THE KIWI STUNT DOUBLE
WHILE DAYNA GRANT doubled Mad Max’s leading lady, another Kiwi was also taking the lead.
Jacob Tomuri was cast to double the film’s male lead, Tom Hardy – a role that changed his career in a way stunt performers only dream of.
Tomuri too, fell into the stunt life by accident, originally pursuing acting in his early 20s.
However, ahead of his third year of drama school at the New Zealand College of Performing Arts, he took a role on Lord of the Rings that changed everything.
‘‘While I was there, they needed extras that could swing a sword – not stunt people, just extras. They selected 30 people, and then later, four of that team were chosen to join the actual stunt team,’’ says Tomuri. He never did his third year. He continued to work on all three Lord of the Rings films, as well as the Hobbit, Spartacus and Avatar, among other credits, learning as he went.
Eventually, his path crossed with Dayna’s and it was that relationship that saw a now 35-year-old Tomuri land his role on Fury Road.
They worked on Spartacus together and others were questioning her about her upcoming Mad Max role when talk turned to the male lead, Tom Hardy.
‘‘I said, ‘I absolutely love Tom Hardy, he’s brilliant’. And Dayna looked at a picture [of Hardy] and said, ‘that’s a real uncanny resemblance, you could double him’,’’ Tomuri laughs.
‘‘Anyway she went off to Namibia and I got a phone call out of the blue saying, ‘hey Dayna just dropped a photo on our desk and you’d be a great double for Tom, would you be interested?’.’’
After checking with his wife, Tomuri was on the next plane out.
‘‘I’m not going to lie, it was a gruelling shoot. We were battling the elements and doing practical stunts . . . in harnesses all day, fighting, doing wire work – non-stop.’’
He worked closely with Dayna and Charlize Theron, but more so with Hardy, forming an ongoing relationship which has seen him get the call onto at least two more projects with the actor.
‘‘You do form quite a good relationship and trust with the actors. You’re rolling around on the ground for days, so you do get to know each other. That’s how Dane and Dayna met, after all,’’ he laughs.
‘‘But yeah, it’s a dream for a stunt performer to be linked to an actor and I actually can’t think of another actor that I would rather be linked to, he really is phenomenal. Some big things are coming for him and I might be there for the ride, which is even better.’’