6 Actors Who Refuse To Do Their Own Stunts

Find out why these stars don’t do their own stunts…

Drew Barrymore once loved to do her own stunts but after an on set accident, she decided it was time for her to take a step back. While filming season one of Santa Clarita Diet, Drew had a near death experience that left her in the hospital with a concussion. From there on out, she decided to leave it to the professionals.

“I will never do my own stunts again,” Drew told People. “That was the end of a wonderful era. I can look back at a bunch of movies that I totally was a baller and always threw myself in there. I whip it in Charlie’s Angels! But I will never do a stunt again because I could’ve died, and it was really scary.”

Ryan Reynolds used to do all of his own stunts — until his doctor wrote him a prescription for a stuntman. The actor explained that after numerous injuries performing his own stunts, including an accident while filming Safe House that resulted in several broken vertebrae, his doctor told him he needed to step back from doing his own stunts. He now tries to keep it tame on set, especially if he could potentially hurt his neck.

“I remember the doctor sitting in the office — it was about the seventh time I had been there that year — and he writes on a prescription pad, rips off the note, and it reads ‘stuntman.’ Point taken. So now I use four different guys that come with me,” Ryan shared with Empire.

Liam Neeson may be an action star but his stunts aren’t his own. He once explained that while he’s ready to go head-to-head in fight scenes, he’s not willing to do his own stunts. Instead, he leaves that in the hands of his longtime stuntman, Mark Vanselow.

“No injuries whatsoever,” Liam told Collider about his work on Taken 3. “I do my own fights, I don’t do my own stunts, and there is a difference. My dear friend Mark Vanselow, my stunt double, does all the flying through glass, jumping buildings and stuff.  But, I do my own fighting. That’s my claim to fame.”

Samuel L. Jackson calls in backup from stuntmen when things get a little crazy on set. He says that he would rather let a professional take the reins instead of risking getting hurt and cutting his career short.

“Believe it or not, I really don’t do that much. I have a stuntman that’s so awesome. I’ve had Kiante [Elam]…he did his first stunt for me in Long Kiss Goodnight. He got blown out of a hotel window through a hotel sign into a tree. A keeper! I’ve had him ever since. We’ve been together so long, he moves like me and I move like him. It’s hard to tell when it’s him, it’s hard to tell when it’s me,” Samuel told Access Hollywood.

Danny Trejo doesn’t feel the need to do his own stunts because he would never want to get hurt on set and then mess with the production schedule. When making the decision to leave it to the pros, Danny says he’s always thinking of the other people working on set.

“I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don’t want to risk 80 peoples’ jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show. Because that’s what happens. I think a big star just sprained an ankle doing a stunt, and 80 or 180 people are out of a job. We have stunt people who do that stuff…If I get hurt, everybody’s out of a job. So I don’t choose to do that,” Danny shared with Yahoo Movies.

Nathan Fillion is no stranger to doing his own stunts but in recent years, he’s decided to take a step back. After years of getting hurt on set, Nathan decided that it was best to let a professional stuntman step in, especially since it gives a job to another person. Nathan now often works with Paul Anthony Scott.

“I was always the guy who said, ‘Let me do it, I want to do that stunt.’ And then two things happened. I got kicked in the knee, never been the same. [And] I realised that if you do the stunt — there’s a stunt guy waiting on the side dressed in your outfit ready to do the stunt and if you do it, he doesn’t get paid. He gets paid by the stunt. Somebody’s job — I don’t want to mess with that,” Nathan shared.