About Me
My name is Sharon Simms and I’ve been a stuntwoman in the film industry in British Columbia for 20 years. People usually ask me how I got into stunts, and the answer is I chased down movie sets to hand out resumes everywhere. I volunteered to move stunt mats to do anything to help stunt coordinators on various shows. I hustled hard, put all my time into it. For the first time since I could remember, this was something important that I really, really wanted.
My big break came on a movie with Uma Thurman called Paycheck. I was the backup stunt double for Uma and I was super proud of myself to get that opportunity. Whether it was the right place, or the right time, or both, I knew I needed to make the most of that first opportunity. Everyday on that set, I watched and learned as much as possible from the other, more experienced stunt performers. Whether it was the stunt drivers using the little toy cars on the pavement as they mapped out the chase sequence, the fight choreographer walking the beats in a rehearsal with the actors, the riggers setting up the wire pulls for the day, or just listening to the stunt coordinator setting up the next shot with the director, I absorbed as much as I possibly could every day, to further my knowledge as a performer. Not only was knowledge power, knowledge equaled safety in this fast-paced industry where I so badly wanted to play a part.
One of my biggest accomplishments came after Paycheck. I was asked to be a member of Stunts Canada. That was the moment I knew I had made my love of stunts into an actual career, one that I was passionate about and one where I could continue to grow and evolve. From day one, Stunts Canada felt like family. We work hard to keep the bar high with safety always our ultimate priority. I love the entertainment side of my stunt career: the elaborate costumes, the fancy hair do's and wigs, as well as the perfect make-up matching that goes into each character’s double. I love the adrenaline rush and the butterflies I get in my stomach from that one little word ‘rolling’.
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There are a lot of common questions about a stunt double’s career. A few of my favorites include: What was the most challenging stunt you have performed? What is the most fun you have had doing a stunt? And of course, have you been hurt doing a stunt?
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So here it goes!
The most challenging stunt I did was a 200ft decelerator off a glass building in Surrey, B.C. The rigging was very specific and quite technical. It involved having the actual decelerator system perched on the edge of the roof of the 200ft building that I was falling from. I was hooked up to the decelerator on the top of the building by the stunt harness-worn under my costume. The wire that raised and lowered me, was hooked up to the front grill of a Ford 150 truck that was driven forwards and backwards on a neighboring building by the incredible stunt driver, Gerald Paetz. Gerald drove forward to his mark and I would decelerate, he reversed and I would go back up 200 feet. I had major butterflies getting hooked into the decelerator on the top of the building that day. It was a cold and very windy day, not ideal conditions to say the least. But the second they called action and I was dropping story by story on the decelerator, adrenaline took over all the way to the bottom. Landing perfectly 2 feet from the stunt mat, I couldn't have been happier with Gerald's precision driving. On the way home from work that day, I couldn't stop smiling and feeling so proud to have had opportunity to work with Kirk Bond, Gerald Paetz, Sylvesta Stuart and Randy Lee.
The funniest stunt I ever did was riding in a grocery shopping cart down a steep hill in Kitsilano only to be catapulted out when it hit the sand at Kits Beach. Legs and arms were flailing as I flew through the air out of the grocery cart and pitched head-first into the sand. I came up laughing so hard we had to cut. We only went once and I think the crew got an ever better laugh that day.
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I got hurt on a stunt jumping off an earth mover truck with another stunt performer. On average these earth mover trucks are 23 feet high. We weren't going super fast given that we were jumping off something so high. We always rehearse these kinds of stunts with a specific speed. The earth mover driver was not a stunt performer unfortunately and found it challenging to hold the speed we had rehearsed. “3-2-1 action” and there was no turning back. If I had bailed out and didn't commit to the jump, it would not have been fair to my fellow stuntman Jeff, and vice versa. We were in it together and I knew this. This is part of who we are and what we do. We landed, and Ouch! We hit hard packed gravel and it felt like cement. A jolt going through my whole body one joint at a time starting with my ankles. We rolled and tried to still match the action we needed to do for our actors. But when they called "cut", I knew I was hurt. Nothing like a trip to the hospital and a pair of crutches that I couldn't take care of. I actually haven't been hurt any more than 3 times in my whole stunt career….. Knock on wood;)