These 5 actors/actresses all opted to take the risk upon themselves and perform stunts that terrified them in order to make the action look more realistic for the audience. From diving into water tanks, hanging out of tall buildings or riding on the bonnet of a moving car, these 5 actors have pulled off some amazing stunts which they admit at first really scared them. They had to get over some big fears in order to make the stunt happen successfully and felt even better when they managed to conquer what had worried them and make something visually awe-inspiring as a result.
Drew Barrymore
After experiencing a terrifying moment while filming ‘Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle’ in which her harness broke and she slid off the bonnet of a moving car onto the ground, Drew admits she feared for her life: “I was peeing in my pants. It made me reevaluate how far I should take this fearlessness thing.”
Isla Fisher
Isla thought she was going to die during filming for ‘Now You See Me’ in which she had to swim in an underwater tank: ”There were a few dodgy moments where I panicked that I couldn’t get out of the tank. I’d think, ‘So this is how I go. Didn’t see that one coming!’ ‘It felt great when the director said to me, ‘You know, I’ve had actors before who wouldn’t feel comfortable doing the stunts that you felt comfortable doing.’ ”
Bond girl Olga did all of her own stunts for Quantum of Solace but had to get over her fear of heights first: “I was more than a little apprehensive during the party scene when the Bond villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is supposed to push me off a very high balustrade. I had to jump from the roof to the balcony and I don’t like to be at such a high point because I’m scared of heights. I can’t even walk on the balcony of my apartment. But I had 45 minutes to do the stunt and the stunt co-ordinators explained to me that I was attached to a wire, and it was safe, so I did it.”
Ryan Gosling
Ryan admits he was fearful of the dramatic motorcycle stunts which were filmed for his part in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’: ”I think you need to be scared a little bit. Once you lose the fear, you got to get off it because then your mind starts to wander and you get in trouble. But when I was a kid, I was walking to school and saw this guy on a motorcycle get hit by a car. He was lying on the ground, and he had blood coming out of his head. And my first thought was, ‘I want a motorcycle.’ They put some kind of spell on you. It’s dangerous.”
Tom Cruise
Tom was only 19 when he filmed his first stunt for film ‘Taps’ and admits he thought he would have to be shot for real: ”In one scene, I was firing a machine gun out a window, and I looked down and there was a guy shooting back at me. This was my first experience with stunts – and an expert marksman was aiming at me! I didn’t want to look like I was dumb, but between takes I pulled the guy aside and said, ‘Have you done this before? You’re not going to shoot me, are you?’ I was terrified that my first big part would be my last.”
