She fractured her spine, but it doesn't stop her from kicking butt in movies

The life of a stuntwoman is fraught with peril as there is a high risk of injury.

After all, if you needed someone thrown through the air or out of a building, they'd be the ones to do it.

However, for Ingrid Kleinig, living life dangerously is all in a day's work and it hasn't stopped her from making a career out of it.

In fact, the 40-year-old Los Angeles-based stunt coordinator has had her fair share of scrapes, bruises and broken bones, even fracturing her spine before.

Speaking to AsiaOne at Disney's Storytelling+ Bootcamp last month, Ingrid revealed that the most serious accident she has had was when she fractured her spine while shooting the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road.

"I actually should have prevented that from happening," she said.

While executing a stunt on the War Rig (a heavily modified 18-wheeler truck used in the film), Ingrid skipped conducting her usual safety check as she wasn't aware that the vehicle used during that particular shoot was a different one from the other vehicles she had been on.

She explained: "I went back to my usual spot and sat down and didn't realise that this was a third vehicle and I hadn't turned the bolt around like I had on the first two vehicles. And I was thrown backwards into the pillar and the bolt was sticking out and fractured my spine."

Taking risks might be part and parcel for someone who chooses to work in stunts, but the catastrophic accident involving a stunt double on Resident Evil: The Final Chapter has increased awareness on the very real possibility of major injuries.

When asked if the risks ever gave her pause, she replied without missing a beat: "If it has, then I will pause and address it or pause and restructure how we're approaching it.

"And I've never done something that I was not comfortable doing. An important thing to note is that it's okay to say no to a job. There are plenty of times I've said no to a job."

To Ingrid, safety is paramount and a lot of accidents can be traced to an oversight on safety measures.

KICKING BUTT IN THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

The Australian native first got her start in stunts when she performed in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which saw her swinging 42m above the ground. She said that she had an "unusual upbringing" because she did a lot of extreme sports growing up and her older brothers would take her out onto the motocross track.

She's also a trained dancer and acrobat, and all of that combined gave her the skills she needs to be a stunt performer.

And it served her well as she was the stunt double for Evangeline Lilly (Ant-Man and the Wasp) and Brie Larson (Captain Marvel).

Evangeline, who plays The Wasp, mesmerised us with her sleek and graceful fighting style in the 2018 superhero film and it was all thanks to a creative collaboration between herself and Ingrid.

Ingrid said: "She was very involved in the physical creative process right from the beginning. Even before she arrived, she was sending us emails about the signature movement style of The Wasp and she has a very keen eye for physicality and she had a very strong sense of how The Wasp should move and how she should show her strength, grace and femininity.

"And a lot of that was actually based on how she (The Wasp) comes across in the comic books. She had done a lot of research on that."

[embed]https://twitter.com/ingridkleinig/status/1128420034794049538[/embed]

But with action sequences notorious for having quick cuts and where it's hard to make out what's going on, how do stunts enhance the film creatively besides providing excitement?

Not considering films such as The Fast and the Furious series where "the action is there for the sake of the action", Ingrid pointed out that the stunt team has to ground and ensure the continuity of a film especially for Ant-Man and the Wasp where superpowers are involved.

"We were given the brief that Ghost could phase and The Wasp could shrink, grow and fly. But within that, there needs to be some limitations and boundaries," she said, before gesturing to the table we were seated at and continued, "Ghost can pass through this table, but is that selective? Can she decide what she does and doesn't pass through? Because if it's not selective, then she's going to phase through the floor and through the ground and through the earth and where does it stop?

"So we have to be involved in determining the limitations of the superpowers and continuity of the superpowers and I think that informs the character so much," she finished.

Before our time came to an end though, we couldn't help but ask: as someone who has done stunts for Evangeline and Brie, who does she think would win in a fight between The Wasp and Captain Marvel?

She gasped and exclaimed: "That's a very good question! This is what I was talking about before, about the continuity and limitations of the character's strengths.

"And I think if they were to ever come up against each other in a fight, we would find a limitation in each of them that meant that neither would win."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvYtcQ5dNss[/embed]

If she could pick one, though?

She laughed: "I can't answer that question. I maintain my neutrality."

bryanlim@asiaone.com