When you know a stunt is coming because you recognize the player...
So, I’m watching State of Play, a boring thriller with Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe. Less than one minute into the opening, I see this l'il old lady extra’s face and I say “Uh oh, stand by for a stunt!” The next moment, she is knocked to the ground by a fleeing suspect.
I recognized Jeannie Epper, a legendary stunt woman from a legendary stunt family. She did all Lynda Carter’s stunts on Wonder Woman. She first came on my radar in 2004 on an episode of Criminal Minds. She was in her early 60s. We were doing a big stunt scene where a car bomb goes off outside of a fancy restaurant, with all kinds of elegantly dressed people getting knocked around. She did a Bar Stool Fall. Another Stunts legend, Buddy Joe Hooker was there that day too.
Here is a wonderful interview by Dan Rather with Jeannie back in the day when she was raising a family while working as a Hollywood Stunt Double.
Years later, she was featured on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Archives of American Television as she looked back on her years doubling Lynda Carter on TV's original Wonder Woman:
Read more about Pioneering Stuntwomen Jeannie Epper at: 