Stuntwomen face a fight to break into film industry

Women and people of colour continue to miss out on opportunities in the male dominated stunt industry, a new study by Bournemouth University has found.

Despite an increase in female action roles in the movies, this research found that women still struggle to get into core stunt teams, and it is still common for a man in a wig to perform stunts for women.

The article has been published in the Journal of British Cinema and Television.

"It is very difficult for stunt women to become part of regular crews," explained Dr Laura Crossley, Senior Lecturer in Film at Bournemouth University. "Because the industry has been male dominated so long, most stunt co-ordinators on film sets are men. As a result, you can end up with male co-ordinators hiring other men and putting them in drag to perform stunts, or even using men wearing brown make-up and wigs to double for women of colour," she added.

The study highlights that an increase in action heroines of colour on screen has led to greater demand for female stunt performers of colour. Marie Mouroum and Belle Williams have both performed stunts in the Bond franchise as MI6 agent Nomi and Eve Moneypenny respectively, and whilst this shows positive steps, they are exceptions rather than the rule.

Dr Crossley also points to the fact that the work of stunt performers is usually invisible to the public, and that this means there is very little scrutiny of representation compared to acting and directing roles which are in the public eye. This invisibility can be exacerbated by a growing tendency to push the idea that actors perform all their own stunts, further erasing the profile of stunt performers who do most of the work.

The lack of diversity in the industry today is in stark contrast to the very early years of cinema where many of the action stars were women. In the silent era, actors such as Helen Gibson and Molly Pickford regular entertained audiences with high-speed car chases and by jumping onto moving trains. In her article, Dr Crossley explains that it was when Hollywood moved to a studio system that women found themselves frozen out, leading to the inequalities we see today.

As part of her research, Dr Crossley spoke to Stunt Directors Annie Lees-Jones and Tiger Lilli Rudge to share their insights and experiences of the film industry. The lack of regular stunt work for women came through as a one of the main reasons for their under-representation in co-ordinator roles.

"One of the things Tiger suggested was that when a male stunt co-ordinator is appointed, the producers should hire a woman alongside him, training her so that she gets more experience. At the moment the co-ordinators tend to hire performers who they have worked with in the past, and they are usually men," Dr Crossley explained. "Change will only come about if women are given more opportunities. For an industry that makes a lot of noise about representation and diversity, the reality is that a lot more needs to be done," she concluded.