A new Bell of the brawl
Aseasoned stunt woman doesn’t sweat fighting samurai armies single-handedly or hanging onto the hood of a speeding 1970 Dodge Challenger.
The toughest trick is crying on cue — and now rising star Zoë Bell has mastered that, too.
The kick-ass Kiwi is leaping from fight double to leading lady in “Raze,” opening Friday — and it’s given her a new love for the lens.
“I’ve become a ham!” says the 35-year-old who’s doubled for Uma Thurman in “Kill Bill” and Lucy Lawless in “Xena: Warrior Princess” during her 15-year career.
“My job has always been to know where the camera is, and to turn my head away,” she says, “but as an actor, the opposite applies.”
Luckily, the camera loves the blond, blueeyed Bell, who was upgraded from statuesque stunt woman to star in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” opposite Kurt Russell in 2007. She scored bit parts in TV’s “Lost” and “Gossip Girl,” plus “Django Unchained” and the postapocalyptic “Oblivion” with Tom Cruise last year.
In “Raze,” Bell gets her biggest role yet as Sabrina, a woman kidnapped and forced to fight 50 other women to the death, “Hunger Games”-style.
The hand-to-hand combat scenes are brutal. One babe gets strangled by her own long blond hair. But there’s no makeup, per Bell’s orders.
“I was a stickler in this movie about there being no mascara, no foundation. These women are being heroic in their own right, in their own skin.”
She coached her co-stars through the fight scenes, and they helped her master emoting. Working with an acting coach, Bell even developed a backstory for Sabrina, who’s fighting to save her daughter’s life.
“I’d think of a song my mum used to sing for me [which] just triggered a maternal understanding,” she says. “Look, it’s making me cry now!”
Critics may not rave about “Raze,” but Bell’s performance will likely keep her in the spotlight.
“It never occurred to me that being a stunt girl would get me recognized in any way, because the whole purpose of a stunt person is to not be known,” says Bell. “I’m definitely acting from here on.”