In her new film Whip It, Zoë Bell raises hell on roller skates. In real life, she spends her time on other wheels.
Wired recently interviewed the stuntwoman-turned-actress about how to fake a roller derby fight for the October issue, and when the phone call got a little strenuous, Bell apologized in a way only a lifelong daredevil can.
“If I get a bit breathless here,” said Bell, pictured right, “it’s because I’m skateboarding to a lunch meeting.”
Of course. Because the woman who got whipped around on the hood of a Dodge Challenger at top speed in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof wouldn’t be the kind of person to drive to a restaurant. (And, for the record, she never lost her breath once.)
Not that Bell takes a traditional approach to anything. Born and raised in New Zealand, she got her first big break — literally, she broke her back — as Lucy Lawless’ stunt double on Xena: Warrior Princess. She moved to Los Angeles after the show wrapped and was eventually tapped by Tarantino to be Uma Thurman’s stunt double in the Kill Bill films. (Her ascent in the stunt world is wonderfully captured in the 2004 documentary Double Dare, which is worth Netflixing if only to watch the kind of stunts she pulls when not working on a movie.)
After describing best practices for fighting on roller skates, Wired asked Bell about working on Whip It (which opens Friday), that famous chase scene in Death Proof, and how DVD extras can kill the magic of stunt work.
Wired.com: With a film like Whip It, you’re acting as well as doing stunts. What’s it like being on both sides of the action?
Zoë Bell: I really enjoy that I get to own the whole character a little bit now, all sides of it. But after spending years and years trying to learn one thing, you get a lot of instincts.
Wired.com: Like what?
Bell: So my instinct as a stuntwoman is to avoid the camera seeing [my face], because if the camera sees me then we can’t use the shot. For example, when we first started shooting that sequence in Death Proof, I had to consciously not hide my face.
Wired.com: Really?
Bell: Quentin pulled me over one time and was like, “Zoë, I want you to watch this shot.” And he was like, “What’s wrong with this?” My response was: “Nothing, that’s fucking cool, I look like I’m going to die!” He said, “Yes, but what don’t we see?” And I was like, “I don’t know.” He said, “Your face, we only see your face once in the whole four minutes.” So my reply was, “Oh my god, I’m really good at being a stuntwoman!” [Laughs] So, I had to consciously learn to open up to the camera. Once I got past that, it was all right.
Wired: Whip It seems like it might be a similar kind of experience because of the mix of acting and action.
Bell: With Whip It, I was kind of over that. It’s great for a movie like this, because the other girls had skate doubles, because they’re not all stuntwomen. They had to learn, they had months of training and lot of them got really good. I was really impressed by the ladies and all the hard work they put in, but there are still going to be moments where they can’t do things like girls who have been playing roller derby for years.
There were days when it was me and the other actors and then their doubles would come in and I would just stay in. So, I can be in there to block some of the other doubles’ faces. Roller derby is so fluid and so moving that if you had to shoot around my face the whole time it could get a bit difficult.
Wired.com: Did you end up teaching any tips or tricks to your co-stars?
Bell: Not really. The girls in this cast are phenomenal. We all really liked each other. I’m still fairly new to acting, and it’s not like they were teaching me how to act, but they were a great support network. Just watching them, I learned. I think I might’ve represented the same thing to them on the other side, you know? But it’s not like, “You know what? Those girls would’ve been screwed without me.” [Laughs] That’s not true at all.
Wired.com: Did you know anything about roller derby before this? Had you ever done it?
Bell: No, I had to learn everything. I got a pair of roller skates for Christmas when I was 4 or 5 or something, so I had a pair as kid. But I also lived on a gravel road so I wasn’t really skating up and down the street. And I did ice skating when I was maybe 8, for a year. And then, though I hate to admit it because all of my friends back home will shoot me, but I have rollerbladed a bit in the past. But rollerblading and roller skating are very different. When I started [practicing] derby, I was basically in hysterics the whole time. I’m a very coordinated individual …
Wired.com: Well, I would hope so.
Bell: Right, I kind of have to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m clumsy as all fuck, but I am very coordinated. But I was laughing the whole time because I felt so uncoordinated. I wasn’t sure where my balance was, and I would lean back and my feet would be gone, and I was on my ass. I was just really unaccustomed to that feeling. I kind of enjoyed it. It was highly entertaining.
Wired.com: Is it safe to say stunts for the film were harder than just doing everything you normally do, but just doing it on wheels?
Bell: It’s more like someone saying, “You’re on wheels and we’re going to add 16 other women that are trying to knock you over.” What? I don’t even need any help getting knocked over. I’m perfectly capable of falling on my own.
I’ll tell you what though, my ability to fall, this is one of those situations where it’s really helpful. Because A) When I do fall I’m less likely to get hurt. And B) I don’t have the same fear about falling over. Fear makes you hesitant and the hesitation is often what gets you hurt. So, because I wasn’t scared, I improved really quickly. And I did some really good falls. I ate shit and I got my fair share of bruises — we all did. We were collecting bruises by the end of it.
Wired.com: So, the roller derby stunt is nice and all, but honestly we’d love to ask you how to ride around at top speed on the hood of a Dodge Challenger like you did in Death Proof ‘s Ship’s Mast stunt. However, that seems like the work of trained professionals.
Bell: You know, that’s the dilemma that I’ve come across quite a few times. I don’t like exposing our magic secrets. Something like [the derby stunt], fine, whatever. But for the thing with the car — the Ship’s Mast sequence — I know people are fascinated by it and that’s great. I know how it was done so I know what parts were safe and what parts were completely not safe.
But it’s like — it’s by no means me not wanting to admit that I’m not superhuman, but cause I’m not — but I get a little saddened by the magic being spoiled, you know? In this day and age, everything is about “behind-the-scenes” and everybody knows fucking everything anyway. But it’s still a little bit like, “But guys, part of the reason why you loved that sequence so much was because you had no idea, no understanding of how it was possible. That’s what makes it so fantastic.”
Wired.com: But I’m still curious, is Ship’s Mast something that anyone had ever done before? Is that something that stunt people do for fun?
Bell: That was definitely the madness of Quentin’s genius mind. I’m sure people have done similar things. I know I’d done similar stunts. But nothing like what Ship’s Mast was. I’m sure there were people who had done it before and then they turned into stunt people. That wouldn’t be totally shocking. But people now have definitely done it and it’s a little bit terrifying. You go on YouTube and there’s footage of people doing Ship’s Mast, and I’m like: “Oh my god, I’m going to be responsible for people dying.”
