Leading Hollywood Stuntwoman Amasses Millions Of Followers For Teaching Next Generation Of Performers

Stunt work is one of the most crucial elements of making a Hollywood action film or show. However, a staggering 30% of stunt performers are female. So how can women thrive in this industry and make a name for themselves?

Michelle C. Smith is a leading stuntwoman and fight choreographer in Hollywood who experiences an adrenaline rush every time she shows up for work. With millions of followers across social media, she teaches the younger generation the art of stunt work. She even explains how to use a lightsaber. She has appeared in and worked on blockbuster films, including Deadpool, Apple TV’s See and CW’s Supergirl.

“One of the first things that I heard was that if you want to be a performer, you have to learn to fight, and you have to learn to fall down,” Smith shares. “I got into Filipino Martial Arts, which has a lot more of a weapons base. It just spoke to me, and I realized that all of my previous training was very complimentary to this new style of martial arts training. So I put my head down and dove into it. In terms of getting stunt work, there are no agents for stunt performers. So everything is about networking and the relationships you’re creating.”

Smith started twirling a baton at the age of five. Her love of dance and competition led her to become a national and world champion baton twirler. She competed in eight consecutive world championships when she was 11-years-old. Her career led her to Vancouver, where she met people working with the Underground Circus, a professional Circus group. This is where she first experienced life as a working artist as her troupe booked corporate gigs.

The stunt and circus entertainment communities are closely linked, so she began meeting stunt performers. One day she observed some of the workers practicing fighting with swords. Smith asked to join in. At that moment, she realized she could make a career working in Hollywood. During this time, she also taught dance classes ranging from jazz to hip-hop.

“Circus taught me a lot about courage,” she states. “Stunts also taught me a lot about courage and how I operate in a fearful, uncertain position. But the circus taught me about pushing my boundaries in terms of creativity and playfulness because I was performing on stage all the time. I’ve been doing acts and numbers that I didn’t grow up doing. I was learning new acts; I learned how to do the stilts, a hoop act, and a little partner balancing act with my partner. All these things were brand new to me, but what I really learned is that I have the ability to do anything I want.”

Smith took martial arts classes to acclimate herself to the world of stunt performers. In 2008, she turned her focus to stunt work after ten years in the circus and one motion capture film on her resume, Barbie and Three Musketeers. Then the Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief production came into town looking for people who knew acrobatics. Smith worked on the stunt team as one of the stunt warriors.

Quickly, she became well-known in the industry for her abilities to train, teach and explain movement to actors she was doubling or working with on set. Many stunt performers, like professional athletes, have a limited number of years to push their bodies to the extreme. Although Smith is still working, she feels the wear and tear.

“When I was turning 30,” Smith shares, “that’s when I started realizing that things hurt in my body and things that I used to be able to do, like, lift my leg up and pull it behind my head, were just like, ‘Oh, that’s not actually like good for me to be doing to my body anymore.’ My brain still understands how to do a skill, but my body says no. That was a bit of a loss of identity because so much of our self-worth as performers is wrapped up in what we can do.

Then through the pandemic, I hit a wall of burnout, specifically around performing. I’ve been performing since I was five years old. I’ve been putting on makeup and costumes and pretending to be something since I was five years old. I’m ready to find out who I am when I’m not doing that.”

In 2014, Smith began showcasing baton and bo staff tricks in social media videos. Since then, she’s expanded her video content to include tutorials on the lightsaber, knives, other handheld weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Additionally, her online academy, Freestyle Staff Academy, a subscription service, teaches members how to freestyle staff spin, a combination of baton manipulation with martial arts and performance arts.

As Smith transitions in her career, she focuses on the following essential steps:

• Be specific about your next career move; figure out what isn’t working for you in your current situation and how you want to improve it.
• Keep an open mind when it comes to pivoting. You might find throughout your journey that you prefer to be working in a different industry or sector.
• Preparing as much as you can is underrated. Preparation will enhance your success when you’re presented with an opportunity of a lifetime.

“It might be a product of how we live and how visible everything is right now with social media,” Smith concludes, “but people are afraid to try things. People are afraid to mess up or be vulnerable... I talk about this a lot with my students about how important dropping is; if you want to learn how to do all these fancy staff skills or lightsaber skills, you have to be willing to drop your staff. If you’re not dropping it, you’re not learning and are holding yourself back. That metaphor applies to life; if you’re afraid to go after what you want, you’re never going to get it.”