Hollywood’s stunt-driving industry is dominated by men. These women are fighting for change
Four months after her father died in June 2019, Olivia Summers showed up to an introductory meeting at a production company in Santa Monica.
While discussing her extensive work as a stunt driver on numerous car commercials, one of the producers remarked that he was not aware there were women in the stunt-driving industry.
“We just put a guy in a wig,” Summers recalled the producer saying.
Summers, who had fought hard over the last 15 years to make a name for herself in an overwhelmingly male-dominated field, was devastated. Not only did this producer openly admit to “wigging” — a union-prohibited, gender-discriminatory practice in which a male stunt performer wears a wig to double for a female actor — he acted as if he didn’t even know that drivers like her existed.
Hurt and discouraged, Summers returned to her truck, put the key in the ignition and turned to her biggest supporter — her late father — for guidance. As the engine revved, Summers — who was raised Catholic and makes a sign of the cross before performing stunts — heard her father’s voice.
“He just said, ‘Start an all-female stunt-driving team,’” Summers told The Times. “And that’s how it came about.”
Vin Diesel, take note: Mark Potts can now do a 180-degree spin. He’s ready to join the family.
Summers in 2020 founded the Assn. of Women Drivers, billed as “the first and only all female stunt ... and performance driving team” in Hollywood. Historically, stunt-driving teams recruited as a unit for commercials, films and/or TV shows have been led by and composed of mostly men.
The goal of the Assn. of Women Drivers, which Summers of Playa Vista runs alongside fellow stunt performer Dee Bryant of View Park-Windsor Hills, is to increase visibility and employment opportunities for female stunt workers.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — which represents all stunt performers — has collected gender information from 4,636 stunt workers in the union. About 22% (1,025) identified as female, according to a source close to the labor organization who was not authorized to comment.
Summers doesn’t hide her frustration at the boys’ club culture of the stunt-driving industry.
“It’s bulls— because a lot of the guys on the team don’t even like each other,” she said. “They’re just trying to keep it that way so none of the work goes to us or any other independent driver out there. It’s super shady. It’s dark.”
Stunt performers of all genders have been striving to get more respect from the industry. They’ve been in the spotlight recently after the Academy of Motion Pictures unveiled a new Oscars category for casting, perceived as a snub to the stunt community, which has long pushed for Academy Awards recognition to no avail.
The lack of appreciation is particularly galling to stunt workers, who risk their safety to make more famous actors look good. Despite strict on-set rules to prevent accidents, stunt performing remains dangerous work, by definition.
Due to the entertainment industry’s reliance on stunning action set pieces, demand for stunt performers’ services remains significant, despite the rise of computer-generated graphics, the looming threat of AI and the occasional stars performing their own death-defying feats.
Combined, Summers and Bryant boast hundreds of credits on commercials, films and TV series, including “CSI,” “9-1-1,” “Bridesmaids” and “L.A.’s Finest.” While executing complex crash and high-speed chase sequences, Summers has doubled for actors such as Sarah Paulson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Ming-Na Wen; Bryant has subbed in for Angela Bassett, Regina King and Kerry Washington.
Viewers might have seen Summers weaving through oncoming traffic in an apocalyptic frenzy while doubling for Paulson in the Netflix thriller “Birdbox,” or Bryant zooming through the crowded streets of Hollywood on a motorcycle while doubling for Gabrielle Union during a police pursuit in the pilot episode of “L.A.’s Finest.”
“What dawned on me was the fact that this would create visibility for women and no longer give stunt coordinators, producers, ad agencies ... the excuse to wig a male,” Bryant said. “I thought that this would be exactly what we needed to put a stop to that practice.”
Stunt workers prepare just as thoroughly as actors, and their work is often much more dangerous. They deserve their own Oscar category.
Both women were encouraged by their fathers to take up sports such as waterskiing and dirt-biking and learn how to maneuver various types of vehicles from a young age.
Growing up in Toronto, Summers was operating snowmobiles solo by the age of 12. The third child of five, she experienced her fair share of mishaps — flying off the back of her dad’s snowmobile, slicing her hand open in a boating accident, repeatedly trying and failing to stand on water skis until her lips turned blue.
Meanwhile, Bryant’s father — a Harley guy who belonged to a motorcycle crew — gifted his daughter her first dirt bike at the age of 11. Bryant grew up piloting motorcycles on the sunbaked terrain of California’s San Gabriel Valley.
“My dad bought me a motorcycle, and now I have 13 motorcyles,” Bryant said. “It’s his fault.”
Want to fly, crash, catch fire, fall, fight and get paid the whole time? That’s the life of a Hollywood stunt performer, and it is a lifestyle, experts agree.
Before long, she set her sights on water sports and eventually the “the big Tonka toys” that rumbled around construction sites.
For now, Bryant and Summers are the only two members of the Assn. of Women Drivers. They do, however, have plans to expand by recruiting drivers specializing in cars, motorcycles, dirt bikes and watercraft.
After catching wind of their efforts, some Hollywood producers at William Morris Endeavor approached Bryant and Summers with a pitch for a reality competition program centered on their search for the most talented women stunt drivers — and asked the duo to hold off on recruiting more members while they shop the idea.
But that hasn’t stopped them from mentoring fellow female stunt drivers looking to carve out space for themselves in the entertainment business. Summers and Bryant said it’s in their best interests to help train aspiring female stunt drivers so that their proteges can lead by example.
“Yesterday I drove two hours to help one of the girls that I’m mentoring buy a stunt car because I want these girls to look good on set,” Bryant said. “It’s a reflection on us if they don’t. Then the coordinator goes, ‘See, there’s no good women drivers.’”
The Oscars should honor the magic of movies that, for almost a century, has been brought to life by stunt coordinators and stunt performers.
Decatur, Ga.-based stunt driver and motorcyclist Jwaundace Candece — who has worked on “Atlanta,” “WandaVision” and “Baby Driver” — credits Bryant with teaching her how to “ride for the cameras” and pointing her to people who could further her career.
When she was hired by stunt coordinator Darrin Prescott to work on “Baby Driver,” Candece relied on Bryant’s sage advice: “Hold your own, drive like a man and prove them wrong.” Impressed, stunt coordinator Thom Williams tapped Candece for HBO’s “Watchmen.”
Bryant and Summers “are starting something that is innovative and revolutionary,” Candece said. “I hope it’ll open up doors to hire more women, more women of color — more women, period — because that’s what’s needed.”
In addition to wigging, Bryant, Candece and other stunt women of color have had to contend with “paint downs” — or putting white people in brownface or blackface instead of hiring stunt women of color to double for non-white actors. Less than 10 years ago, Warner Bros. publicly apologized for casting a white stunt woman to double for a Black guest star in the superhero series “Gotham.”
“I first spoke up against that ... maybe 15, 20 years ago, and it’s still happening,” Bryant said. “That’s what happens in this business behind the scenes.”
Bianca Bustamante, an aspiring Formula One driver, is among a new generation of female race-car drivers seeking to rise to the top levels of motorsports.
As onscreen representation for women is shifting and more female actors are being cast in action roles, Hollywood needs to hire more women stunt drivers to double for them.
And it’s not just the stars who require doubles — for every action hero or villain who operates a vehicle onscreen, there are dozens more background drivers populating the streets, called “nondescript drivers.”
It’s especially rare for women stunt performers to get work as nondescript drivers. Bryant estimated that 90% of the time she is tapped for a project, she is in the “hot seat,” doubling for a principal cast member.
“How stupid does it look when you watch the movie, and you’re like, ‘Not one woman cop in 2023?’” Summers said. “When they get out [of their cars], and you just see a bunch of white guys with their guns drawn on the criminal. Come on, that doesn’t look right.”
To address this issue, Bryant called on entertainment companies to employ people to oversee hiring practices in the stunt department and advise the studios to diversify their stunt-driving teams.
Ken Do and Megan Hui — stunt doubles for actors Eddie Liu and Olivia Liang, respectively — got engaged while filming the season finale of ‘Kung Fu.’
The Oscars controversy was just another poke in the eye. After the academy’s recent decision to create a new Oscar for achievement in casting sparked outrage in the stunt community, ABC incorporated a sizzle-reel ode to stunt performers into this year’s Oscars telecast — a move Bryant dismissed as “a joke.”
“I have not watched the Oscars in over 20 years,” Bryant said. “I boycott because I think it’s ridiculous. ... We, as stunt performers, are putting our life and limb on the line.”
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