Stuntwomen
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Debbie Evans was on that freeway set doing tour-de-force car and motorcycle work in traffic and doubling Carrie-Anne Moss (as Trinity), particularly in the fourteen-minute chase sequence.13 “Our directors, especially Andy Wachowski, were so excited about what we were doing,” Debbie said. “That meant the world to us because stunt people don’t get paid all that we should, considering the risks involved. The work was quite intense and it took weeks.” In one scene, with a passenger on the back, Debbie gunned her Ducati motorbike, going full out as she dodged cars and a semi that almost creamed her. “I like all the physical stuff,” Debbie said. “I’m a perfectionist. I was very hard on myself when I started out, but I find a lot of people who really excel are perfectionists, especially in the beginning. I constantly tried to learn new skills and analyze them. A lot of people on the set chat or read a book and they’re not tuned in to what’s going on. I want to know where’s my car, how we’re doing this as safely as possible, what’s going on in the scene and the story line behind it. Is the actress mad, sad, glad? I need to know how to play the role.” Even in a car, a stunt double is visible, and how she drives tells a story. “Is she drunk? How drunk? I have to know how much weaving to do. Is she a good driver or not? You can do all kinds of subtle things with your body,” Debbie explained, “because you’re performing as the character whether you’re doing a physical stunt or a vehicular stunt.”14
Debbie Evans won her third World Stunt Award, for best overall stunt by a stuntwoman, for The Matrix Reloaded (2003). (Courtesy of Debbie Evans)
Whether a gag involves a fall, a fight, or a car, it usually revolves around a character at a pivotal moment. When watching the action onscreen, it’s easy to forget that the true art of stunt doubling is giving a performance on two very different levels: physically doing the stunt and acting the part. Stunt players have done both simultaneously for more than a hundred years.15 Doubling hasn’t changed much, but moviemaking has changed radically in the last twenty years. A digital revolution is under way, and the consequences for stunt people seem to be both a gift and a curse. As Terry Clotiaux, the visual effects producer of The Matrix Reloaded, pointed out, “Chad Stahelski, an accomplished stuntman, doubled Keanu Reeves. He works regularly because Keanu is continually doing action films, so there’s likely to always be some stunt work. Everything else, or what movies may look like in fifty years, that’s a huge question mark in my mind.”
IV
The Digital Age
1995–2010
16
Computer-Generated
Imagery and the Future
of Stunt work
It’s a new world of visual effects and CGI. It’s the old world of stunt coordinators—not many dames.
—Anonymous stuntwoman
A veteran in the field of visual effects, Terry Clotiaux was part of the biggest change in the movies. Early on, he had worked with Douglas Trumbull, the visual effects pioneer of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Blade Runner (1982). “The process Doug was developing was seminal,” Terry saod. “He was and is always pushing the envelope.”1 In 1975, George Lucas founded Industrial Light and Magic to create special effects for Star Wars (1977). When the digital revolution hit in the mid-1990s, moviemaking entered a mysterious and disconcerting new realm. “Eighty thousand dollar optical printers became boat anchors,” Terry said. He had just been hired as the visual effects producer of Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996). “For me, it was right time, right place, but as I recall, nobody else wanted the job because Independence Day had already started, and it was in trouble.” Later, Terry worked on Godzilla (1998) with the same director. “It was the transition period in the industry between digital and physically filming models we’d created. There was not a lot of confidence about what we would be able to do digitally, so we were kind of hedging our bets. For instance, we shot a giant hydraulically controlled scale model of the Godzilla torso. I think it’s in the movie for three seconds.”
Terry explained the difference between special effects and visual effects: “When you blow up a car on a movie set, it’s called special effects,” he said. “When you blow up a miniature car on another stage, it’s called visual effects. The special effects department serves production while you’re filming the movie. Those scenes are generally captured by the production camera—first unit or second unit or sometimes by a special effects unit that’s picking up elements to be used later for visual effects. When a crew films a snowy Boston city street, special effects provides fake snow on the ground and the snowflakes falling from the sky. If you build a miniature of that same street to create the same effect, we’d shoot it as a miniature—that’s visual effects, and it’s a postproduction process.”
As visual effects became a larger part of filmmaking, special effects became a smaller part. This had an impact on stunt work because stunt coordinators have always worked closely with special effects departments. Terry said, “In the past, special effects would blow up a building in full scale, filmed by the second unit. We don’t even do that in miniature anymore, we create it fully in CG—computer graphics. The explosion would be CG, the debris would be CG. Everything is CG.” One result of all these technological innovations has been to enhance stunts. “Visual effects makes it possible for the stunt world to pull off much more complicated action,” Terry said, “because in postproduction we’re able to hide how a stunt’s done, such as paint out the wires and rigs that fly stunt performers around. That would have been very difficult if not impossible before.” He gave an example: “For the battle between the characters Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, the actors are able to do twists and turns, and then we paint out wires and even replace materials like cloth. In some cases, when a stunt is considered too dangerous for the actor and the stunt person, we create what we call digital stunt doubles—digital humans to do the gags. The stunt people are bypassed altogether. We can fly actors without wires by making them digital, but it depends on how close an actor is to the camera and if an actor’s face must be seen. As good as the digital work is, it’s still expensive to get it to look as good as the real deal. Today, most movies use a digital stunt double somewhere in it.”
Digital effects can also make stunt work safer. For instance, stunt people don’t have to do a full burn when visual effects can torch a character in postproduction. “With computer tools we can make scenes more realistic than we could before,” Terry explained. “We can animate the progressive destruction of a fire, we can show the face of an actor on fire—if you have the time and the money.” Stuntwoman Jeannie Epper’s son Richard did stunts on Bad Boys II (2003). She said, “They drove cars off a transport carrier, turned cars over, and exploded them in flames using CGI [computer-generated imagery] for safety because at times it can keep people alive. That’s genius. None of us really want to get killed. We’re not that dumb.”
At the same time, the use of digital effects decreases job opportunities for stunt performers, and women are often the first to feel the impact. “It may not exist as a career in the future,” said stunt coordinator Mary Albee. “In the past, a very tight group ran stunts. Now the film industry is international, more of it’s done by computer than by human beings, and for stunt people it’s more difficult to make a living.”
Motion capture is the process of using sensors attached to an actor’s body to record his or her movement, style, and even facial expressions. The data collected by the sensors are then used to create digital models that produce animated characters that require no human presence—computer-generated characters. Not even the environment is real: often the action is recorded in a studio against a green screen, and the backgrounds are inserted later. This is a direct threat to the unique, real-world nature of stunt work, and some stunt people won’t accept lower-paying motion-capture work. “Producers want you to do a commercial online for $100 a day, no residuals,” said stuntwoman Sophia Crawford, who learned her bold fighting style in Hong Kong. “I don’t recall what
I was paid for my first motion-capture job, but they put what you do into a database. You’re not performing falls or acrobatics for that one show; your work becomes part of many shows. They make millions. You earn nothing.”
A more subtle consequence of the digital revolution is its effect on a film’s credibility, which is often an essential component of its power. What if a CG heroine fights off five men with swords and leaps out a window? Is her life really at risk? “Audiences are savvy,” Sophia said. “They look forward to seeing real stunt people doing real stunts. They know computer-generated characters are not real, so there’s no risk in the fight or the fall. Without risk, where’s the thrill? It’s like animation; it takes away the excitement.” That thrill has been the engine of the movies since the nickelodeon days.
Sophia Crawford and Shauna Duggins worked on G.I. Joe (2009). It was “a fantastic experience,” Sophia said, “but a lot of action was CG—computer generated. We’d begin a stunt, the CG director would say, ‘Let’s do a lighting reference for CG characters who are going to fly around.’ There goes our stunt adjustment. We did lots of action in front of blue screens. The guilds have no jurisdiction over anything used online. Our residuals make a huge financial difference to us. If those disappear, a lot of careers will end.”
But there may be hope. “Most things in this great culture of ours are money driven,” observed Terry Clotiaux. “Therefore, if it’s cheaper and easier, why not put an actor or stunt person in there to do the action on camera? There will always be the need for stunts. The wirework has lasted this long because now we can see the actors doing it. The kung fu movies gave us a wire look that appealed to filmmakers and to audiences. On Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the people flying in the canyon are clearly on wires, but seeing that whole floaty thing as they flew about was a fantasy world and we were willing to suspend our disbelief. Wirework may stay in movies and stunts because it’s more economical, and in post we’re better at the cleanup, painting out the wires and rigs needed to do those stunts.”
Many stunt performers, especially women, feel like they’re being carried along by a surge of change that can’t be stopped. In recent years, Nancy Thurston has done fewer high falls. “For a forty-foot fall on Charmed, we did it hanging on a wire, fell in front of the green screen, they put the plate of the building behind it, [and] got rid of the wire. I’m happy to do wirework, but it’s a bummer to lose high falls, and we get a lower adjustment. That’s where technology is going, green screen, wirework, and CGI.” That’s true, but it’s hard to ignore the other side of the issue: “These effects have opened a new world. You can go wherever your imagination takes you,” reported stunt coordinator and second-unit director Danny Aiello III. “With CG we can do bigger stunts, it makes us rethink stunts we’ve done.” But he also believed that stunt people would always be needed.
“In some ways,” Terry Clotiaux added, “all phases of filmmaking have become more [of] a postproduction process. In visual effects, because we can manipulate images and create moments onscreen, directors will postpone their decisions as long as they can, embrace the extension of the process into postproduction. Moviemaking today is a director’s dream, because if he or she can imagine a scene and has the time and the money, we can do it. The only challenge to filmmakers’ imagination is not the technology but the kind of money they have. Benjamin Button [2008] is a perfect example. Years ago, our Holy Grail was to create a fully digital human actor that could withstand up-close scrutiny and give a performance. We have crossed the uncanny valley. That’s where we are today.” The digitally generated tiger in The Life of Pi (2012) is another example of how new visual effects technology can create scenes in which a real actor appears to be in genuine danger but is actually totally safe.
The fate and future of stunt work as we know it may depend on gags that can be done more cheaply by stunt players doubling actors or on the new generation of low-budget productions distributed online. Whatever new methods emerge, stunt coordinators will be a significant part of the process. The question is, will there be more female stunt coordinators in the twenty-first century? When the danger to stunt performers becomes more benignly digital, will that make stunt work less macho?
Today, when scripts call for stunts, women—not men in wigs—double the actresses.2 Without a doubt, times are better when a stuntwoman with years of experience can say, “Being a woman hasn’t affected my career at all.” Tall, sleek Shawnna Thibodeau has done falls, fights, and stunt driving from Law & Order in 1990 to The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. She enjoyed stunt-coordinating some music videos and a movie called The Clique (2008), but she’s ambivalent about doing more of it. “I don’t want to watch people playing basketball—I want to play! At the same time, I want to keep my options open. When they’re older, many men coordinate, but you don’t see any older women coordinating. Those women are experienced, they’re ready, and it hasn’t been easy for them.”
Not everyone wants to stunt-coordinate, and not everyone can handle it. The job was already complicated before digital effects came along. Coordinators are the link between stunt players and directors and producers; they are the link to special and visual effects. They need political and management skills as well as current technical knowledge. The few women who regularly stunt-coordinate in the United States began their careers in the 1990s. For Canadian Melissa Stubbs, Double Jeopardy (1999) was her first coordinating job in the States. “Second-unit director Glen Randall helped make that happen for me,” Melissa said. “As a Canadian, I had to apply for a work visa. You or the production company must prove to U.S. immigration that you are tops in your field. That is quite difficult, since there are many talented stunt performers and coordinators in the U.S. It certainly wasn’t easy for a female coordinator from Canada, and normally it’s almost impossible to be granted entry into the U.S.” After obtaining four visas over ten years, Melissa applied for citizenship.3
Melissa Stubbs, assistant stunt coordinator for The Last Samurai (2003). (Courtesy of Melissa Stubbs)
During that time, Melissa trained with Nick Powell (Gladiator, Braveheart), whom she called “the best fight choreographer in the world.” In 2002 Powell was preparing to work on The Last Samurai; he didn’t know who the stars were going to be, but he asked Melissa to be assistant stunt coordinator. “I had no idea the scale of that film once Tom Cruise signed on,” she said. “I began a nine-month journey with hundreds of Japanese men, fighting. Here I am, a stunt coordinator, this young blonde woman shouting at them, and in their minds, they’re real samurai. I had fifty men on charging horses and I’m yelling, ‘You’ve got to stay behind Tom Cruise! He wins the race!’ Or I had to say, ‘You can’t control your horse. Sorry, you’re not in the charge.’ It dishonored them, but they all were very respectful to me. Quite an adventure, that one.”
Melissa’s skills are widely acknowledged, but she, too, has faced an uphill battle to be hired. “I walk into an interview with two guys, I have a better plan, more experience, and as soon as we’re in the room, I can feel it. The producers and the director wonder, ‘How can she possibly know what she’s doing? Is she better than this six-one, forty-year-old guy that looks like a stunt coordinator?’ Basically, it’s playing a role. Guys with less experience get the job because it’s perceived [that] stunt coordinators are strong male figures.” You are what you are perceived to be.
While working on New York Minute (2004), Melissa hired thirteen stuntwomen, including Jennifer Lamb, Kym Washington, Angela Meryl, Shawnna Thibodeau, and Alison Reid from Canada.4 One car-chase sequence in the movie required thirty drivers. Director Dennie Gordon (30 Rock [2006–2013]) “was great at comedy and with actors,” Melissa said, “but not familiar with action, so I wrote the car chase.” When Warner Bros. and the production company, DiNovi Pictures, wanted a big-name second-unit director, Melissa recommended Conrad Palmisano, who had hired her for Carpool (1996).5 In the end, Palmisano was unavailable, but he returned the favor and suggested that Melissa direct th
e second unit. That was an important break. “We closed off Fifth Avenue in Manhattan,” she said. “I’d storyboarded all the beats, like the guy on the bike with one of the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate or Ashley, when the bicycle rides over the top of the cars. New York Minute was my big introduction to second-unit directing.” Conrad recalled, admiringly: “All those people in the car sequence, [and] Melissa’s out there [saying], ‘I want it to go farther. Can they go faster? Get it sideways?’ She’s fantastic. When she isn’t working, she’s training, taking editing or directing classes. She is a true stuntwoman. There were times that a stuntwoman had to hand the wig to a guy to roll a car over. Those days are long gone.”
Stunt coordinator on Terminator Genisys (2015), Melissa Stubbs plays the role of a soldier from the future. (Courtesy of Melissa Stubbs)
Other obstacles remain, but despite the odds, Shauna Duggins is a stunt coordinator and second-unit director.6 Doubling actress Jennifer Garner on Alias (2001–2006) boosted her career, and in 2005 Duggins began to stunt-coordinate the show. One stunt sequence in an episode titled “Reprisal” illustrates how much stunts were changing. The gag begins when Sydney (Jennifer Garner) stops her new Jaguar at a guard gate and a huge crane seizes the Jag, lifting it 200 feet into the air. “The crane is supposed to be magnetized,” Shauna said. “The bad guys want her to talk; if she doesn’t, they’ll drop the car.” Newcomer Stacey Carino, doubling actress Rachel Nichols, is in the trunk of the car. She knocks out the paneling and crawls into the backseat. Jennifer grabs her hand, reaches through the sunroof, and sticks a James Bond–type gadget to the magnet, which allows both women to lift safely out of the sunroof as the car falls away from them. “That’s the look they wanted,” Shauna said: “a brand new Jag falls 200 feet to the concrete, leaving the girls dangling from a cable.” As stunt coordinator, it was Shauna’s job to make that happen. “The challenge was . . . getting them safely through the sunroof. I wanted to cut off the roof of the car and have it drop as the girls grabbed the cable, but they wanted to shoot from above and needed to see them emerge from the sunroof. The sequence had to be done in sections.” Shauna knew that the best coordinators rely on teamwork and aren’t afraid to ask for ideas. “I talked to my riggers, I talked with stunt coordinators I respected, and we came up with the idea.” She explained, “For the shot of the girls hanging from the cable, we ratcheted them off the roof of the car and tipped the camera. It looked just like the car fell away from the actresses, who, for close-ups, were hanging about fifty feet on a stage in front of the green screen. After, in postproduction, they were hanging against a background of shipping cranes.” For other shots of the car dropping away, Shauna and Stacey were really hanging from the crane, 200 feet up, on a descender linked to a rig that controlled their movement up and down. The car was on a separate special effects rig. In 2006 Shauna became the first woman nominated for an Emmy as best stunt coordinator for this episode of Alias.7