Kiwi Bell shows her ugly side
The stuntwoman-turned-actor tells James Croot why she’s gone into bat for Australia’s less-loved animals.
Zoe Bell is flat out – and loving it. The highly regarded Kiwi stuntwomanturned-director-turned-producer has just released her second directorial project, has roles in two films set to debut later this year, and is playing a key role on Quentin Tarantino’s starstudded period drama Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
Speaking to Stuff from the set of the highlyanticipated 1969-set tale, the 39-year-old says she’s honoured to have been chosen by her old friend Tarantino to be his stunt co-ordinator for his latest project. They first worked together on 2003’s Kill Bill when she was Uma Thurman’s stunt double. ‘‘He doesn’t do second units, so I’m the closest thing,’’ she laughs.
She’s also excited to be working with a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino, Margot Robbie, Dakota Fanning, Kurt Russell and Damian Lewis, but she says she has one regret: ‘‘There was a day where on IMDB [film website Internet Movie Database], the only people who had been announced were Brad Pitt, Leo and myself, and I was like, ‘yeah, I should post that’, but I didn’t.
‘‘By the time I went back there, there were like 20 other incredibly famous, brilliant, classic actors on there and I was like, ‘ah, now I’m No 35’.’’
While she wouldn’t be drawn on what her character was, she admitted it was more, ‘‘in the vein of a cameo, but stunt co-ordinating has me plenty occupied, anyway’’.
When asked if she felt a different mood on set this time around, thanks to the #MeToo campaign and allegations of sexual impropriety against highprofile Hollywood players during the past year, Bell says while there was definitely ‘‘an awareness around it, the mood is still jovial and the energy is still the same’’, as it always was when working with Tarantino.
But we’re here to talk mainly about Bell’s follow-up to her 2017 All Blacks coach-starring, post-apocalypse biscuit ad.
It’s a premise equally as a quirky as Steve Hansen on a motorbike, a comedic music video highlighting Australia’s less-than-beautiful fauna.
Made for that country’s Wilderness Society, the near-four-minute Save Ugly clip features Rosario Dawson (Sin City) dressed as the Ethmia Clytodoxa Moth surrounded by a host of puppets voiced by the likes of Cate Blanchett, Joel Edgerton and Kiwis Erik Thomson and Sara Wiseman.
It is designed to raise awareness of all the lesserknown creatures in Australia’s ecosystems that help make life possible.
‘‘When there’s an idea out there that’s fresh and exciting, funny and cute and sweet and for a good cause, you’ve just got to go for it.’’
Zoe Bell
Originally pitched as a project for Taika Waititi, Bell says she jumped at the chance to direct it when it was offered to her because it reminded her of ‘‘an old-school celebrity Muppets number’’.
‘‘When there’s an idea out there that’s fresh and exciting, funny and cute and sweet and for a good cause, you’ve just got to go for it.
‘‘Plus, it can be quite rare to find like-minded people who have their priorities in the right place. I got off the phone thinking, ‘man if that worked out, that would be amazing’.’’
Fortunately for Bell everything fell into place, and while the shoot was not without its challenges (‘‘we didn’t have much of a budget because it’s for a charity’’), it ‘‘always felt worthwhile, which just made even the hardest days tolerable and enjoyable’’.
She admits she didn’t know much about the mary river turtle or the southern right whale beforehand, but says she, ‘‘just slowly fell in love with them as I did some research’’.