Jean-Paul Belmondo may not ring a bell, but as far as actors and filmmaking go, he’s one of France’s best. Whether it’s arthouse classics or high-octane action, Belmondo seemed to have a death wish when it came to doing his own stunts.
From exploding cars and assassins to navigating precarious high-rise construction sites and – we kid you not – huddling inside a phone booth when a helicopter picks it up and drops into an ocean with a man-eating shark, these were just some of his moves. To call Belmondo an adrenaline junkie is to do the term a disservice. Belmondo never said no – not even to falling down an enormous rock quarry. Whoever said the French were wimps?
Chloë Grace Moretz
Though only a youthful twenty-three years old, Moretz has already earned a reputation as an actress who rolls her eyes at the thought of a stuntwoman replacing her. Her wide range of talents helped bring her to prominence in such films as 2010's Kick-Ass which, while a terrible movie, had Moretz doing all her own stunts to a good amount of applause.
Her character Hit-Girl was a menace during the film, and it was even more impressive for Moretz since she was only thirteen when the film came out. I mean, for Pete's sake, she gets shot in the chest while wearing a bullet-proof vest. That's rough for anybody.
Elizabeth Olsen
As Wanda Maximoff – superhero alter ego Scarlet Witch – Elizabeth Olsen suffered a pretty serious bruise to her upper arm while filming a stunt for one of the Avengers movies. She took to her social media to show off a photo of the bruise.
Just like many of her co-stars, Olsen did most of her own stunts in the famous superhero film series. She also received high praise from costume designer Ruth Carter, who pointed out that Olsen created her own “normal dress” to wear during the fight sequence when she got the bruise.
Mariska Hargitay
She's been in a few movies here and there, but Mariska Hargitay's most popular role is on Law and Order SVU, where she gets into plenty of action. So much, in fact, that she's actually suffered a partially-collapsed lung while performing a stunt fall in 2009. Luckily she was no worse for wear and was fully recovered after a few weeks.
Since then, she's let a few different stuntwomen take her place in order to stay healthy, but she still has skin in the game when it comes to filming fights and some other scenes. Doing stunts is a young actress's game.
Scarlett Johansson
Actors and actresses in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have a history of getting into the action and showing up in a big way. Scarlett Johansson is known for plenty of roles, but her most well-known is probably that of the Russian assassin Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow.
Her combat and infiltration skills are legendary, but people who were wowed by the Black Widow might be surprised to learn Johanssen dove, leaped, launched, and fought without the help of a stuntwoman. It adds a whole new level to her cool factor and gets us even more excited for the Black Widow film that will, hopefully, come out at some point.