- I don't know what I could do, as in professionally,
if I wasn't doing this job.
When I found out that people got paid to fight and flip,
it was sort of the first time in my life I'd been like,
I know what I want to do.
- The first time I got to go through glass,
it felt so wrong and so right at the same time.
- It's about telling a story.
It's not just about showing off what's cool.
- I know a lot of people say to me, you know,
but don't you want to be an actor?
And I'm like, oh, no, I don't want to be an actor.
We get to do all of the fun stuff.
- The thing that I really dug about Renae
is she's such a perfectionist.
She pushes herself really really really hard.
- So, this morning, we're here at Tempest Freerunning Gym
in Hawthorne, California.
I have a job coming up
and there's possibly going to be some freerunning stuff,
so I've been working Sydney Olson,
competitive freerunner and stuntwoman.
- That's it, yes.
- That was a lot higher than I thought it was going to be.
- That was a really nice wall flip, though.
- I really try to think of my performance and my skill
as a business,
and it takes a lot before you get to the spot
where you're on set doing your work.
It's kind of like in sports.
you don't show up on game day
and expect to be great at something.
So, I really try to take advantage
of the time before a project
'cause that's your time to maintain the skills that you have
and also improve on stuff.
This is pre-season.
- Yes!
- My favorite kinds of jobs are the ones with lots of prep
where you're really creating the action
and creating movement for the character,
you're working really hands on with the actors,
the fight team,
and the coordinator all to create, together, this piece.
(groaning) (intense music)
- The biggest misconception, I think,
is that these characters we see on screen are all the actor.
People are shocked when they say, oh,
was Ant-Man and the Wasp
the most physically demanding movie you've ever done
and I say, no, not at all
because they carried most of the load,
and it's hard for them to really really
wrap their head around the fact
that one character can be such an enormous collaboration
with such incredibly specialized and talented people
contributing to my performance
and to the realization of the character.
- For me, I really have been wanting to be a part of
the movement and the fighting for Scarlet Witch.
I know Evangeline feels the same with her character.
- It was great to have Lizzy come to the training
because then we put it like a sort of a book together
- [Elizabeth] Yeah, of language.
- Of all the language as well as moves that were great
that we could just throw in anywhere
if it was changed on the fly.
- We've had to do that a lot
where I would just show up and you'd be like,
I just choreographed this, this is what we're doing.
I'm like, okay. (laughing)
- I was growing up with watching movies
like Sigourney Weaver Aliens
and then Linda Hamilton in Terminator, Terminator 2.
Those were the characters that I looked up to.
So, I always knew I wanted to do something physical,
I just didn't know what it was
until I got into theater first,
and then I realized there was a transition
into film and stunts in particular,
and then I went how do I get there?
What is the path for that?
(rock music)
It's a lot of training in all kinds of things
to be a stunt performer.
You have your standard falls, you have your wrecks,
and you also have your fight training that you have to do.
You also have wire work training.
There are so many avenues.
- My older sister's a stuntwoman,
so I've known about the industry and the job for a while,
well before I was into it.
- Yes, that is our real last name.
We were born with it (laughs)
I actually approached her at one point
and I said you'd be very good at this
and you'd do really well
because there's a lot of taller actresses
that don't have doubles that can do what you can do.
Do you want to do this?
And she was like, no, you're crazy.
- I was kind of like, oh, I don't know.
It might be your thing, I don't know.
- I don't want to do that crazy stuff.
I don't want to fall down all day long.
- When I was done competing in gymnastics in college,
there was a TV show that had just gotten picked up.
I think it ended up being called Make It Or Break It.
It was a gymnastics TV show.
- When that show first came around,
I think I did the pilot
and I ended up doubling the main girl
who was taller than me,
but it just worked out that I was doubling her.
- And I was like, oh,
maybe I'll go be an extra on that show for the summer.
So, I called my sister and she was like, well,
why don't I see if I can get you an audition?
- So, I showed her tape to the producers and whatever
and they decided to bring her in to do a promo for the show.
And so, she flew to LA and did this promo
and they loved her so much that they asked her
to come and be that double for the main girl.
So, it's kind of like I got to pass the torch.
- And it didn't take very long before I was like,
this is what I need to be doing.
We just worked on Captain Marvel together this last summer.
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
I doubled Julianne Moore and she doubled Jennifer Lawrence.
So, it was actually kind of sad in the end
she shot me in the heart with an arrow.
- Sometimes we have to separate ourselves
because we'll just giggle and laugh and be obnoxious
and we're like, we're going to get in trouble.
- Rule number one, never take your eye off your oppo....
(groaning)
- Oh my god!
- I first met Heidi about 10 years ago.
We were shooting Iron Man 2
and I had a very short period of time to train in
being as I'd never stepped foot in a gym
and I had no experience at all
with any sort of martial arts or anything like that,
and Heidi was by beacon of hope
because she lit the way and she was incredible.
Heidi is so creative in her movement
and all the movements really tell a story.
- These days,
it's more about being able to embody a character,
phsyicalize a character.
There's more creativity to the process
rather than just being able to do a back flip
or fall over or be hit by a car.
- Everything, when you have a conversation with anyone,
they're like, oh, well,
we're trying to tell this part of the story
and this is a lover's fight and this is love and loss
and this is where we're going to have reversal.
And I'm just thinking, well,
shouldn't you just be making everyone look cool?
But they're actually caring about telling the story
as best as they can through fighting.
- Especially on a show like Buffy
where so much of the fight sequence
was manifestation of emotion.
And so, you need stunt performers that are performers.
So, for me, I always credit the character of Buffy
not just to me, but to both of these two
because that character was a culmination of all three of us.
- The thing that's come to me
actually through my relationship with Quentin is
performance is heightened in a stunt performer
if willing to act also.
(groaning) (crashing)
On Kill Bill, there's a sequence
where the bride runs up a banister, up a stairwell.
We had done it a couple of times and Quentin came over to me
and effectively asked me what my motivation was,
and I sort of laughed thinking he was joking
because it was sort of a running joke for me
with a bunch of the sort of athlete jock stunt people
that I was around that was sort of what's your motivation?
To get paid.
You know, that was sort of the joke that was running of it,
but Quentin was sort of asking me what my motivation was
as the bride and talked me through what's happened to her
and why does she need to get to those stairs
and why does she need to get to the person
at the top of the stairs,
and it was a real revelation for me
that was me being part of that character
meant that I needed to find the driving force for it
rather than just executing it physically correctly.
And it shifted to the way
that I perform as a stunt performer and it's also, I mean,
I wouldn't have acted in anything if it wasn't for him.
- Ultimately, if we were any part of shaping the path
for other female shows, for women who could be strong,
who could be sensitive,
who could make mistakes and who could still kick some bleep,
then I think we're just honored
to have been a part of that progression,
and I'm glad that we're still part of that discussion.
- So, today we're going to work on
the Iris verus the mechanic's wife fight.
Let's just have the stunt performers show Candice once
before she starts getting plugged into it.
- I was actually a professional athlete my whole life.
I was an international gymnast
on the Great Britain gymnastics team growing up,
I was a professional boxer,
and I also completed in muy thai and Brazilian jiu jitsu.
And so, I kind of fell into stunts through my fight career.
My ring announcer was actually a stuntman
and he introduced me to the world and the community,
and it was really nice to find a career and an industry
that allowed me to use all of the skillset and the talents
that I had acquired my whole life.
(groaning)
- Nice job, guys.
- One of the things that impresses me the most
in watching her work is just her level of skill
and how she takes every single moment and action
so seriously.
- I was performing a stunt
for a very popular television show
and I had to jump 14 feet in four inch heels
and land on my feet into a mat
that was floating on the ocean.
On my landing, I tore all three of my ligaments
and compressed my talus into my tibia
and my joint locked up.
The medical community told me I was never going to walk again
and that my career was over.
Because I was an athlete my whole life,
I put a lot of my self-worth and my self-value
on what I could accomplish with my physical body.
So, when my injury happened and my body got taken away,
I fell into depression, to be honest,
and I didn't know who I was anymore.
So, I really had to engage in the act of self-love
and I had to go into a lot of deep introspection
to just get to know me for who I really am
and not what my physical body can accomplish.
When I came back, people,
they were just very supportive with my injury,
and if I wasn't able to do something,
we would maybe try to change the action a little bit
or change the move so that I was able to perform it
and still make it look awesome.
So, it's been an interesting journey.
- Yes, I think things have changed a little bit
since years ago, and women are much stronger now,
and we can do anything.
We are having more women in the industry
that are stunt coordinating now.
- Monique Ganderton's coordinating,
Shauna Duggins is coordinating.
There has been female coordinators, but a minutia.
It does now feel like that's shifting.
- [Man] Ready and go, ready and go.
- For me, becoming the first
female assistant stunt coordinator in Australia
wasn't about proving something,
it was just a natural progression for me professionally.
And I know there's a little bit of pressure for me
to become the first female stunt coordinator in Australia,
but at the same time, I'm still performing,
I'm still doubling amazing lead Marvel characters,
and I don't want to step aside from that
in order to pursue this other avenue just to make it happen.
That being said, it needs to happen.
There has, to date, never been a female stunt coordinator
in the history of Australian filmmaking, and it will happen.
It's just a matter of time.
- Things are changing, for sure,
but it is definitely a little more male dominated on set.
- I feel like sometimes if women come into this industry
and they're not as confident or not as sure,
they might have to deal with a bit more challenges
because it kind of is a man's world in the film world.
- I have obviously been daily confronted
with why are you choosing to put her behind the wheel
rather than the 16 other men that we have on the set,
and fortunately,
I've worked with people and I've had bosses
that have been like, well,
she's the best person for the job
and she actually has more experience
than all of those guys combined.
So, why wouldn't I put her behind the wheel?
- It's a lot of bros, you know?
You have to be able to hang with the guys kind of thing.
Sometimes I just want to be around women (laughs).
I'll go somewhere and there's women there
and I'm like, oh, thank god.
- This is my favorite part of the process.
All three of us are so different and yet,
we are three parts of the same whole.
And the fact that we have each other on set
because we are always surrounded by dudes,
and I say dudes because (laughing)
because that's what it feels like a lot of the time.
It's just so nice to have camaraderie
and it's nice to have this collaboration
and it's nice to meet and get to know capable, intelligent,
powerful women who are excelling in their field
and just killing it at life.
(upbeat music)