Lucy Allen is a professional Stunt Woman with over 25 years experience working in film and TV. She is a Stunt Woman and Public Speaker and has been giving talks about her life as a Stuntwoman since 2010, developing other talks along the way. Being a professional performer means she likes to add a bit of drama and excitement to her talks and keep them as lively and interesting as possible.
Lucy started by showing us a video clip of some of the many films and dramas in which she has featured. She loved gymnastics as a child and joined the Chilterns gymnastic Club, her inspiration being the gymnast Olga Korbet.
Her career started as a striptease artist at a club in Istanbul in order to gain her Equity card. From here she joined a circus and ultimately became a pro aerialist. She realised that she was not frightened or scared of heights and also that she loved acting. She showed us some examples of the props used in her job.
She heard about the ‘stunts’ register and trained and worked through the levels to qualify as a full member. She posed the question, ”What is a ‘Stunt’”. The answer ‘they replace an actor where he/she lack the necessary skill or nerve to perform an act’. When casting, the Director tries to match the stunt artist to the actor.
She also explained how they were protected from injury, as much as possible when performing stunts. She was certainly very entertaining and showed he love of acting and exhibitionist nature.