All by myself: actors who work without stuntmen

They are not afraid of the risk of fatal injury

We are used to cool special effects, stunts that are impossible at first glance, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to surprise us. But have you ever thought about the fact that many actors refuse the services of understudies and perform most of the dangerous scenes themselves? Today we have compiled a list of artists “without fear and reproach", who sometimes risk not only their health, but also their lives.

Tom Cruise

Probably, the list would be incomplete without Tom Cruise, who at the beginning of his career did not have a particular desire to shoot dangerous scenes. Everything changed when Cruise was offered a role in the Mission Impossible franchise: Cruise immediately refused stunt doubles and still performs most of the scenes himself, even though the actor is almost 60 years old! The producers are incredibly afraid that the protagonist of a multi-million dollar series of films will suddenly break something, but Cruise is adamant – himself, so himself.

Jackie Chan

The most injured actor in Hollywood. There is not a single bone in Jackie’s body that the Hollywood legend would not break. And there is nothing surprising here: the actor performs absolutely all the tricks on his own. Of course, in particularly dangerous scenes, the producers insist that an understudy enter the set, but Jackie prefers to take the "fire" on himself. Chan received his worst injury during the filming of the film "Armor of God", where an unsuccessful landing brought the actor a head injury: Jackie was on the verge of life and death, fortunately, the doctors managed to save the actor’s life, but Jackie did not stop to this day Since then, he has performed most of the dangerous stunts on his own, for which he received a special award at one time.

Jason Statham

One of the main handsome men of world cinema is also against his own replacement in dangerous scenes. Statham has become synonymous with the quintessential action movie actor, especially with his role in the Transporter franchise, where Jason did almost all the stunts and fights without the intervention of stuntmen. Like Chan, Statham was on the verge of death: one of the cars on the set lost control and the actor, along with the truck, fell into the water. The actor reacted instantly – he opened the cabin and quickly floated to the surface. Everything worked out.

Buster Keaton

The great actor, the main competitor of Charlie Chaplin, at the beginning of the last century became one of the actors who were not afraid to perform tricks on their own. At the time, producers couldn’t afford to hire actors and stuntmen due to modest budgets, so even stars like Buster agreed to work on the condition that they didn’t have stunt doubles. Yes, then there were no explosions and car chases, which we now see in every second film, but the pictures of the past were not complete without dangerous scenes, for example, take multiple scenes of Chaplin and Keaton falling from various balconies or into hatches. It got to the point that Keaton often had to replace other actors in dangerous scenes, as he was better than others in managing his body.