By Amanda MacLeod (BFA’12)
Growing up, I had a secret: I wanted to fly.
After seeing the 2000 action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I longed to dance on buildings like Zhang Ziyi and fight like Michelle Yeoh, but I never told a soul. My youth in Jackson, Wyoming, had a dual focus—cultivating an adrenaline-seeking attitude on the ski slopes while training 30 hours a week as a pre-professional dancer. This path eventually led me to Mason Gross, recruited by Professor Randy James.
Eventually, after graduating and spending a few years as a performance artist in Brooklyn, I migrated to Los Angeles on a whim. With two suitcases and zero contacts, I began working in the film industry as a choreographer and dancer, where I encountered a new breed of performer: the stunt professional.
I quickly realized that my dance background had equipped me with the mental fortitude and choreographic memory that organically cross-pollinated with martial arts and informed stunt training.
My first booking in 2017 was a trial-by-fire. Four callbacks after an open call for a film I knew nothing about, I found myself snarling into a camera held by Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron, who was tracking and recording my positioning and movement. Avatar: The Way of Water became my first stunt job and entryway into the industry.
My training allows me to mimic the actors I double and to bring a unique affectation to characters—like my role as zombie “Headless Billy Butcherson” in 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2. I threw in some of my own little character choices to enhance the comic relief of this headless animated body, and as a result, my hero, Doug Jones, who originated the role in 1993, paid me a very sweet compliment: He told me how impressed he was with my ability to mimic his movement almost exactly, and that he loved how I added my own little essence to the character. He’s a master of nuance and physical acting, so to hear this from him was everything.
I even had the chance to meet Michelle Yeoh on the set of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Secret childhood dream: realized.
I love this work. I love the thrill of performance, because it’s a combination of your own preparedness, getting an opportunity—which is thrilling in its own right—and trusting all your training. I love it because I’ve worked very hard to get here, I love it because performing is what I believe I was put here to do.
The work I do is thrilling, adrenaline inducing, and requires a great amount of trust and skill, so there’s nothing like getting the shot on the first take, and hearing the A.D. say: “Moving on.” Free-falling 30 feet through the air, tumbling down stairs, and somehow magically still hitting your mark, or being a part of a fight scene where every player is nailing the choreo and/or adjusting seamlessly with the camera operator in a one-shot take (what we call a “Oner”). . . . I love it all.
To be honest, it’s a lot like being in a dance company and performing on stage with all your company members: Everyone is dancing around each other and living entirely in the moment, enabling all of us to react at a moment’s notice. It’s magical when it works.
Image Credit: Amanda MacLeod, center, as headless Billy Butcherson on the set of Hocus Pocus 2 with, at right, Doug Jones, who originated the role.