Stunt performers who act as body doubles for actors are often underappreciated despite their immense contribution to the filmmaking process. In recent years, more and more actors and others in the entertainment industry have called for recognition by adding “stunts” as an Oscars category. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s latest film, The Fall Guy, makes the same case by highlighting the importance of stunt performers in Hollywood. The Fall Guy, an action comedy, had its Los Angeles premiere on May 1. It will hit the theatres on May 3.
Before the film’s screening, Gosling showed his support for the stunt performers and said, “They are the hardest working people in show business. This movie is just a giant campaign to get stunts an Oscar category.” He continued, “We are the face of these films, but the crews really make the movies, and this is a love letter to them.”
The Fall Guy is loosely based on the 1980s TV series of the same name that was centred around stunt performers. It is directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce. The film’s plot follows a stuntman who wants to salvage his ex-girlfriend’s directorial debut action film but somehow finds himself in a conspiracy about the film’s lead actor who goes missing.
The Fall Guy is peppered with elaborate stunts many of which pay homage to iconic action films like Sharky’s Machine and Casino Royale. One of its stunt sequences in the film earned the Guinness World Record for “the most cannon rolls in a car”. Stunt driver Logan Holladay managed to do eight and a half rolls, which broke the previous record held by stuntman Adam Kirley, who did seven cannon rolls during the James Bond film Casino Royale.
The LA premiere was not the first time that Gosling advocated for more recognition for stunt performers. In a BBC interview, the 43-year-old said, “They play our characters as well, they’re actors too, in the same union. But they hide their face and disappear into the shadows and everyone pretends they weren’t there. The better they are at their job, the more they disappear in a way. It ends now.”
Blunt also shared the same sentiment and said, “They’ve trained for this, they have courage beyond words and I think because there is an innate humility with stunt performers, they don’t feel the need to broadcast what they do. But I think it’s time that we do.”
The film’s writer Drew Pearce, in conversation with Variety, described The Fall Guy as a “blue collar story”. He explained, “I tried to think about it as a blue collar story rather than an entertainment industry story — the best version of a metaphor for people who work really hard for the sake of richer, more successful, more seen humans, and actually risk their life for it for all of our entertainment’s sakes.”
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