19 actors who actually performed their own stunts
Actors are amazing. They have the power to take control of our emotions and genuinely make us believe that the movies they act in are really happening. But who knew they would take such risks to their own well being to make a movie better for the audience?
Stunts in movies can get extremely intense, so why would an actor put themselves in a situation that could cause them pain? Maybe it’s the thrill, or maybe it’s to make the movie look as realistic as possible. Either way it’s amazing that some actors do their own stunts. From jumping off cliffs, to performing acts on a trapeze, here are 19 times actors did stunts themselves.
Twentieth Century Fox Press Photo
1. Zendaya, “The Greatest Showman”
Zendaya is a jack of all trades. She performed all her own stunts in “Euphoria” and in this movie she performed all of her own trapeze stunts, which is both amazing, and terrifying.
Paramount Pictures Press Photo
2. Tom Cruise, “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning”
Tom Cruise is known for performing his own stunts, but this one is just bananas. The scene in “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning” where Ethan Hunt jumps off a mountain actually happened, and it took years of preparation to get Tom Cruise ready for that one. The practice included over 500 skydives, and 13,000 motocross jumps.
Paramount Pictures Press Photo
3. Harrison Ford, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”
Harrison Ford performed all of his stunts for the “Indiana Jones” movies. Which is pretty amazing because if you watch one, there are some pretty intense stunts performed in these movies. Even in the most recent film of the series, where Ford was eighty years old, he was still performing most of his own stunts.
Columbia Pictures Press Photo
4. Angelina Jolie, “Salt”
Angelina Jolie insisted on doing her own stunts in this movie, even though producers tried to persuade her to let her double complete the scenes. Some of these stunts were so intense, they ended up sending Jolie to the hospital.
Columbia Pictures Press Photo
5. Tom Holland, “Spider Man”
It may be hard to believe, but all of the flips and tricks you see in the “Spider Man” movies are not CGI. Tom is actually performing these tricks on a set. Although he may have some help from mini trampolines to boost his jumps, he’s still performing the stunts himself.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Press Photo
6. Daniel Craig, “Casino Royale”
Craig has been known to perform his own stunts in all of the “007” movies, but this one stands out the most. Whether it was standing on top of a moving train, or standing outside a helicopter that was in the air, Craig is no stranger to stunts.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Press Photo
7. Christian Bale, “The Dark Knight”
It should come as no surprise that Batman performs his own stunts, but these ones get pretty intense. The stunts included hanging off a building and making some pretty serious jumps, which would strike fear into most, but not Bale.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Press Photo
8. Sylvester Stallone, “Rocky IV”
Although Stallone performed his own stunts for all the Rocky movies, “Rocky IV” took the biggest toll on him physically. It is said that he told Dolph Lundgren not to pull his punches so the film would look realistic. Unfortunately this led to Stallone breaking a few ribs during the filming of this movie.
Paramount Pictures Press Photo
9. Chris Evans, “Captain America: The First Avenger”
Chris Evans takes pride in doing his own stunts. Although most other actors get to use CGI when doing their roles, Captain America’s powers are more human-like, which makes it easier to perform the stunts. Regardless of all that, I’m definitely not comfortable hanging off a building with a 50 foot drop.
Thunder Road Pictures Press Photo
10. Keanu Reeves, “John Wick”
Reeves claims that it makes the movie much more realistic if the actors perform the stunts themselves, and he couldn’t be more correct. From movies like “The Matrix” to “Speed” Keanu Reeves has been doing his own stunts for a while. Even all the gun play in “John Wick” which is extremely impressive.
20th Century Fox Press Photo
11. Daniel Stern, “Home Alone”
“Home Alone” is an absolute classic. But an all time skin crawling scene was the spider on “The Wet Bandits” head. This scene however, was completely real, so you can assume Stern’s scream was too.
Universal Pictures Press Photo
12. Jason Statham, “Furious 7”
Statham performs almost all of his own stunts and is on record saying “I’m not scared to perform any stunt”. Although there are countless movies where he performed the stunts himself, the most impressive is “Furious 7” because the stunts included fights, and serious vehicular stunts. \
Lightstorm Entertainment Press Photo
13. Sigourney Weaver, “Avatar 2: The Way of Water”
Weaver performed loads of stunts for “Avatar: The Way of Water” which is extremely impressive considering most of the stunts took place under water.
New Line Cinema Press Photo
14. Jackie Chan, “Rush Hour”
Some would call Jackie Chan “the king of stunts” and they wouldn’t be wrong. From jumping off buildings, to taking some serious punches, Jackie has done about any stunt you can dream up.
Lucasfilm Press Photo
15. Adam Driver, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
Driver did hours of preparation for this role, and the stunts that came with it. Adam Driver took his role in this series very seriously, and you can tell from how great it looked on screen.
Warner Bros. Pictures Press Photo
16. Margot Robbie, “Birds of Prey”
Robbie performed all of her own fight sequences in this movie which is extremely impressive. She also performed most of her stunts without the help of her stunts double. Don’t mess with Margot.
Screen Gems Press Photo
17. Milla Jovich, “Resident Evil”
During the filming of the first “Resident Evil” Jovich performed all of her own stunts except one, which is pretty amazing considering how intense a lot of the stunts performed were.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Press Photo
18. Dwayne Johnson, “San Andreas”
‘The Rock’ performs almost all of his own stunts, but this movie was particularly physically taxing for the actor. There are plenty of massive jumps in this movie, and Johnson refused to let his double take over for these scenes.
Warner Bros. Press Photo
19. Bruce Lee, “Enter the Dragon”
We all know Bruce Lee was a martial arts master, but the way he swings the nunchucks in this movie is absolutely mind expanding. It is said that during filming, the director had to ask Lee to slow down his movements because the cameras were having a hard time keeping up with his speed during fight scenes and other stunts.
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This article originally appeared on Intuit.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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