What 15 Actors Had To Say About Doing Stunts
Vote up the best stunt stories.
Stunts have been a part of movies since the beginning of the medium. A whole industry of professionals works behind the scenes and in front of the camera to ensure stunts are performed safely and correctly. Still, some actors prefer to do their own stunts, while others rely on stunt people to make them look good – it's different for everyone, and some decisions are made out of injury or, on occasion, an embarrassing story.
Many high-profile actors have spoken out about their thoughts on doing stunts. Some are for doing them, while others oppose doing so because it puts stunt people out of work. Whatever their position, these actors talk or have spoken out about stuntwork and their experiences doing their own or having a professional step in and do it for them. Take a look below, and be sure to upvote your favorite actors before you go!
Ryan Reynolds has been in many action movies and spent most of his career doing his own stunts. That eventually changed, though. These days, he lets the professionals do their work. After he was seriously injured filming 2013's Safe House, Reynolds was done, explaining why in an interview with Empire:
I've had some bad injuries doing stunts. I broke a couple of vertebrae in my neck. It was a bad situation. I remember the doctor sitting in the office – it was about the seventh time I had been there that year – and he writes on a prescription pad, rips off the note, and it reads ‘Stuntman.’ Point taken. So now I use four different guys that come with me. Thankfully nothing scary happened on this one [The Hitman's Bodyguard].
Solid stunt story?Some actors love doing their own stunts, while others prefer not to. It's up to the individual as to why they choose to put their body on the line and why others choose not to. Actors' reasoning for doing so is not always clear. That can't be said for Danny Trejo, who not only doesn't do his own stunts, he's vocal about why.
Trejo did a Facebook live interview with Yahoo! Movies, and he had something to say when it came to actors doing their own stunts:
I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don’t want to risk 80 people’s jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show. Because that’s what happens. I think a big star just sprained an ankle doing a stunt, and 80 or 180 people are out of a job… We have stunt people who do that stuff. And if they get hurt, I’m sorry to say, but they just need to put a mustache on another Mexican, and we can keep going. But if I get hurt, everybody’s out of a job. So I don’t choose to do that.
Trejo has often spoken about his insistence on letting the stunt people do their jobs. In 2014, he told Fox News that he wouldn't want to “risk 80 people's jobs just so I can say I have big nuts. I don’t want to say that. Norm Mora is my stunt man; that’s his profession.”
Solid stunt story?Throughout much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Brenden Fraser was one of the biggest actors working in Hollywood. He was the star of The Mummy franchise and so much more, but he faded into the background for several years. One reason for this was the accumulated damage he'd taken over the years filming action sequences.
Fraser sat down with GQ to discuss his life and what happened in the early aughts. He explained, "By the time I did the third Mummy picture in China, I was put together with tape and ice – just, like, really nerdy and fetishy about ice packs. Screw-cap ice packs and downhill-mountain-biking pads, 'cause they're small and light and they can fit under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily.”
Fraser required a lot of medical care to get back on the mend, including a laminectomy. "I needed a laminectomy. And the lumbar didn't take, so they had to do it again a year later.” Additionally, he needed a partial knee replacement and some vertebrae management, and his vocal cords required repair. Yikes.
Solid stunt story?If you're a Jackie Chan fan, you already know the man will go to extreme lengths to film a movie. Chan is arguably one of the best stunt performers in the world, and he also happens to be a talented actor and martial artist. Chan does all of his own stunts and has for decades, but it can be costly.
Many of his films play bloopers through the credits, often featuring shots of Chan being injured. Of all his stunts, his most dangerous came when he was 32 while filming Armour of God in 1986. The stunt was so dangerous it nearly felled him, and he did it more than once.
The first take was perfect, but Chan always likes to repeat a stunt because the man is a perfectionist. While his first attempt of jumping onto a tree from a ledge worked, the second time he tried it, he grabbed hold of a branch that snapped, sending him down onto his back with his head hitting a rock. He explained what happened in an interview with Role Recall.
Chan explained that the first take “wasn't fast enough. ... I wanted to [swing] like a monkey,” so he did a second take and came colliding down. “My whole body was numb. [I] almost died..” Fortunately, the medics rushed him to the hospital, where emergency surgery saved his life.
Solid stunt story?Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been acting since he was a kid, and he's been in plenty of action movies over the years. He's been injured on the job, requiring 30 stitches during one incident while filming Premium Rush, and he takes his work seriously. Though he puts his body through the paces to prepare for a role, he rarely does his own stunts.
During a discussion with Vanity Fair, Levitt described waking up sore every day from all the work he put into preparing for the movie. Regarding his work in Premium Rush, he said, “…you know, that’s part of the job, and it’s fun. And then, slowly but surely, you get into shape, and then you can do it all day.” Still, he was clear about who did the stunt work:
Let’s be clear: I didn’t do my own stunts in this movie. I don’t like it when actors say that they did their own stunts. I rode the bike all day, every day, but there’s me and four other guys who all had different specialties on the bike. One of them is a real bike messenger, one of them is a Hollywood stuntman, one’s good at tricks on a trials bike, and one’s good at tricks on a fixed-gear track bike. And they’re all in the movie, and they’re all brilliant. And you know, the thrills in Premium Rush don’t come from big C.G. sequences. They come from watching these really talented, skilled athletes do crazy things on two wheels.
Solid stunt story?Keanu Reeves has been in a lot of action films over the years, beginning with films like Speed and Point Break before becoming a genre icon with the Matrix and John Wick franchises. Throughout his career, Reeves has learned to fight, shoot, and move so he could best portray his characters, but if you ask him if he does his own stunts, his answer may surprise you.
During an appearance on the Smartless podcast, he explained, “I do action. It's a big difference.” To Reeves, getting hit by a car is a stunt requiring the work of a professional, but fighting a bad guy – that's “action,” and he doesn't see it as stuntwork. Reeves expanded on his work, saying the following when he was asked how he continues making action films:
That’s the joy of it. Like, it’s not easy, man. But if you can do it, if you can try if you can climb the mountain. Who gives a — who cares [how hard it is]?! Hard, schmard! Whatever, let’s go!
Solid stunt story?
