Yesterday I got to speak to a lady who has worked on 46 different movies but for the most part, you won’t actually know it’s her on screen! The lady in question is Kimberly Shannon Murphy who has played stunt double to the likes of Amber Heard, Monica Bellucci and more recently, Cameron Diaz in Knight and Day.
Knight and Day is directed by James Mangold, stars Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise and is available to buy on both DVD and Blu-ray now.
Check out our interview with Kimberly below:
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HeyUGuys: How did you get into the stunt business?
Kimberly Shannon Murphy: I started as a gymnast growing up and then got more involved in performing acrobatics. There was a stunt coordinator who needed someone to do acrobatic stuff for a film and I went into audition for it and I got it.
How did you find the transition between doing the gymnastics and then going into the film industry?
The only thing that was different was doing takes over and over where as when you’re performing you only do it once and that’s it. Iwas used to it already so it was a pretty easy transition for me.
How did you go from doing the smaller movies into these Hollywood blockbusters?
Every job is different and it kinda depends what you get called for. Luckily my career has gone very well and I’ve been connected with certain people and I’ve been very lucky.
You seem to be connected with Cameron Diaz and Amber Heard – Do they recommend or do they work with you as you look like them?
With Cameron, we’ve worked together quite a few times and sometimes the actors will ask for you and I’ve been lucky enough where we’ve had a good working relationship and she’s asked for me a couple of times to work with her.
How did you find working with people like Cameron Diaz?
I think it was a natural transition to work with her. We worked on What Happens in Vegas. She’s just a great boss and we get along very well.
So you see them as your boss?
With her I think so yeah because she does ask for me, besides the stunt coordinator, it does matter to me how she wants things to look and how she wants things to go.
With the age of CGI, do you see stunt work always moving to the studio and is this detrimental to working on location?
I don’t as even when you’re doing motion capture stuff, you’re still doing the actual stunts and even when you’re doing movies that are on location, we still work in the studio too.
Are there any movies that you we’re involved in where you admire the stunt work?
I watch movies all the time and I’m like ‘I wish I worked on that’. Salt was a great action movie. I always like to watch the girls kicking butt! I’m a bit fan of Charmed as well! (Laughs!)
Do you find it difficult when an actor might like to do their stunts themselves?
No, I think it’s great. the more the actor can do, the more real it is. The Stunt Co-ordinator is there to versee everything and he’s in charge of it. But we’re there to do all the rehearsals to make sure everything’s safe so they can see it before they actually have to do it.
Have you ever refused to do a stunt because it’s too dangerous?
Danger is a relative word because we rehearse things so much. Of course there is a danger but we keep it as safe as possible. There’s never been anything that I’ve been asked to do that’s outside my skill-set. If it fell outside my skill-set, I would definitely not do it but that hasn’t happened as yet.
Is there a stunt in Knight and Day that sticks out in your mind as one you’ll remember over the rest?
The whole motorcycle chase is so great and in the DVD Extended version, it’s almost twice as long and all the stuff we got to do on the bike was really unique amd really great and I really enjoyed doing it!
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Knight and Day is OUT NOW on DVD and Blu ray and you can order your copy here. Check out this stunt featurette that we have below which shows some of the stuns Kimberly talks about in this interview.
