Send in the stuntman - er, woman

Page 17

Chances are you've seen Joyce McNeal dozens of times but never knew it. Whether it's doubling for actors like Stephanie Powers, Faye Dunaway or Tantoo Cardinal, this stuntwoman can do it all-and for McNeal, being thrown down a flight of stairs or left dangling from a helicopter is just another day on the job.

McNeal is San Luiseno, Yurok, Karuk and Shasta and grew up on the Rincon Indian Reservation in Southern California. As one of two Native American women in the Stuntwomen's Association of Motion Pictures, the LA-based McNeal has been making her name in film for more than 20 years.

Most days, like today, you can find McNeal hiking the trails or riding her horse Cha Puck Puck in the hills overlooking Hollywood. She's an expert horsewoman and said she was riding before she could walk. McNeal said she's always loved sports and it's that athletic prowess that has allowed her to remain at the top of directors' phone lists.

McNeal was in her twenties when she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, but after a few years of small walk-on parts and pounding the pavement as an extra, McNeal befriended a stuntman who took her under his wing and became her mentor.

"Once I got the training and I started working on film sets, I realized this is what I wanted to do. You get that adrenaline rush, and I just find the work-the physical challenge of stunts -really fulfilling," she said.

And with only a handful of women capable of performing stunts, McNeal's career soon took off.

With a list of credits that run from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wild Wild West and Walter Hill's Geronimo, McNeal said the level of difficulty and element of danger varies with each call. The seasoned stuntwoman insists that she doesn't take shortcuts and uses, not only her expertise in the field, but also her intuition when sizing up a job.

"You're either the one in charge or there's a stunt co-ordinator who will stick up for you. If I don't like the looks of something, I won't do it. I've been really fortunate because that's never happened to me-I've never walked away, but I've heard stories where people have been asked to slide down a banister then jump off a roof 12-foot down to a cement sidewalk with no pad. That's ridiculous," she comments.

In a career that spans over two decades doing what looks like hair-raising stunts, McNeal has never been seriously hurt and she explained that sometimes it's the little things that catch her off-guard.

"The first time I really got to do a good fire burn was in the film The Witness," she said nonchalantly, "well opposed to just the explosion kind of stuff!" But, she goes on to say, "I did an explosion once where I was playing a bag lady and the shot was where I open up a bag to look inside and a bomb explodes in my face and knocks me backwards. We did the scene a couple of times and it was great but what happened is someone helped me put on the clear fire gel that goes on your skin for protection. Because I didn't do it I didn't realize that it wasn't completely on everything and at the end of the shoot I saw that my eyelashes had been singed off. But those things you learn from experience and the next time I made sure I put on my own gel! You want to make sure you've got the right people around you when you're doing these things," she advised.

With the nature of television programming shifting from the action shows of the 1970s to the sitcoms of the 90s, and productions being shot outside of California, work calls have dramatically decreased both for women and men. For those interested in getting into the business, her best advice is to get out and talk to people.

"The best way to get in is to meet a stunt performer and a lot of them are willing to help you. If they can't physically help, they will advise you where to go and not meaning a school - I don't personally recommend that. There are different people here that have the facilities in their backyards that can train peopl: they're set up to do high falls and can show you how to do fight scenes."

With over 200 feature films and television credits to her name, McNeal has seen changes come slowly in her industry. For many years McNeal has been a part of the Screen Actors Guild's (SAG) committee that has been advocating casting "real American Indians" for roles, as well as sitting on SAG's Minority Stunts Performers Board.

"We haven't done that much lately but we did help in getting the film industry using minorities to represent themselves in acting roles but also getting them to use minority stunt performers as the doubles. If you're using a Native American actor then hire a Native American stunt performer-and if you're Latino, you do the same thing. That's what we were pushing for. We want them to use the same ethnic background as the actor."

McNeal says the most notable change since she started out is that stuntwomen are now being taken more seriously and hired to double for women, instead of the old days where the men donned wigs and were decked out in high-heels. Twenty years ago she says it was a different story and she was faced with a double discrimination: not only being a woman but being Native American. And in an ironic twist, years later McNeal found herself being one of the few stuntwomen who actually gets called in to double in for a man. But there's also been another shift in social consciousness; one that hits a little closer to home for her.

"A lot of producers are now trying to find Native Americans for Native American roles. They don't just go and darken someone down, because they used to do that all the time. We've finally got to that point where there's a lot more understanding and support for ethnic minorities in the industry. It wasn't there at all when I started out."

"I remember when I first got into this business and I went out for an audition-this is before Indians were popular-and the producer and director looked at me and said 'You're not Indian.' The laughed at me in my face and said I wasn't Indian because I had blue eyes. So we have come a long way in that respect. When I go in for an interview, it's one of the things I want people to see, 'Yes I do have blue eyes' and maybe I don't look like your idea of a typical Indian but we don't all look like that stereotype. Sometimes if I'm doing a film like Geronimo, I'll wear brown contact lenses because that's what they wanted. Anywhere I go-award shows, or out in public like in the Rose Parade and the interview we did for that-I make sure they can tell I have blue eyes. We don't all have this long black straight hair or dark skin. I try and make that point. Unless the director wants me to wear brown contacts, I don't!"

She says what she would really like to do in her career is become more of a stunt co-ordinator than performer on projects, as well as working in more Native films.

"That would definitely be a highlight for me. I'd also like to be involved in the production end of things as well. I'm going to start pursuing that aspect of the business."

In the immediate future, McNeal leaves to go on location to Las Vegas where she'll be behind the wheel doing stunts for the upcoming movie Rat Race, a remake of the classic comedy It's A Mad, Mad World.

Even though McNeal can hold her own in the world of stunts, she said there was one call for work she turned down without hesitating.

"A few years ago I got called to do a scene where tarantulas would be crawling all over me. I could probably handle it now, but at that time there was no way I was going to do it. I didn't have to even think about that one," she laughed.