Chloë Grace Moretz was only 13 when she started doing her own stunts!
Acting can be an intense job, especially if you’re starring in an action movie. The majority of the time, productions use stunt doubles for the most dangerous scenes, but sometimes, the actors take on the stunt work themselves.
Oftentimes, the actors aren’t allowed to do all of their own stunts for insurance reasons, but some of them do as much as they can.
Here are 19 actors who did most — or all — of their own stunts in a movie:
1.
Margot Robbie did all of Harley Quinn’s stunts for Birds of Prey, except for the critical acrobatics, herself.
2.
Naomie Harris did all of her own stunts for Skyfall.
Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com
She spent nine months training for the role of special agent Eve.
3.
At only 13, Chloë Grace Moretz did most of her own stunts for Kick-Ass.
Lionsgate / Via youtube.com
She told Datebook, “The experience shaped me so much as a woman that even today I have so much physical confidence. I learned to really love myself and my body.”
4.
Tom Holland did a lot of his own stunt work for Spider-Man: Homecoming, such as wire work, jumping on top of cars, and climbing on top of the fake Staten Island Ferry on set.
Marvel / Sony / Via youtube.com
Chris Silcox, Tom’s Spider-Man stunt double, told Metro, “We got about three weeks with him, and so we would put him in wires and set him up in the air and teach him some parkour and some gymnastic stuff. And he was all really adept at that kind of work already.”
5.
Jackie Chan does about 90% of his own stunts in all of his movies, such as Bleeding Steel, because “that’s what audiences expect from [him].”
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“Doing stunts is what I am best at,” he told Metro.
6.
Charlize Theron did 98% of her own stunts for Atomic Blonde.
Focus Features / Via youtube.com
Stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave told the Hollywood Reporter, “When it comes where she has to fall down stairs or swing from a height — that she can’t do insurance-wise.”
7.
Adam Driver was so insistent on doing all of Kylo Ren’s stunts for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that his stunt double never had to get in costume.
Lucasfilm / Via youtube.com
Stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart told Fansided, “Adam Driver…is as good as any stuntman. He’s absolutely fantastic. And he works so hard. He did everything.”
8.
Kristen Stewart did “so many” of her own stunts in Charlie’s Angels.
Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com
During a press call, director Elizabeth Banks said that Kristen did stunt training and weapon training for the film.
9.
During the action scenes in the John Wick trilogy, Keanu Reeves is “about 90% of what’s happening there.”
Lionsgate / Via youtube.com
He told Today, “I’m maintaining the connection with the audience and with the story.”
10.
Dwayne Johnson did several key stunts for San Andreas because director Brad Peyton wanted the viewers “to know that they’re seeing Dwayne Johnson do this. This isn’t a trick. There’s no editing. This is him really doing it.”
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via youtube.com
The majority of Dwayne’s stunts are actually performed by his cousin and stunt double, Tanoai Reed.
11.
Angelina Jolie took every single one of Evelyn Salt’s dangerous leaps in Salt, but she cut her head while rolling onto the floor.
Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com
While promoting the film at San Diego Comic-Con, she explained that she hit her head on a desk after misjudging how much space she had.
12.
Milla Jovovich was quite literally in the driver’s seat for the flipping Humvee scene in Monster Hunter.
Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com
She told Movieweb, “It was really awful, because I get real claustrophobic. They actually built a rig that was like a rotisserie, so that Humvee was like the chicken, and it would go round and round. And, you know, they would strap us in, with all of our armor and all of our gear, and blow all of this debris into the car, and it was just, like, loud.”
13.
Daniel Craig “gets his hands very dirty” while doing all of his own stunts for the James Bond franchise.
Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com
As a result, he’s sustained several injuries over the years, such as knocking out his front teeth, losing the tip of his finger, and hurting his ankle badly enough to delay production.
14.
Josh Hutcherson did all of his own stunts for The Hunger Games.
Lionsgate Films / Via youtube.com
He gained a lot of valuable experience in stunt work while filming Red Dawn because director Dan Bradley encouraged all of the actors on set to do their own stunts.
15.
Jeremy Renner fractured his left wrist and his right elbow while filming a stunt scene for Tag.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via youtube.com
Because the film didn’t have a whole lot of action scenes, Jeremy’s injuries didn’t delay production. During a press conference, he said, “It affects how I get dressed in the morning. I can’t tie my shoes, but outside of that and everything else, I can kind of get by.”
16.
Liu Yifei did 90% of her own stunts in Mulan.
17.
Sylvester Stallone has spent his career doing a lot of his own stunts, a practice that’s continued as recently as Samaritan.
United Artists Releasing / Via youtube.com
In an Instagram video, he said, “We’re in this scene — I just got pretty totaled… And as you can tell, you would think I would have learned by now not to do my own stunts.”
18.
Zoë Bell frequently worked as a stunt double on Quentin Tarantino’s sets, and he cast her as herself in Death Proof.
Dimension Films / Via youtube.com
She told the Hollywood Reporter, “It was so important to him that the movie wasn’t an exposé of what’s behind the curtains, but a kudos to the hidden heroes. That’s how we felt about it.”
19.
And finally, Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise both did their own stunts for Knight and Day.
20th Century Fox / Via youtube.com
Cameron told the Chicago Tribune, “It’s so addictive because there are only a few things in life that really bring you into a moment like that, especially in our society. You learn to trust yourself. You learn to trust the people that you’re working with.”
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