STUNT WOMAN LIVES ON EDGE
Former Stampede trick rider has us seeing double
Last week, Sally Bishop sat in a Calgary movie theatre and watched herself take a violent fall down a flight of stairs.
It was part of the Kevin Costner-diane Lane thriller Let Him Go. The Calgary-based stuntwoman doubled for both Lane and actress Kayli Carter, whose character takes that unfortunate spill. It's part of a nail-biting, fiery climax in the drama. It even made it into the film's trailer.
Bishop, like most stunt workers, was presumably unrecognized as she sat in the darkened, socially distanced theatre last week. But she was satisfied with the audience's response.
“I heard people gasp,” says Bishop. “I thought `That's cool.' They were reacting to how difficult it looks, or how dangerous it looks. I felt proud about that.”
Even by show business standards, stunt work is a strange way to make a living. There is something non-hollywood and even counterintuitive about it: A stunt performer's work should be noticeable, but it's most effective if they themselves are not. This is particularly true for those who stunt double for famous thespians.
But it's still nice to receive recognition for those stunts that look particularly spectacular onscreen.
When she took that fall down the stairs in the spring of 2018, for instance, it didn't go unnoticed by Kevin Costner. A veteran of action movies, he has no doubt seen his share of quality stunt work.
“After I did my stair fall, he gave me a really nice compliment,” says Bishop. “He took my hand and was like `That was one of the best stunts I've seen.' He was really sincere about it.”
Bishop has been doing stunts for film and television for more than 20 years. Back in 2000, her first job had her tackling a fellow stunt performer off a horse while doubling for actress Tia Carrere for the Toronto-based Canuck TV series The Relic Hunter. It was definitely in the wheelhouse for the former trick rider. Her family's business, the Tom Bishop Wild West Show, goes back more than three generations in Ontario. She continued to work in that province, Vancouver and Quebec, with recent projects, including the 2019 blockbuster Shazam! and the acclaimed series The Handmaid's Tale. But ever since she came to town as a trick-rider to compete in the Stampede more than 15 years ago, Calgary has been her home base. A glance at her most recent work here is a reminder that the Alberta film industry enjoyed a few busy seasons before COVID-19.
As one of a handful of Alberta-based active stuntwomen, Bishop has worked on nearly every high-profile project that has come through town these past few years. That has included Klondike, Forsaken, Fargo, Netflix's Hold the Dark, The Detour, Tin Star, Black Summer, Heartland, Fortunate Son, Wynonna Earp, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Land.
She has been a stunt double for everyone from 56-year-old Lane to 15-year-old Alisha Newton on Heartland. She doubled for Carrie Coon on both Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Season 3 of Fargo. She was Robin Wright's stunt double on Land, Abbie Cornish's on Klondike, Rachel Keller's on Fargo, Demi Moore's on Forsaken, Kari Matchett's on Fortunate Son and Jenny Mccarthy's on Santa Baby. Nine years ago, she did some riding as Julia Roberts' stunt double on Mirror, Mirror in Montreal.
“As a stunt double, you're doing all of the dangerous stuff for the actor,” she says. “There are days where the job is not that challenging, but the insurance company won't let the actor do that particular thing.
“But then there are days where what you have to do is extremely challenging.”
In Ontario, the Bishop name is synonymous with Wild West Shows. According to a 2014 article in Horse Journals, Sally's grandfather was six years old when he saw
“Buffalo Bill” Cody in Newcastle, England, which eventually inspired him to create the Tom Bishop Wild West Show. That's now run by Sally's brother Tom after their father, also named Tom, died.
Both generations were involved in stunt work in film and television in Ontario, which is where Sally got her start. Her background in trick riding made her a natural fit when she arrived in Alberta, which is known for its western and period film pieces.
But riding is only part of her skill set. She has also been a stunt driver and is particularly adept at taking “hard hits,” a general term for things such as falling off horses or down stairs.
“Hitting the ground hard, I would say that's something I'm known for,” she says with a laugh.
When asked about the work she is most proud of, it's clear the level of stunts a project offers is more important than how high-profile it is or the stars involved. One of the most difficult in the business is a “car hit,” which has the stunt performer jumping on the hood of a moving car and rolling off.
When the TBS Jason Jones sitcom The Detour shot its third season in Alberta in 2017, Bishop performed one of her favourite stunts alongside her husband Todd Lemieux, an aerobatic pilot. The scene involved him piloting a plane and she driving a mail truck for a game of “chicken.”
“That was a cool day,” she says. Bishop is Alberta's stunt representative for ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian and Television and Radio Artists) and also on ACTRA'S national stunt committee. Like most who earn their living in the Alberta film industry, she is concerned that the province has not kept up with other jurisdictions when it comes to tax credits.
Among the many casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic was a spirited campaign led by labour leaders and workers in the industry to push the Alberta government to boost its incentives to better compete for billions of dollars worth of screen productions. Before the pandemic, film industries in British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba, New Mexico and Georgia, among others, were thriving because they had incentives that are considerably more generous than Alberta's.
“At some point, we are hoping to have the tax credit match what Toronto and Vancouver have,” she says.
Let Him Go is now in theatres and available on Video on Demand.