io9.gizmodo.com: Monique Ganderton has had an impressive career. The stunt double for Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, a stunt coordinator on Avengers: Infinity War, and a stunt performer in a long list of films, she’s a seasoned and respected voice in the stunt side of film.
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Before watching this video, I had known absolutely nothing about what goes into stunt making besides the fact that stunt doubles exist. Honestly, I was not very shocked to read that Monique Ganderton was the first female stunt coordinator that Marvel has hired, although I was still very disappointed to read that. I am however excited that articles like this are being published and more people can see the work that goes into being a stunt person and a stunt coordinator. I am hoping that getting more exposure about this part of the industry will allow more women to feel like they can go into a career like this, especially learning that most of Ganderton's training came from her in a park just rolling around and falling. I am hoping that her being hired to be the stunt coordinator of Infinity War will be a turning point in this industry and she will no longer be the only girl in the room while working on her stunts. This interview gave me an immense respect for a job that I knew nothing about, and I really hope more people will see it and gain that same respect and maybe be encouraged to try that job out themselves.
Ganderton talks in the video about being the only woman in the room sometimes for various stunt work, and I think that’s a more telling sign of the lack of women in the industry period and the lack of stories written about interesting and diverse women doing interesting and action filled things that would warrant the hiring of more women stunt professionals. This is obviously a problem over all, but one that hopefully is starting, attempting, trying to change. Stunt work is an amazing field, it’s filled with people who are incredibly talented and probably slightly super powered, otherwise how do you explain being able to walk away from getting thrown down a flight of stairs multiple times? Opening that field up to more amazing women like Ganderton is an exciting thing, and something I hope that the theater industry starts to take notice of with fight choreographers. I don’t believe I have ever worked with a woman fight choreographer, probably for the same reasons that Ganderton finds herself often alone in a room full of men during work. I’d like to see that change.
I was really excited to see this article because a lot of the past articles I have read about the stunt business in film have been about men, and I had been wondering how the stunt industry stacks up in terms of diversity and inclusion. I also think that with the rising number of women being cast and starring in action movies, this industry will also be forced to include more women, and I think that the woman this article is doing an amazing job of paving the way for the others who will be joining the industry in the near future. I was also really surprised that I did not see more articles about Marvel hiring a female stunt coordinator, as it is such an advancement in that industry. I also really appreciated the fact that she takes her job seriously and pointed out the level of responsibility that comes with being a stunt coordinator in film.
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