Stunt doubles are not only vital in the entertainment industry, but they can also help you build your resume. Looking for double stunt roles in the film business may be an excellent approach to use your connections and online job boards to discover. What might find stunt doubles at movie theaters and amusement parks that offer performance-based jobs?
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They’d get a junk car, promising to dispose of it properly. He’d ask his brother to drive the car past him a few times until he was happy with the speed. Then his brother would hit him.
“You use common sense,” he said. “You figure out where the hard parts of the car are. You don’t want to get hit by the bumper or the front end of the car. You also don’t want to get hit by the windshield frame.”
But the windshield itself is actually quite soft, he said. If you can jump high enough, so that just as the car hits you, you land on the windshield and roll onto the hood, the forward momentum will spin you up.
“The only thing you have to worry about is landing,” he said. “And as long as you don’t land on your head, you’re typically fine.”
It’s safer to practice this with professional — or at least adult — supervision. But growing up in Germany and Suriname and enamored with westerns and action flicks, Sturz put on his elbow and knee pads and hoped for the best.
“If you want to break our industry down really, really simply into one sentence, we get paid to take a beating,” said Banzai Vitale, veteran stunt professional who runs Stunt Performers Academy in Los Angeles. “Our job is to hit the ground and take a beating, so the actor doesn’t have to. And that requires a level of physical training.”
There are stunts in almost every film, said Mallory Thompson, who worked on “Top Gun: Maverick,” the upcoming “Avatar” films, and doubled Zendaya for “K.C. Undercover.”
Some are flashier — people flying around on wires or getting set on fire. Some are quieter or more intimate; for example, a drowning or domestic violence scene. Some are funny — people often trip or fall off things in comedies.
The Times talked to Sturz (“Captain Marvel,” “Eternals”), Thompson, Vitale (“True Blood,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and fellow stunt professionals Alex Daniels (“Bosch,” “Veronica Mars”), Alfred Hsing (“The Watchers, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Katie Rowe (“Will & Grace,” “American Horror Story”) and Noah Garret (“Ms. Marvel,” “The Mandalorian”) for advice on how to get into the industry.
Live Action TrainingDo you have big Hollywood dreams? This article is part of a series on starting and building entertainment industry careers. Read on.
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Stunt performers need a strong athletic background. Think gymnastics, martial arts, diving or motocross — sports in which you develop body awareness, timing, coordination and discipline.
Daniels, veteran stunt coordinator and a board member of the Stuntmen’s Assn., was a cheerleader. Garret has done martial arts since he was 2. Hsing won the first American gold the 2009 World Wushu Championships. Vitale did martial arts and pole vaulting. Thompson was a pole vaulter and gymnast. Rowe started out as a swimmer, and she is often called upon for water stunts.
A person who pursues stunts has to have an adrenaline-seeking personality, but it’s not the wild ones who succeed, the experts said.
“People think that I’m a daredevil, and that’s not true,” Sturz said. “I’d bungee jump if you paid me, but I wouldn’t do it for fun.”
You also have to be able to think about a million things at one time, Thompson said. Sometimes that includes scanning the surroundings and putting pads on a table with sharp corners. Sometimes it’s having the dexterity to make small adjustments — for example, turning your head to hide your face — while maintaining the same energy for the camera. Other times, it means knowing your body well enough to understand how many safe takes you have in you.
You also have to be able to think about a million things at one time, Thompson said. Sometimes that includes scanning the surroundings and putting pads on a table with sharp corners. Sometimes it’s having the dexterity to make small adjustments — for example, turning your head to hide your face — while maintaining the same energy for the camera. Other times, it means knowing your body well enough to understand how many safe takes you have in you.
Garret, who doubled for four characters in “Cobra Kai,” had to perform a scene where Robby kicks Miguel over a rail. He hits another rail and then tumbles down some stairs. At first, they practiced with a decelerator, which is the cable controlled by technicians to take the speed off the impact, but the result looked unnatural. After assessing the risk, Garret opted to do it without the decelerator and just went for it. “Sometimes it’s when you do it multiple times that you get hurt,” he said. “Sometimes one-and-done is safer.”
Sturz said superstar stunt performers can be gregarious and fun to be around: “We have great stories to tell.” But they also tend to be very calm.
“When the film set becomes chaotic because they’re running out of daylight and they’re rushing, rushing, rushing and rushing, the good stunt performers slow way down,” he said.
Illustration of a location scout for a story about how to become a location scout. Part of a series of stories about How To Make It In Hollywood.
Get proficient at the basics. Many people come in with a specialty — and become known for a specialty. But professionals say it’s best to be well-rounded.
“Everybody’s kind of expected to be able to drive and do some basic fighting and pratfalls,” said Rowe. That includes getting punched and falling; rolling over a table; doing 20-foot falls; doing basic wire work; swimming; and scuba diving. It’s also important to know how to handle a car and drive a stick shift.
“It’s for safety, but it also increases your market value,” Sturz said. “If somebody brings you on a four-month run of a movie, they want to be able to plug you into different positions.”
All martial arts are worthwhile, but Thompson recommends taekwondo and judo because movie fighting is mostly about kicks, punches and throws. Kali is also helpful to learn weapons, she said.
It’s essential to master the training. It’s for your safety and that of the stunt team and other cast and crew members.
