show. “I was so green, I just nodded.” Donna’s low-cut, sleeveless outfit wasn’t much better. “Behind the double doors at the top of the stairs, we stepped on apple boxes to give us some lift as we came out,” Donna said. “After that, Vic Armstrong, the coordinator, said we could come down the steps however we wanted to do it.” Donna proposed that instead of tumbling down the stone stairs separately, like “sausage rolls,” they stay together all the way to the bottom, one person rolling over the other—a much tougher stunt. “Some girls get afraid; they want to do it the easy way. Shauna was up for it,” Donna said. “I couldn’t grab her because her suit encased her like an inner tube, but she could hang on to my lapels.” In the scene, they come flying through the doors, airborne, and hit the steps as intertwined bodies, head to head, legs flying, clutching each other in a cruel, tumbling roll to the ground. “Then,” Donna said, “it’s over! But Shauna wouldn’t get up. I thought she was hurt.” Everyone shouted, “Get the medic!” Shauna, however, didn’t need the medic. “I need wardrobe!” she yelled. She’d snagged her pants on the stairs. “The back of the suit had popped and my bare butt was completely exposed. I knew I’d never hear the end of it—they had it on playback. And for years I’d go on shows and the coordinator, Vic Armstrong, would say, ‘You haven’t popped any pants, have you?’”2
Shauna Duggins. (Courtesy of Shauna Duggins)
Since the 1950s, stuntman Loren Janes has punched his way through scores of fights. “What makes one fight better than another is the way it fits the characters,” he said. “Are they furious or just mad, are they insane, are they protecting someone? Sometimes a fight goes on and on, other times it’s over in three punches. The greatest stunt in the world is worthless if it doesn’t fit the story.”3 For years, jealousy seemed to be the only motive writers could cook up for a fight between women. In Destry Rides Again (1939) Una Merkel’s jealous rage started the unprecedented barroom fight with Marlene Dietrich. In Gone with the West (1968), nearly thirty years later, not much had changed as Polly Burson and Julie Johnson brawled over a man. Today, when two women duke it out, their characters’ motivations vary greatly, and the popularity of martial arts has changed their fighting style. Action heroines may be altruistic champions, merciless villains, or betrayed victims bent on revenge. “Male coordinators used to stage fights for women that imitated the way guys fought,” said stunt coordinator Mary Albee, “but girls didn’t grow up learning how to fight, they don’t square off and start punching. Their fights have a whole different flavor.” Today, women are much more likely to be expert fighters of the take-no-prisoners school.
A stunt fight in the science fiction movie Total Recall (1990), starring Sharon Stone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, brought these changing images into focus. Stone’s character, Lori, kicks Schwarzenegger’s character, Hauser, in the groin and snaps, “That’s for making me come to Mars.” Then she delivers the punch line along with a punch: “You know how much I hate this fucking planet!” Donna Evans, who doubled Stone, explained, “In features, they often shoot things over and over. Arnold is one of the most professional actors I’ve worked with. I must have kicked this poor guy in the balls fifty times.” At least his wardrobe allowed him to wear lots of protective pads. Donna continued, “In another shot he’s lying on the floor, I’m wearing spike heels, and I’m supposed to stomp on his privates again as I walk out. After that, I listed ‘ball-kicking specialist’ on my résumé. All thanks to Arnold.”4
Donna Evans, doubling Sharon Stone, battles it out with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall (1990). (Courtesy of Donna Evans)
“In this new century, it’s fun to see real women’s fights,” Mary Albee said. “They are heroes holding their own, the guy is not coming to their rescue or even to their defense. We can save ourselves. Ain’t that grand?” It is. But in fact, this trend is a revival from two earlier periods in film history: one from the days of the silent movie serials, when fearless heroines like Helen Holmes saved themselves week after week, and the other from 1970s TV shows and blaxploitation films, which had Jadie David (doubling Pam Grier in Foxy Brown) ramming a taxiing airplane into a drug shack to knock off the bad guys. “In fights today it’s a fine line between aggression and femininity,” said Shauna Duggins. “You’re not a big, burly woman; you’re the feminine hero, and you want her to read as powerful. I love the choreography for a one-on-five fight. I’m kicking their butts, I’m running in high heels, and they’re all on the floor. That’s empowering.”
“Fights make you feel good,” stuntwoman Ming Qiu said, “they make you feel special.” Ming, a great wushu (Chinese martial arts) stylist, has been competing since age eight in Nanjing, China, and in 1998 she was awarded the title Black Belt Female Competitor of the Year.5 Ming’s fighting style is a mix of martial arts and dance. She is from a family of dancers, gymnasts, and acrobats, and her mother was a national gymnastics champion. “She is my idol,” Ming said. “She’s tough, and she was tough on me. Even when I took first place, she said I could do ‘better than that.’ I didn’t have a lot of confidence when I moved here. My first friend in the stunt business was Chad Stahelski, Keanu Reeves’s stunt double. I trained with him. He gave me courage. He said, ‘You’re better than a lot of guys.’” While doubling actress Nia Peoples on Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2000), Ming flew to Los Angeles to audition for Charlie’s Angels and meet the film’s three stars, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz. “Lucy saw me and said, ‘Yes, you are my double.’” Japanese martial artist Michiko Nishiwaki also doubled Lucy Liu.6 “I respect her very much,” Ming said. “Michiko was an actress and is a very skilled fight choreographer.” She changed the stereotype of the docile Japanese woman, and she created a bodybuilding boom in Japan when she became the first women’s bodybuilding and power-lifting champion.
Ming Qiu leaps up as the train explodes in Ecks vs. Sever (2002). (Courtesy of Ming Qiu)
Movie fights display all kinds of martial arts, but Ming advises stunt people to start with wushu “because it involves jumps and kicks and the low stances. You learn many styles, hard and soft, different kinds of weapons, and then it’s easy to learn other martial arts.”7 Ming’s entire career had been martial arts fighting—until Charlie’s Angels. “My first scene was in an explosion and
I had no clue how to land. I’m pretty much a ground person. Learning new things on the set is the scary part of the work—and the most exciting. Without the help of Donna Evans I don’t think I could have done it. I had to do wirework and high falls. I had to hang outside a helicopter.” That memorable aerial sequence won a Taurus World Stunt Award.8
“When I tell stuntwomen to get through that wall,” Danny Aiello III said firmly, “they will get through the wall, and they do it in gowns or bathing suits—no protection. In my experience, they’re tougher than the men.” Like his famous actor-father (Do the Right Thing [1989]), Danny had appeared in front of the camera, but he focused on stunts and became a respected stunt coordinator and second-unit director in New York City.9 “Being a stuntman lets you be a child forever,” he said happily. “You get to do things they arrested you for when you were young, and now those same cops are holding back traffic so you can do your stunt!” During filming of the sci-fi thriller The Invasion (2007), Danny spotted martial artist Li Jing in the hotel lobby, arms crossed, looking really mad.10 He asked her what was wrong. “She said, ‘Four men asked me what I was doing here, I told them I was in a movie, and one said, “A porno movie?” I was so mad. I was going to beat them up.’ I said, ‘Li Jing, could you beat up all four guys?’ She said, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ To me, that sums up everything,” Aiello said. “Being a stuntwoman is probably like being a [female] cop years ago when there were so few women, trying to be as tough as the guys, trying to be accepted. It’s the same in stunts. These attractive girls, decked out in gowns, looking great, and a minute later they run in front of a car and go into the windshield! It’s fascinating to see the dynamic things stuntwomen do compared to what the world thinks they can do. It’s better now, but it’s still hard for them to be accepted.”