Knight and Day
Knight and Day was released on DVD and Blu-ray this week, and there's action galore in it. We took some time with Kimberly Shannon Murphy, Cameron Diaz's stunt double, and found out what it's like to be a stuntwoman on a Hollywood blockbuster.
You worked on Knight and Day as Cameron Diaz's stunt double, how was that and were there a lot of stunts involved?
Yes, there was a lot of action involved, for her it was pretty much everything on the motorcycle, Yeah it was a great great movie.
Did Cameron do a lot of the stunts herself?
She did, her and Tom [Cruise] are both very similar in that way, where they were involved in every single process of the stunt work and they were very hands-on with everything.
How was it working with Cameron Diaz, you've worked on quite a few of her films now, how is it working with her?
She's great and I've been so blessed to have had the chance to work with her and to continue working with her, she's just truly a great person and just really respects everyone and every aspect of the film and what everybody does.
Do the major stars keep themselves to themselves or do they talk to a lot of the crew and work alongside you a lot?
Yeah, as far as she's concerned she's as normal as they come, she's right there, she knows everybody's name, she's just a regular person
You've worked on quite a lot of films, which would you say was the most challenging to work on with the most challenging stunts?
Definitely, Knight and Day was the most challenging and fun, a lot of work went into the motorcycle sequence and we were on it for 8 months doing the movie and it was definitely one of my favourites.
Do you ever show your friends and show which part was you, do you ever take pride in that sort of thing?
Oh yeah, I definitely take pride in everything I do, and to be involved in a film of this calibre and to work with Tom and Cameron is something I'm proud of, for sure.
Which has been your favourite stunt to do?
Like I said, literally everything I got to do on the bike was so fun and so great, you know, riding through the streets of Spain, there's not much better than that.
Do you like motorcycling?
Yeah, I like it more now than I did before I did the film.
How was it working in Spain? Did you get to work on any other locations that were quite dramatic and amazing?
They went to Austria, but I didn't get go to Austria, I was in Boston then I was in Spain and we went to Jamaica and that was amazing. Yeah it was great.
When you're on set, do you get to take in those places or is it non-stop? Are you constantly working?
Oh yeah, it's definitely non-stop, on a movie you're working at least five days a week and about 12 hours a day as standard, but when you're working in somewhere as beautiful as Sevilla and Jamaica, of course it's better than being on a studio lot for sure.
How did you first get into stunt work?
I started as a gymnast, and competed through high school and i was also a dancer and performing acrobatics and did that for a while. Then there was a stunt co-ordinator in New York who was looking for someone to do some work on a film that sort of had what my skill set was and he hired and that's how i started working.
So, is this now your career? Are you still going down the stunt route?
I still do my acrobatics for my training but as far as work is concerned I've been really lucky, literally my first movie was six years ago and I've been working constantly ever since.
Do you mainly do the acrobatics type stunts or are you doing more of the nerve-wracking stunts?
I do a mixture of both.
Do you find the more dangerous ones you get nervous coming up to those?
No, I don't. More dangerous, it depends, everything we do is dangerous on some level. The thing we do is rehearse them really well, it's not like you're thrown into a situation that hasn't been rehearsed, the danger level is there, but it's never like, “Oh my god, I'm going to die.”
Do you have lots of safety regulations, do they have to make sure it's definitely going to be okay, have there been sometimes where it's a case of, “let's just try it”?
No, never, especially on the bigger stuff, if we're doing any wire stuff, in the air, jumping off anything, that sort of thing, it's all stunt riggers that that's what they do, we're rehearsing with them for weeks before we actually do it, so no, it's never done that way.
Which actress has been the most hands-on?
Cameron loves [doing stunts], obviously you saw her in Charlies Angels and she got to do a lot of physical stuff in that and that's what she loves to do, and all the driving stunts in Knight and Day were done by her. She loves it.
Have there been any actors that were fairly hands-on?
As far as people I've worked with, I'd say Tom and Cameron were high up there in the list.
That's all the questions I have, thanks for your time and good luck.
Thank you.
FemaleFirst – James Butlin