by Rollo Ross
ROSAMOND, Calif. — Hollywood doesn’t have a good record for stunt women, especially when it comes to driving.
This inspired a group of women to form the Women Drivers Association, the first stunt group for professional female drivers.
Olivia Summers, who leads the organization, has been performing stunts for 20 years, including in films such as “Bridesmaids” and “The Flight Attendant.” But she was frustrated that male stunt drivers were being cast as doubles instead of female actors, and she remembers one unfortunate meeting with a commercial producer.
“The producer said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know there were female drivers. We just put a guy in a wig,’ and I was so disappointed, because I thought, how does this person not know that?”, Summers told Reuters while training at a track outside Los Angeles with other stunt women.
But it’s not just women who face this problem. She said there’s also a practice called “paintdown” in which a stunt performer is painted black or brown so that someone else can replace the coloured performer.
“My business partner, Dee Bryant, who is one of the best female stunt drivers in the African American community, is still working with the paintdown people,” Summers said.
According to the Screen Actors Guild, stunt performers are three-quarters men and one-quarter women.
Although guild rules state that production companies must find female stunt performers for female roles and vice versa, stunt coordinators can get around this by saying they have exhausted all avenues to find female performers.
Summers said that according to SAG-AFTRA guidelines, stunt coordinators must consult the guild if they can’t find a suitable stuntman, but that rarely happens.
“This needs to change,” said Naoki Kobayashi, owner of Drift 101, a training track for stunt performers.
“I think we should all respect and look at everyone equally and it should be based on their talent and not because they have shown experience over the years. We need to talk openly,” he said.
Training for stunt work is also costly, as workers need to stay fit and keep their driving skills up to date, Summers said.
“I think I spent about $18,000 in my first year of driving, so I look at it like I’m going to college. This is my tuition,” she said.
“It’s an expensive thing because we have tires that blow out, I have engine issues that I have to send out and get fixed. But it’s just like being an athlete. We’re athletes.”
Stunt performer Ashley Tew said the disparity could also impact her pay.
“We get adjustments, which are based on the difficulty of the stunt, your skill, how many times you have to do it,” Tev told Reuters.
“I’ve noticed that men have to make as much or more adjustments than women to do the same job. But otherwise, our contracts, they’re all the same. It’s just that adjustment is where it all starts.”
Teve uses her frustration to boost her performance.
“It motivates you to work harder, train more and get your name out there so people know your reputation, know that you’re good at what you do and that you’re available,” Tev said.
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