Articles

You’ve heard that anecdote about Ginger Rogers, haven’t you? How she did everything Fred Astaire did, only she was dancing backwards in high heels? Stuntwomen today are expected to perform all the same stunts that men are asked to do. It’s just that they have to do them under...

Aditya Sarpotdar’s film about Reshma Pathan, the woman who performed Hema Malini’s stunts in Ramesh Sippy’s classic will be out on Zee5 on March 8, 2019. Pathan has also worked as a body double in the 1970s and ’80s, but like most stuntwoman in her profession, her contribution to the industry has remained behind the scenes.

When you’re drooling over Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) reserve some drool for Stacey Carino, who, as Fox’s stunt double, did a lot of the legwork. In her six-year career Stacey has worked on movies as varied as Bruce Almighty, The Jane Austen Book Club, and Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland.

For Hollywood stuntwoman Janene Carleton, a typical day at the office might involve jumping off a building, or from a moving vehicle, or perhaps both of these things at the same time, while her entire body is engulfed in flames. After nearly 15 years in the business, Carleton has...

When Johansson gets punched in the face, Heidi Moneymaker takes the hit. When Elizabeth Olsen crashes through a window, it’s C.C. Ice who ends up with scratches. Hollywood’s most unsung behind-the-scenes heroes star in a Hollywood Reporter photo portfolio. Meet the Stuntwomen who help stars kickass.

You start out diving for coins on Martha’s Vineyard and the next thing you know you are a Hollywood stunt dynasty. Have you seen the movie Earthquake (1974)? There’s a scene in it when a guy on a motorcycle rides through a circular corkscrew track and onto a ramp, then over...

Extreme dangers of the job: With seasoned pros stretched thin, productions are hiring haphazardly and cutting corners as stunt performers go public with complaints that union regulations have “no teeth” and new oversight may not go nearly far enough, Scott Johnson reports in the Hollywood Reporter: Changing dynamics from within: For...

Paula Dell, whose acrobatic feats made her a Muscle Beach star in Santa Monica, Calif., and a pioneering and fearless Hollywood stuntwoman — for one film, she was shot out of a cannon — died on Jan. 9, 2017 at her home in Santa Monica. She was 90. The cause...

Katie Rowe is a former world-class swimmer from Long Beach, California. Whether she found herself at the beach, in the surf, on a pool deck or racing between the backstroke flags, Rowe cuts a eye-catching figure. The all-around waterwoman turned to Hollywood after her academic studies were over. Anxious to enter the...

In the world of stuntwomen and stuntmen, the audience typically knows little about who is performing. If the job is being executed correctly, viewers may not even realize that their favorite film star was doubled. Makeup, hair preparation and strategic camera techniques disguise these talented daredevils during death-defying, action-packed...