‘I always wanted to be a professional dancer when I was growing up. When I was in school I was interested in certain subjects but I used to daydream out the window a lot and imagine being on stage performing and being famous.
My family were always very supportive and my mother knew there was something there. She let me leave school, at the age of 15, to pursue my career in dance. She had seen me performing enough and she said, ‘I need to let her go’.
I trained in Ireland at the Montfort College of Performing Arts. Then I went to London at 18 and did a three-year degree in London Contemporary Dance School. I was performing with lots of different ballet companies and theatre shows around the UK and Ireland and I absolutely loved it.
I came back to Ireland when I was 30. I was performing in Grease in the Cork Opera House when a very good friend of mine approached me and said she wanted to recommend me as a stuntwoman for Vikings. That got the ball rolling and I went on to switch from dancing to stunts.
The skills from my dancing alone are a great help as a stunt performer. Being a dancer brings discipline, choreography and the ability to pick up moves quickly, which is very important on set. Plus, I’ve always been very active. I was a gymnast when I was younger, I’ve done a bit of kickboxing and I did horse riding too.
As a stunt performer you’re always training. You have to keep up with different disciplines and be as well rounded as you can because you just don’t know what’s going to be thrown at you. It’s a lifetime of keeping skills up and keeping fit but also learning new skills all the time.
We do a lot of sword and shield work and I’ve also done my Precision Driving Level 1 course. You do turns and 360s, in and out of cones. And you have to do it in under two minutes. It’s a great adrenaline rush, and great fun, but stunt driving is one of those skills that requires extreme precision because if you’re on set and you hit an actor or cameraman, you’re in big trouble. So you’ve got to make sure you’re very confident and competent behind the wheel.
I’ve done a good few crazy stunts along the way. There were a lot of very intense fight scenes with swords and shields and stuff going on fire in Vikings, so I got pretty battered with that.
I’ve done a lot of high falls too. That involves harness work and spinning rig work in the air, which means putting a lot of trust in your riggers and your [stunt] coordinators.
Luckily, I haven’t had too many injuries. I’ve had a dislocated shoulder, I sliced my hand open and my Achilles was a bit on the weak side for a while. But I’ve had no breaks, thank god, except for your usual bumps and bruises.
I also double for actresses. I was secondary stunt double for Jessica Chastain in an upcoming production — she’s absolutely lovely. I’ve also doubled for Katheryn Winnick, the main actress in Vikings, Sarah Bolger in Into the Badlands and a few more big names that I can’t mention yet.
As a stunt double, you get to spend time with [the actor] and rehearse with them, and then you help them out if they want to do a bit more of the fight scene. You work closely with them and you have to embrace how they move and make sure you’re representing them correctly.
Physicality and a similar body helps, but because you’re portraying them, you have to be sure of any action you do. You see a lot of actors now becoming a lot more involved with [their stunt doubles] and having an input, so there’s pressure there too.
Ideally, you want to work with an actress who snaps you up and takes you around the world working on different productions. They like you and off you go.
That’s what happened to Bobby Holland Hanton who doubles for Chris Hemsworth. They train together and travel the world together. And it’s a dream because you’re guaranteed work and you get to do what you love. Personally, I’d love to do a Marvel movie or something like The Boys so there’s a mixture of doing fight scenes and some acting.
I train about five times a week — a mixture of running, weights and resistance work. And I’m just getting back to my boxing and kickboxing. I eat pretty clean but at the end of the day I love my desserts and my chocolate. I don’t stop myself from having the nice things and I don’t overthink it.
I’ve always had more of a strong physique than a thin one. In saying that, I work hard when I train and I know I have to stay in shape because actors and actresses are getting smaller these days.
But it’s not just about being physically fit and skilled in many different areas. On-set etiquette is extremely important as well. A lot of coordinators and directors prefer to work with someone who has the skills but who is also a nice person to be around. I suppose you have to be quite confident and be able to get on with people and be a team player. And then obviously you’re dealing with actors, so you have to be really adaptable and on the ball.
Getting into the stunt industry often starts with a person doing a kickboxing class or a rock climbing class and really loving it. We have a lot of ex-army people coming in because they’re just fit as hell and built like tanks and they can take a lot of big hits.
Stunt performers come from all walks of life so you get to meet lots of great people. But it’s a long game. This industry requires luck and timing and somebody opening the door a little bit for you, and by god, you’ve got to keep knocking.
It’s a hard slog and a hard graft and there are months of hard work sometimes until the next thing starts so you have to have a really strong belief and, at the end of the day, you have to really love what you do.
I’ve taken a lot of hits over the years, and a lot of rejection, but I’m willing to take the hits for the kind of highs you get. And as I always say, you’re here for one time, so just go for it.”
Avril is on Instagram @avymurphy
As told to Katie Byrne