Hoping to fall — into films
The 2017 film Wonder Woman and its 2020 sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, served as symbols of empowerment for women and girls. They also gave prominent work to stuntwomen — jobs that have been lacking in the film industry.
Women in Hollywood have long pushed back against a practice of male stunt performers “wigging,” or donning a wig to step in for a female actress.
Local stuntwoman in training Kelly Stranahan said she’d love a shot at getting gut-punched, jumping off a building, popping a wheelie in a car or being set on fire — on film.
“I’d love to do a stunt scene,” said the 49-year-old mother of three daughters, who opened her own gym, Core Fit Santa Fe, in October.
“Who wouldn’t be interested?” she said of stunt work. “It’d be really cool. Even one of those scenes in Grown Ups, where they’re going down the waterslides — those are stunts.”
Indeed they are. And Stranahan is learning to handle them.
Stranahan has completing a stunt performance training course offered through film industry veteran and New Mexico native MarkAnthony Baca’s Xtreme Force Hollywood Stunts program, based in
New Mexico and Texas.
Stranahan said she got whiplash the first time she was hit in the stomach with a bat and then jerked backward by the harness strapped to her waist.
Lean and lithe, Stranahan said she needs to stay busy, preferably physically — though she wasn’t involved in many organized sports in her youth.
“I was athletic as a kid, but I didn’t stick to things,” she said. “I played soccer, I did ballet, gymnastics, track. I was into dance. I was a hyper kid.”
She was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but began spending summers in Santa Fe after her father and stepmother moved here. She took summer school classes at Santa Fe Prep and worked as a towel girl at El Gancho fitness club.
After graduating from high school, she spent a
semester or two at Texas State University and then the University of Mississippi before moving to Santa Fe permanently in 1991.
Stranahan worked for her dad at Simply Santa Fe, a store on the Plaza, and eventually met her husband, Bobby, who is now an attorney and general counsel for Harvest, a medical marijuana dispensary.
Her foray into fitness began when a friend, Hillary Randolph, signed her up for a 12-week kettlebell class. “I totally got the bug,” Stranahan said. “I went from a size 12 to losing 37 pounds.”
She soon got a low-level hardstyle kettlebell certification — the first of many.
She was asked to teach at a midtown gym, “and I got more into it,” Stranahan said.
She also went certification crazy: from kettlebells to battle ropes to barre, progressive calisthenics and flagging.
“I never want to get bored,” Stranahan said.
She developed a love for the American Ninja Warrior workout and parkour.
Stunt training was the logical next step. “I saw MarkAnthony’s ad and thought — ‘What the hell?’ — and signed up,” Stranahan said. “I didn’t have any goals. I was stuck in the pandemic.”
Hollywood has always had some stuntwomen.
In 1967, a couple of dozen women formed the Stuntwomen’s Association of Motion Pictures, and today there are several hundred among the roughly 3,400 stunt performers registered with film and TV unions.
Baca, born in Clovis and a graduate of Albuquerque’s Sandia High School, got his start on Kickboxer 4 and moved moved on to Walker, Texas Ranger. He has been in the stunt business since 1992 and has taught over 100 stunt courses.
His goal is to buy land between Santa Fe and Albuquerque for training and develop a team of New Mexico stunt performers to be on call for the many movie and TV projects filming in the state.
Baca’s motto: Become the hero behind the hero.
In Stranahan’s first class with Baca, he taught her and a dozen classmates how to take a punch to the gut, jump off buildings and, most importantly, how to fall.
Stranahan is his oldest female student.
Baca had high praise for her. “Kelly was at the top of the course, eager to try the next stunt, and always willing to go first,” he said.
He even asked if she would join his New Mexico team.
“Kelly would be good as an actress that can do her own stunts on film,” Baca said. “Most women have stunt doubles, which Kelly would also be great at if she trained a little more on camera fighting techniques and got a little more training to make sure she was prepared for any stunt coordinator’s direction.”
“Any job at any level would be a gift,” Stranahan said. “Though, I have no expectations.”