DOUBLE JEOPARDY

With his new film, The Fall Guy, Ryan Gosling put stunt doubles centre stage but how hard is it for a complete amateur to master the trade? Journalist Simon Usborne decided to find out

IN A sheltered life based largely at a desk, I have managed to avoid any sort of scenario in which head-butting seemed like a good move. Now I’m being asked to do it with conviction. And it feels so weird that I’m struggling not to laugh.

The stakes are high. I’ve been taken hostage by captors unknown and am being frogmarched towards an uncertain fate. As a menacing man approaches, I kick him in the stomach. And so begins the fight choreography that I’ve been trying to memorise.

I turn to the baddie to my left and – WHAM! – toss her to the floor. Now I turn to the right and – BOSH! – I swing my head at Nikita Mitchell, a 34-year-old former dancer, who was recently Margot Robbie’s stunt double in Barbie. But being much taller than her and lacking physical finesse, I feel like one of those fighting giraffes on David Attenborough’s Africa series.

“Cut!”

Ian Pead pauses the melee to offer some head-butting advice. He knows his stuff; the wiry, 46-year-old former martial artist has worked as a stunt performer and coordinator for more than 20 years. He wants me to adopt a wider stance and move my whole body into the head-butt rather than just thrashing my head. I should also angle my face towards the camera.

I manage a slightly more composed head-butt before I take on more assailants. None of the blows connect, but when the camera position is right, the viewer sees no gap between fist and face. With each hit, stunties, as they call themselves, fall away, grunting and groaning with total commitment to the scene.