Bored Panda reached out to the legendary stunt coordinator Kurt Lott, a member of SAG/AFTRA, member of Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures, co-owner and CEO of Hollywood Stuntworks, and inventor of FIREGEL and NAKEDGEL stuntgels. He was happy to share some insights on this amazing profession.

A good stunt double starts from being a good stunt performer first off, Kurt told us. “Which requires consistent training physically and acting/performing wise. A good double will learn to move and have the mannerisms of their actor. A good double will learn to know their actors' abilities to communicate the action and how they should pad up if needed.”

Although stunt performing is something that has been captivating the imagination of many, few of us really know it works in practice. So when asked Kurt how they cast stunt doubles. “First we can ask the actor if they have someone they work with that has doubled them before. Otherwise we will have the actors' sizes, ethnicity, gender, and know the action in the script that will dictate abilities needed,” he explained.

“Stunt people have publications they can put their information on when stunt coordinators are looking for doubles. So this is another source for recruiting a double.”

It turns out that any bit of action in a movie requires a stunt double, Kurt said. “Not only for doubling but developing the action, be it pre-vis or testing certain stunts that can be choreographed for the actor to be able to perform safely.”

Kurt himself grew up doing extreme sports, so by the time he walked on set, he was ready for anything, having had experience hang gliding, scuba diving, driving motocross, desert racing, drag racing (motorcycle and car), riding horses, and an engineering background. All of which was a natural transition into stunt work.

He easily tackled even the most extreme stunts like high falls, descender falls, car and motorcycle crashes, and being burned alive. No wonder he quickly transitioned to being a full-time stuntman.

Today, Kurt coordinates, rigs and performs stunts in blockbuster movies, from Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides to Divergent to Titanic. He also holds the distinction of being the double who gets kicked out of a window in the action sequence at the end of Rush Hour 2—a 170-foot fall onto the roof of a taxi. Even Jackie Chan asked, how did you do that?