Yes, generally speaking, I get to do my own stunts.
— Zoe Bell
As a stuntwoman, I never wanted anyone to ever feel afraid for me. I didn't want anyone to ever feel sorry for me.
It never occurred to me that being a stunt girl would get me recognized in any way, because the whole purpose of a stunt person is to not be known.
I think I'm one of those actors who has come around the backside of something, you know? I came in the backdoor without even realizing that that's what I was doing.
You've just got to know yourself, and know what you're worth, and know where you're going, and know that you can always, always learn more.
This may sound conceited, but the more predominant the role, the more comfortable I am on set.
What I've had to learn is that I'm also fragile.
I don't surround myself with a lower quality of human.
When I was on 'Xena,' I remember the sound guy and the director at some point being like, you have to make sounds when you fight, and I was like, what are you talking about? You're never going to use it. But they hounded me for a good couple of hours, and basically it was, you need to act, you can't just perform the moves.
I stepped away from stunts and into acting right around when stunt people started getting put into motion-capture stuff.
It's always scarier saying 'No.' As an actress, I can say 'Yes' to more. But sometimes, as a stunt-woman, I have to say 'No.'
It's not until after you've been hit by a car and landed all right that the fear kicks in.
When you're falling through space time has no meaning.
The producing thing has come quite naturally to me. I feel like for directing, I would like to be more technically-savvy. I want to have the language under my belt, and I also want it to be a project that is very personal to me, for my first one.
It's not easy, acting.
When I started to trust myself to be an actor, and to be considered that way and consider myself, that is when people started to see me in that way because that was the truth then, as opposed to me being a stunt girl going, 'Please see me as an actor, please see me as an actor!' when I didn't see myself that way.
Work wise, as a stunt woman, I enjoy telly - or TV - because - and, as an actor - I kind of enjoy the urgency of it. I enjoy the problem-solving that's happening. Right now, we don't have time to rehearse for hours. And, if something goes wrong, we don't have time to shoot something else for four days until we sort it out.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but I'm not much of a fighter.
I'm pretty comfortable on any set where I have something to do.
With acting, it's my job to be emotionally vulnerable and accessible.
It turns out I do okay just playing an angry self-righteous woman.
I met this group of stunt people and it was like, I had found family instantly. We're all a variety of different personalities, but whatever that mutual joy or appreciation of the work is, I'd not felt it like that before. It was, 'Yeah, I'd like to do this forever.'
I have come a long way from a girl with pigtails and acne showing up and going, 'Hey guys, I'm here! Where do you want me to fall over?'
I'm not invincible.
If you're going to fight Tom Cruise, you really don't want to make that man bleed.
I keep myself safe both physically and emotionally in my working environment by 'being one of the boys.' In my head, subconsciously, that was my safe place.
I never thought about being an actor.
If it wasn't for 'Kill Bill' I probably would have been back in New Zealand three months after I left, and if it wasn't for 'Death Proof' I don't think I would be pursuing an acting career right now.
One of the things I really like about TV is the family, the maintaining of the family camaraderie. Film has it, too, especially when you're on location. It's like summer camp. You'll get really close, really fast. But, then you'll have to say goodbye.
I've always loved the collaborative side of filmmaking, and there's a lot of things I can do in the acting side of things in terms of the creating of action sequences, and coming up with ways of doing things with a stunt coordinator.
Usually, what happens with women that aren't comfortable with fighting is they're afraid of getting hurt, or hurting someone. All it usually takes to get them going is to make them feel safe, and make them feel like they look cool while doing it. And once they get a little more comfortable, they're gung ho!
As a stunt woman, I took it upon myself to be a bit of a jock about it. So you wouldn't see me vulnerable, you wouldn't see me hurting or sad because I was there as a professional to do my job. Nobody likes to see a girl get hurt - that's the truth of it - so I had to put them at ease so they would let me do my job.
My becoming an actor was a massive shift for me, and a terrifying one.
Basically, I'd finished doing gymnastics when I was 15, 16, but I'd stayed training because I'd just sort of loved it, and I'd met a man by the name of Peter Bell - no relation - who it turns out was a stuntman in New Zealand.
As a performer, the more I scare the stunt coordinator, the better.
When I'm a stunt woman on a movie, I'm strictly a 'Yes sir,' girl... But acting puts more in your hands, and producing gives you more control still.
I don't like hitting people in the face.
