Pulling stunts at the workplace

Melissa Stubbs

Stunt coordinator

Latest project: “New York Minute,” with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

The duties: “Read through the script, break it down to find out what doubles you are going to need, what nondescript stunt people you are going to need. You ... rehearse all the action and then prepare all the actors.”

Credits: “The Last Samurai, “High Crimes,” “Dark Angel,” “X2: X-Men United”

Skill set: Karate, kick-boxing, precision and stunt driving, skateboarding, skiing, high falls, car hits, road racing, motorcycles, rock climbing, swinging from vines.

Branching out: “I wrote a little scene where Ashley and the bicycle courier, her love interest, have a time crunch to make it from one end of Manhattan to the other. I said why don’t we have them stuck in gridlock and have him ride his bicycle with her on the back over the tops of cars. I shot it on video as a demo with a girl and guy. Dennie [Gordon, the film’s director] actually let me direct it because she was too busy. They gave me Ashley for an hour and I stuck her on the back of the bike and we shot the piece.”

Why she got into it: “I wanted to be a stunt person since I was 8 years old. My dad took me to Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm and I watched the live stunt shows. I was just like, ‘Wow, this is the coolest thing ever.’ I was always into sports. There is nothing I didn’t play -- track, soccer. I was the only girl in Little League baseball.”

Training: “I went to Universal Studios and waited until the stunt show was over and talked to one of the guys [in the show]. And there was a stunt school at the time in L.A. I signed up just to figure out what the heck you do to get into this. I did a lot of stand-in jobs and extra work to get on the sets and learn. I hooked up with the young stunt guys and started training with them.”

Big break: “My first union job was when I doubled Kelly Hu on ‘Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.’ ”

Breaks of another sort: “I broke my right leg riding around a chuck wagon for one of those interactive video games. The wheel broke and we got dumped into a ditch. I went to step on it and it folded up like an accordion. I broke my ankle on ‘Dark Angel’ a couple of years ago. They had to fuse it. It’s just now feeling better.”

Women vs. men: “As a stunt coordinator and a performer, I have to be better, be more prepared and know more. Men just walk onto the set and they are immediately accepted that they know what they are talking about. I am a young woman, I just turned 34.... I have to be on the ball. There can’t be one hole in the equation. I have to carry a lot of confidence.”

Problem solving: “I try to rehearse everything over and over and work out all the bugs before you get on the set. But often, you get there and there are elements you forgot about, like rain. The directors of today never want to make up their mind until the last second, so they’ll go, ‘I don’t want this. I want this.’ So now you are scrambling, trying to change everything to the director’s new vision.”

Union or guild: Screen Actors Guild and Union of B.C. Performers, a branch of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.

Salary: “It all depends on how much you work.”

Resides in: Vancouver (she’s a Canadian) and Los Angeles

Heroes: “A lady named Betty Thomas was a pioneer stunt coordinator who really helped open people’s minds because before her, there were no female stunt coordinators. She paved the way for me and now all the girls who are coming behind me.”