Because of my commitment to keeping the production’s stunt budget in check and to cultivating Louisiana talent, I hired Louisiana-local stunt people to perform the stunts on Somnambulist.

The wonderfully talented stunt performers I hired on Somnambulist were Danny “Cosmo” Higginbottom, Jessika Brodosi and Raion Hill. Cosmo, the one with the most stunt experience, is a daredevil who broke a world record for “Highest Dive into Shallowest Water” diving 28 feet  into 12.5 inches of water. Jessika, fairly new to stunts, has been doubling Gabrielle Anwar on Burn Notice in Miami. While Raion, a former LSU football star and professional player for the Buffalo Bills, performed his first stunts on camera doubling Gbenga Akinnagbe who plays Alex, one of the leads. No surprise, Raion made it look easy.

In all future shows that I am fortunate enough to coordinate stunts in Louisiana, I will continue to do all I can to use Louisiana-local stunt performers. There is an abundance of talent here that makes Louisiana “Hollywood South.”

Starting off my professional film experience as a Louisiana-local talent  with a stunt performing job or an acting gig didn’t happen. It was with a Stunt Coordinating job instead.

Upon moving to Louisiana, I always intended to apply for stunt coordinating jobs. However, I figured that even though I felt qualified they would be harder to get than stunt performing or even acting jobs since the vast amount of my experience is in front of a camera. It appears I might have been wrong.

Last Spring, four majors action films blew through New Orleans. Hundreds of stunt jobs were filled. Only three of those stunt jobs, totaling about fives days of work, were for women. Only one of those days was filled by a local stuntwoman. The Screen Actor’s Guild keeps statistics showing that only 15% of all Guild stunt work goes to women. However, I realize now that outside of Hollywood and New York, it is far less.

Therefore, in spite of my extensive stunt performing experience, my interest in submitting for stunt coordinating jobs got ratcheted up when I realized I may not be able to contribute to the family income through stunt performing the way I had hoped.

My first production meeting and location scout for Somnambulist, the movie I’m coordinating, was last Friday. Turns out, without giving away too much about the script before it’s released, this thriller has a couple of  major stunt scenes featuring five characters. Ironically, three are women. The women are both heroes and villians, an interesting catch since the new young writer/director of Somnambulist is a woman, too.

Kismet.