03 SLIP & FALL BY
PAUL IN E R O GER S
PHO T O BY
J EFF W ED D EL L
Melissa Stubbs knew she wanted to be a stuntwoman by the age of eight – she fell in love with the action when her father took her to a live stunt show in Vancouver. At 17, she began showing up wherever there was a TV show or film being shot. It paid off: in 1987 she did her first stunt job doubling Kelly Hu in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Over the years she’s doubled A-list actresses from Ashley Judd and Angelina Jolie to Sharon Stone, Claire Danes, Cate Blanchett and more. A winner of a SAG award for best stunt ensemble (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), she’s been nominated three times for the Taurus World Stunt Awards and won once, in the category of Best Stunt for a Woman. In 2008 she was invited into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the only woman in her field. She’s also a member of one of the most powerful stunt associations – Stunts Unlimited. At the moment, she’s coordinating Altered Carbon. Her next project will take her to Prague, Rome, Croatia, and Turkey, where she will choreograph and design the action for the Ashley Judd pilot, Missing. What was it like being a woman in the stunt field when you started? Challenging. You are not respected and only thought of as a stunt double. There were no female stunt coordinators and certainly no second unit directors who were women. The men controlled the stunt world – 100 percent. I was only a guest and had to earn their respect and my spot on the team. Men actually doubled women. So that drove me to be better and never have to have a guy be my stunt double. I threw myself in 150 percent and learned every aspect of stunts. What’s it like today? It’s different. Women are more accepted. But some days I feel more like a therapist. Particularly as a woman I am questioned or looked at sideways and challenged several times a day if this is the best way to do or approach or shoot something. You must have the experience and confidence in yourself to stand up and say, “Yes, this is how we are going to do this particular scene or shot.” I don’t make decisions based on ego. I use my gut instincts, and that is something you just inherently have. It comes in handy when you are dealing with 500 men and 300 horses on the battlefield. Fights, explosions, and, oh yeah, none of the extras speak English – or understand direction, much less delivered from a woman. That was just a little bit of The Last Samurai. What’s a day like for a stunt coordinator on a movie set? The circus meets the military. You have to be fast, efficient and amazing, all while creating a scene or shot that no one has ever seen before. And shit happens – cars crash, horses fall, things blow up. There is a great amount of planning and preparation. Months sometimes. You have to iron-out every detail and create a stunt or action that is repeatable and safe, so everyone goes home to their families. I won’t ask anyone to do a stunt that I have not done myself. I always have five different ways to go to the same place. I am a filmmaker, athlete, editor, director, fight choreographer and expert on exciting and dynamic action. What makes a good stunt? Not too long ago I did an interview and they asked
me a similar question. My answer went something like this: Great action and big stunts don’t make a good film. A good story and characters you care about make a great film. The action should not upstage the script or its characters. It should be seamless and flow with the story. Every piece of action should have a purpose and help drive the story. Or be a vehicle for a character. Action for action’s sake often is covering up a hole in the story. At times simplicity is the path that should be taken – but only after all avenues have been explored. What’s the wildest stunt you’ve done? One that sticks out was doubling Margot Robbie on Suicide Squad. In the story, Harley Quinn is in love with The Joker. She is trying to get his attention. He is a typical boy, ignoring her. She was supposed to crash or lay her motorcycle down and get him to stop his Lamborghini. I said there is nothing graceful or sexy about laying a bike down. What if she lays the bike down right in front of the car? This forces him to stop hard, almost hitting her. As soon as the bike is skidding on its side, I get on top of it and surf the bike until it runs out of momentum and she steps off gracefully. We had a guy rehearse it a couple of times. One out of 10 tries he was able to do it. But when I showed up at night, I had to do the stunt. Now, I’m three inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter. It was minus-five degrees on the waterfront. I could not feel my fingers or hands. No helmet and short-sleeve silk blouse and jeans. I had to keep pace with the camera car, so I could not go too fast, or too slow. I did 13 takes, we finally got it, and the damn stunt never made it into the movie! Tell us a fun stunt story. Cats and Dogs for Warner Bros. The producer called asking about a car jump with a refurbished 1968 Challenger. I said it depended on how big a jump and how fast and steep. I had to look at it, suspecting that the suspension would blow apart on landing. It wasn’t about one car doing a jump down the streets of San Francisco. It was eight blocks on a very busy city street. We had 50 location PA’s, 12 police, and 12 stunt drivers in cross-traffic, with near-misses, all while keeping the public a safe distance away should the Challenger crash. Six cameras and operators. A giant Technocrane. We locked up the street. I have a radio turned up loud inside the car with the driver, in case we need to call out and abort. The first AD calls roll. I say action. The car takes off and heads for the ramp, picking up speed. I hear a staticky faint transmission over the radio but don’t know if it is the cut or if a person ran out into the street. I call cut but the driver is too committed. Two of our cameras don’t roll and have issues. The car launches through the air perfectly. He lands. Bam. Suspension blows and parts fly. The driver lands. We don’t get the shot. The car is done. Two weeks later we all have to come back and shoot again. With the same old car rebuilt – to the tune of $400,000. And, you guessed it, that shot never made it into the film either.
THE IN TERVIEW I S S UE
111