Never a dull moment Performing stunts a risky business for two brave women

When asked what skills she excels at, Christie Carter responded with an enthusiastic “hitting my head, jumping through windows and falling down stairs.”

It’s a perfectly normal answer, given her profession.

For the past 20 years,

Carter has been a talented, indemand stunt performer for Guardian Star Stunts, whose home base is Conquerall

Bank, a picturesque riverfront community adjacent to Bridgewater.

Carter said physical stunts are difficult to perform without the natural reaction of protecting yourself.

“For example, when people run into a hard object, then fall backwards and hit their heads, it’s very unnatural to make those stunts look natural,” she said.

Carter said as a stunt performer she has never worked for anyone other than Guardian Star Stunts owner Randy Boliver.

“Randy has very high expectations and is fairly rigid on what he wants to get out of his stunt performers. He expects his people to be extremely responsive, professional and conduct themselves at the highest level. At the same time, he is a real jokester. We all have fun with him on set,” she said.

“Everything I have done in this specialized industry has been a direct result of Randy’s training or his recommendations and one-on-one guidance during the past two decades,” she added.

Carter said she has always been attracted to the uniqueness of stunt performing, although the profession doesn’t consume her life. She enjoys her full-time job as a marketing and proposal co-ordinator for Bird Construction, a leading builder in Canada for 101 years.

“It’s a desk job with lots of reading, writing and techy stuff. I’ve been fortunate to always have stunt performing as a bit of a side gig, usually a couple days here and there when I’m needed,” she said.

“I’m able to work at my marketing job, then when Randy needs me, I can jump in for him. The situation is manageable thanks to my understanding manager at Bird, Rick Buhr,” she added.

Carter said stunt performers on movies are typically required for only one or two days, whereas work on a television series such as Haven, Diggstown, Moonshine and The Sinner can be much longer.

“Being chosen as a stunt performer really comes down to how well you match the actor, based on body size and colouring. I can’t do fight scenes. I look completely unrealistic, so I’m not going to put my name out there even if my physical characteristics do closely match the actor,” she said.

Carter said one of her more memorable stunts was performed during the filming of Haven.

“It involved the character getting blown into the air off a dock and into the water due to a lightning bolt hitting a nearby electrical transformer box. It was a fairly complicated stunt that required precise timing with the special effects department and the use of an air ram to launch me into the air. An air ram is considered one of the more dangerous pieces of equipment used in stunts,” she said.

“I did five seasons with Haven. That was so much fun because I was able to build a familiarity with the cast and crew. I was the stunt double for the lead actress for the first three seasons, then for two seasons after that I doubled for a variety of characters,” she added.

These days, the mother of a 14-year-old son is not performing stunts because she’s expecting her second child in May. Instead, Carter is working with Boliver on rigging and stunt co-ordination.

Kayla Flinn is also one of three “angels” on Boliver’s Guardian Star Stunts team. She only joined the team in the summer, but has worked in film for eight years, including producing and directing.

Flinn is athletic and fit, definite assets when performing stunts. She was a competitive springboard diver, has wrestled and played rugby and football. She also has her diving certification.

And she’s no slouch in the brain department, either, earning a bachelor degree in sociology, a masters in environmental studies and a diploma in environmental and sustainable education.

A world traveller, Flinn is an artist, documentarian and studied a donkey population in Bonaire.

When she completed her studies, Flinn found there were not many jobs in environmental science in Nova

Scotia, so she accepted an internship at the Hope for Wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth.

Flinn said she worked on seasons six and seven of the Hope for Wildlife reality show, doing a lot of animal rescues, eventually becoming an associate producer, then directing season 10.

“I've bounced around a lot but working with Randy during the summer was an eye-opener. He is respectful, a great communicator and he makes work fun. It's like working with one's dad,” she said.

“I love the film industry; every day on set is different. Out of everything I have done, stunt performing seems the right fit for me. I have been described as a Renaissance woman and this is where I am the happiest and most fulfilled,” she added.

Flinn is currently working as Boliver's key stunt rigger on a feature film being shot in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

STUNT WOMEN