Earlier this year, Vin Diesel boldly told the Los Angeles Times that he "wouldn't be surprised" if Fast Five garnered "Oscar talk" this award season. While the fifth Fast and Furious film won't be winning any statuettes for its acting this lifetime (sorry, Vin, The Rock and Ludacris), it might have a legitimate shot at an Academy Award if the movie's stunt coordinator Jack Gill convinces the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to add a Best Stunt category.
Gill -- who has coordinated stunts on nearly 150 films including Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Pearl Harbor and Con Air -- will join a group of stuntmen and women on Tuesday night to lobby the AMPAS Board of Governors for their own annual award, which they propose be handed out in advance of the main telecast with the other technical categories. Gill isn't alone in his wish for recognition; veteran stunt icon Vic Armstrong told Movieline last month that it was "ridiculous" stuntpeople didn't have an Oscar category all to themselves... not that Armstrong felt the goal would never be achieved.
I don't think we ever will get accepted. I'm in the Academy, and we keep having petitions and votes and everything, but it doesn't seem to get anywhere. I think it is ridiculous when you have two categories for editing, two categories for sound, you've makeup separate, you've got wardrobe separate -- all these things that are all deserving in their own way. In the old days they used to lump visual effects in with special effects, and I think they can find a way to put us in there. Because whenever you see a movie that wins a special effects award, it's not a visual effects award. It's an award where 99.9 percent it's all the action in the movie. It's all the stunts! So I think we should be recognized. But we're not, and I don't think we ever will.
On the other hand, actress and stuntwoman Zoe Bell sees things a bit differently, as she told Movieline in February.
Part of what I love about what we do as stuntpeople is the illusion of it. You know, if people are convinced that the actors did everything in the movie, then I've done my job. My peers know what my work consists of, and people who are going to be hiring me are aware of that stuff, and my friends and family get to know and be proud, and that's the most important part of it, I think. But having said that, our industry has changed so much that so many of the behind-the-scenes are no longer so behind the scenes, so why not pay attention to it? It just becomes a really difficult thing to credit -- there's a stunt department, but ultimately the stunt coordinator is the head of the department. So do you award it to the stunt department, or do you award it to the performer? And as a performer, I believe I can't do my job without the crew behind me. I love the idea of people in our industry, who work really really hard, getting appreciated for it, but maybe I'm old-fashioned in the sense that I feel like the magician [keeping secrets].
So, dear Movieline readers, the floor is yours. Should stuntpeople have their own Oscar category? And if not, why?
In honor of this discussion, enjoy the late Yakima Canutt's iconic Stagecoach stunt and share your thoughts below.