Humans sort of instinctively respond negatively to something that's not true.
Feeling fear is a good sign that your survival instincts are intact. You need to appreciate the dangers to stay safe.
In my career as a double, a lot of my job is to not just do the fights to make them look cool, but also to appear as the same person as the actor I am playing.
I love acting. And if there's a niche that needs filling, I'm happy to get in there and try to fill it.
Being a stunt girl is very much my comfort zone, so I had to remove the comfort zone to step fully into the slightly scarier zone. Also, just being perceived as an actor by the outside world, rather than as the stunt girl who does dialogue, has been a part of the challenge in front of me.
My job has always been to not only make my character look like a badass but to also make the actor I am fighting opposite to be the character they need to be too.
I would find it more difficult if somebody else was doing the action.
When my physicality is involved, it's kind of my comfort zone, so I find it much easier to access emotions.
A couple years in [to acting], I recognized that I developed methods from being a stuntwoman for so long that worked for me that I wasn't aware of. And I had to become aware of them, because I didn't recognize that I could actually apply them across the board.
Part of the joy I'm discovering in acting is the fact that it's uncomfortable to me, that it's challenging, and the possibilities of always being able to improve on something, of always being able to try something new, it's intriguing and exciting.
There is an art to acting, and there are techniques that are acquired. You can be as emotional as you'd like, as a person, but figuring out ways that you can bring specific emotions at specific times and have them be true, and relating to someone as someone that they're not, is a lot.
I think because I am a physical person, and because my way of expressing and performing and storytelling or explaining has always been with my body, if I can combine the two I find it really liberating.
My favorite thing in moviemaking is to shoot in chronological order if at all possible, because it just helps for continuity and all the logistical purposes. It also helps with performance and the journey of each character, but I also think it's good for the director and everyone [else] involved.
I was interested in seeing how to branch out and sort of use the Internet more as a way of making and promoting movies. There's no real difference in making it successful - it's all down to the dedication of the people involved to make it a success.
I mean, acting or stunts, doing my job means doing my job, and I'm loving it. It's fun to put my face in front of the camera; I'm really enjoying the process. But at this point, it's still just not too easy to go around describing myself as an actor. It took me a good long while to get to where I could do it not only without laughing, but without trembling a little bit, which is terrible, but... I mean, I was really hesitant to 100 percent walk down that path, to expose myself to that.
The physical element of a role is something I'm super familiar with, and I love it. I've definitely made the transition into acting over doubling, just because I needed to make it clear to myself, so that I fully committed.
I'm a poster child for feminism whether I like it or not, but I was resistant to the part of me that was a woman.
Actually my relationships with my girlfriends have become that much deeper and more profound, because I'm like, huh, yeah, I don't have to judge you, or you judge me. It was a lot of - I didn't want to be that crazy girlfriend.
Whatever my job description consists of, becomes my job. Maybe it's just the way I tackle work, in general.
Some of my best friends are like, "I love that you are just the biggest pussy on the planet." And I have no problem with it at all, I love it. But it took a long time to understand that that's a part of my tapestry.
I think the biggest shift for me is - this is going to sound like a wanky actor, but - getting in touch with, and learning to not just appreciate, but actually really enjoy being a woman. Because for so long I was a jock, and I was an athlete, and I was a tomboy, and people would joke about like, fancy dress, you should go as a girl.
My job as a double was always to put [actors] at ease. My job was to make my character, or the actress that I was doubling, look as badass as possible by being there.
The thing that I come across is that people think that I might actually be super aggressive, want-to-fight type in real life. The irony is that that's just not true, at all.
I had to paint the picture that I was never scared, otherwise I couldn't do my job. But now, as an actor, I'm literally paid to look emotionally accessible.
I like the debate, but I don't really like the fight. I don't like being in the ring. I'm not competitive.
