When we watched Uma Thurman will herself back to life in Kill Bill after those initial painstaking toe movements, what we didn’t stop to consider was that the yellow jumpsuit-wearing martial arts master was using a stunt double most of the time. Her name is Zoë Bell. A 31-year-old Kiwi, and she has also doubled for Xena: Warrior Princess, and had acting roles in Death Proof, Lost, and Whip It. Bell is the new breed of stunt woman, mentored by old school veterans, like Jeannie Epper, Lynda Carter’s double for Wonder Woman, and current head of the Stunt Women’s Association of Motion Pictures.
2005′s Double Dare, screening tomorrow night in New York as part of the Stranger than Fiction series at IFC, tells their danger-defying stories and offers us all seven helpful hints for getting through life.
