Fitness according to superheroes
As more female action heroes fill our screens, more crazy-cool stuntwomen get work. Yay for that! Also: fitness secrets, please?
bethany Levy is barefoot on the edge of a 10-storey building. She can see downtown Los Angeles, although all she needs to spot is her landing mark 30m below. Secured in a harness, she swan dives, somersaults and slows down to a stop. It’s an exceptional day, even for a stuntwoman like her: she’s doubling for Beyoncé.
For Bethany and the stuntwomen like her, work has grown thanks to the rise of female leads like Jessica Jones and Supergirl. This elite crew gave GLAMOUR a peek at their lives: action, challenges and ideas we can all use.
Stuntwomen have it tough
Beyond the stunts, ‘doubles’ perform a kind of magic: they make themselves disappear, so you see only the actress,
not them. This means they can’t pack on more muscle than the star they are doubling for. “We walk a fine line between staying true to our own body and moulding to someone else’s,” says Shauna Duggins, who has doubled for Melissa Benoist on Supergirl.
But no overdieting, please: being too lean risks injury. “You want muscle for protection – you hit the ground hard in these stunts,” says Bethany. That strength matters.
Heidi Germaine Schnappauf, Jaimie Alexander’s double on Blindspot, injured her neck after a fall in 2015. “If I’d been even a little smaller or less strong, I could have done some real damage,” she says.
Helena Barrett, who doubled for Amy Adams in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and did stunts in the upcoming Twin Peaks series, describes how stuntwomen see their bodies as heightened versions of what the average woman feels almost every day. “I constantly compare myself to other actresses,” she admits. “But I can’t be that skinny and still be able to do backflips, and that knowledge gives me self-assurance.”
They fight old attitudes
These women do what their male counterparts do, often in heels and always in skimpier outfits. Shauna says, “Stair falls in a dress mean no padding, although I did once tuck a tailbone pad in my underwear!”
And in a field where your body is your job, pregnancy can cost long after the baby arrives. “The community joke is that you’re pregnant for five years,” Helena notes. “Stunt coordinators go, ‘Oh, she’s pregnant,’ and you’re like, ‘That was two years ago!’”
They do self-care
“This job is not just about doing the stunts; it’s also about taking care of your body after you do them,” says Heidi, who has performed everything from drowning to being set on fire. Some stunts require physical strength, but all require restorative time. “Every week I see a chiropractor, and I do hot yoga and a recovery workout for my joints,” says Heidi.
The stuntwomen we talked to also apply that balanced approach to their diets: “If I eat spaghetti today, tomorrow I eat a salad,” says Ming Qiu, who does her signature martial arts work on Agents of SHIELD. “I try for moderation. So I feel healthier and happier when I go to work.”
And those feelings are priceless. After all, says Shauna, “I get to go to work and beat up the bad guys, jump off buildings, get set on fire and race cars – and then go home and have a normal life. How awesome is that?”