In an interview, Scarlett Johansson's stunt double told what it was like to work with the actress.
The tremendous character that Scarlett Johansson has had to play for Black Widow has not only been her talent, there is also a character who has always been behind her, doing dangerous stunts for her so that the actress does not suffer any accident. It's about her stunt double Heidi Moneymaker.
Heidi worked alongside the Hollywood star for over 9 years as his Marvel character double, but before that she has an impressive resume, having worked on Joss Whedon's stunt game Angel, Fast and Furious, Suck Punch by Zack Snyder, in the television series NCIS: Los Angeles and started alongside Johansson in Iron Man 2, to this day. She's been the risky Black Widow for seven Marvel titles, and she'll do it again in the famous character's movie.
Moneymaker recounted in an interview for Looper, how she came to work on the Infinity saga: "That started as a kind of draw," she said. "Tom Harper, really amazing [stunt] coordinator, brought me to Iron Man 2 and basically [Johansson] chose between me and Bridgett Riley, another very good stuntman, and Scarlett chose me."
We have been able to see Moneymaker's skills on big occasions, like that fight in the hallway when she was playing Black Widow, and these abilities were the cause of the following call to work with Marvel: “So, I think the next one was the first Avengers, and it was like the coordinator thought: 'Well, well, who duplicated it in the last one? Great'”, and from then on she started going where the actress was going: “It started less about me and Scarlett having that relationship of her taking me and more like me always being there”.double-action-scarlett-johansson-black-widow- avenger-marvel-9
The work between the two of them was solidified, perfected, and then she began to appear alongside Scarlett in many of her films. "[For] Winter Soldier, I think she said, 'You know what? We work very well together. I really think we should work together on everything we do. I told him: 'Yes, of course. Call me. If I'm available, I'm there for you,' "said Moneymaker making it clear that an attitude of respect towards Scarlett always prevailed: "Most of the people I work with, we get along very well, but I try to keep it a little more professional, but some people you do end up bonding with, especially after being with Scarlett for 11 years. We did Infinity War and Endgame, and that was over a year of direct filming, and we're in different countries and you're going through different things in life, so you end up joining those kinds of things."
Stuntman work is not just about physical skills, it also requires a great deal of mimicry to render the actor as close as possible. For Moneymaker that has been the most complex: “I remember in Iron Man [2] doing that fight scene that we did with all the guards and everything,” he continued, “At the end of that fight scene, Black Widow walks down the hall and someone shows up and she just sprays them with… mace? I forget. Anyway, when we were shooting the pre-visualization for it, she was marching. the room super fast like Linda Hamilton [from] Terminator 2 and she sprayed the guy and he was out. I was watching the preview with Scarlett and she was like, 'Hey, do you think I walk like this?' It was like one of those first times I was like, 'Oh yeah, I've got to make sure, even in the preview, make sure that I'm trying to imitate her as much as possible.' I've spent a decade trying to learn how to be like Scarlett Johansson."
Not knowing what would happen to Black Widow was worrisome for Moneymaker, he did not know if what he was recording would be the character's last scene or what would happen: "I went into the video store in town and spoke to Scarlett and said: 'Hey, what about Will you be doing more of these Black Widow movies?' She says, “I don't know.
I'm wondering, 'I'm just wondering, am I about to go out there and pull my last stunt as Black Widow?' She's like, 'Maybe?' It wasn't even much of a stunt. I was jumping like 16 or 17 feet off the platform and I liked to roll and crash, but… we both knew, 'Oh, this might be the ultimate Black Widow stunt, and it might not be,' but either way, it was super emotional. for both. We even had like behind the scenes camera and stuff, and video. We hug each other, we cry and we are girls”.
