Walking on Tigers' Tails

December 4, 2015 11:18 AM

“The distance between the station and the train was accurately measured ... I was not nervous as it approached and I leaped without hesitation,” she recalled. She landed safely, but the rocking motion of the train rolled her straight toward the end of the car. Just before being pitched off, “I caught hold of an air vent and hung on.” Then, with a sense of the dramatic, silent film actress Helen Gibson let her body “dangle over the edge to increase the effect on the screen.”

- An interview with author Mollie Gregory on "Digging into the untold history of stunt women."

- Mollie Gregory : Why Stuntwomen in Movies, TV Face Unequal Pay for Equal Stunts

- Stuff Your Mom Never Told You podcast: Hollywood Stunt Women

- Essays about the Independent Lens documentary "Double Dare," which focuses on Wonder Woman and Xena's stunt women

- From Cosmopolitan, Meet the badass women who stunt double for Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence.

posted by ChuraChura (5 comments total)

This looks amazing - thank you!
posted by Gin and Broadband at 11:24 AM on December 4, 2015

That story about being strapped into a mermaid tail while the tide comes in... no thanks.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:55 AM on December 4, 2015

I've worked on and off in the video industry, and I've met two "stuntwomen" in my life, they were both vicious, brutal and tiny.

AnecdoteFilter:I have a great pic on an old phone of a 45 year old 90 pound 4'9" woman lifting my then 38ish year old 260 pound body on her shoulders while she's wearing a wig, a pencil skirt and heels.

Protip: Don't ever underestimate anyone who calls themselves a stuntwoman.
posted by Sphinx at 1:39 PM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

I have a great pic on an old phone of a 45 year old 90 pound 4'9" woman lifting my then 38ish year old 260 pound body on her shoulders while she's wearing a wig, a pencil skirt and heels.

This is amazing, I would love to see this photo if you're comfortable sharing it with your fellow MeFites. If not, it's totally cool. A great story either way.
posted by Fizz at 6:47 PM on December 4, 2015

Fizz: "I have a great pic on an old phone of a 45 year old 90 pound 4'9" woman lifting my then 38ish year old 260 pound body on her shoulders while she's wearing a wig, a pencil skirt and heels.

This is amazing, I would love to see this photo if you're comfortable sharing it with your fellow MeFites. If not, it's totally cool. A great story either way."

Fizz, I'd post it if I wasn't terrified of her finding out that I didn't actually delete that picture and randomly showing up at my house and roughing me up. From what I understand she's in her 50's, recently divorced, angry, and I'm in the phone book.

The only worse thing would be her sending her two giant sons over to my house to casually rough me up and break a bunch of my furniture and tip my car over.
posted by Sphinx at 6:42 AM on December 5, 2015 [1 favorite]