Stunt coordinating has been a part of filmmaking since the beginning, and it’s such an integral part of bringing magic to the screen. For example, I can’t help but think of all that was involved with Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock, or the comedic actors directed by Alice Guy Blaché to roll down a hill. There is a magic to what it takes to make these action scenes look authentic on the screen.

I was so happy to learn more about stunt coordinating and producing during my conversation with Amy Greene. Amy has quite an impressive IMDb page on her work as a stunt coordinator and producer. She got her overall film education from DePaul University, and has worked on films like “Sound of Metal,” “Knives Out,” and “The Holdovers” as a stunt coordinator. And she paired her work as a producer with stunt coordinating for the recent Sundance film “Suncoast,” directed by Laura Chinn. She now has the reputation of being the best in the business. And what motivates her the most on set is creating a safe and kind atmosphere for the crew and actors.

I couldn’t help but think about Halyna Huthchins and the tragic circumstances of her death. Any crew/cast would so lucky to have Amy as a producer and stunt coordinator on their set. I’m grateful for our conversation, and I look forward to following the rest of her rising and successful career. Also, it’s worth mentioning her producing partner Chris Stinson. These two tackle producing and stunt coordinating together on many projects and they are quite the team!

How did you get into working in the film industry, and what led your career direction to stunt coordinating and producing?

I started with producing after I got out of school. I went to DePaul in Chicago, and then I went to LA right away. I knew that I wanted to make movies and I knew I wanted to tell stories, so I started all kinds of odd jobs in production. At the same time, I always was an athlete. After work or on the weekends, I’d be boxing. I boxed out of the Hollywood Boxing Gym. Eventually someone said to me, “If you’re working in movies already, why not combine producing and stunts?” Since I was already working on studio films, I thought that was a great idea because I have a passion for stunt work. So I started learning everything I could about stunt work and fight choreography. I got into stunt coordinating that way, but I’ve always liked combining the producing work with the stunt work.

I read that there are two important attributes to your work as a producer and a stunt coordinator: kindness and safety. Can you talk about the importance of that with your work?

Safety and kindness on set are both of my favorite topics to talk about. I think a producer’s first concern should be safety, and as a stunt coordinator as well. When I started stunt coordinating, I took a little time off and went to school to become an EMT, because I felt like having more knowledge of how to take care of people physically and mentally, especially in emergency situations, would be beneficial as me as not only a stunt coordinator, but also as a producer. I don’t work as a set medic, and I don’t work regularly as an EMT, but I do keep up my certification and registration because it matters. I feel more confident when I step on to a set because of that, and I know if something happens, I can help take care of it. That’s what I’ve done personally to step up my level of safety. I’m not suggesting that everyone in movies should go into emergency medicine, but I do think it has helped me, and it makes me feel good in my role on both indie and big budget productions and everything in between that I am someone everyone can come to for safety concerns of all sorts.

I do a lot of panels and talks on safety, and I’m looking to do more workshops in a year about set safety. I like to push forward talking about safety on set, because there is no excuse. Filmmaking is an inherently dangerous job. Even taking stunts out of it, just being on set with heavy equipment can be a high stress environment with long hours. All of that can be exhausting, and tough physically and mentally. Safety first is a big talking point of mine, and I hope that I can do as much as possible in my career to make a difference on that level, and in that space in filmmaking. 

I honestly don’t know a lot about stunt work, but I’d love to learn more by talking about some of your recent projects, like your work as a stunt coordinator on “The Holdovers.”

This was a dream job for me. I loved working with Alexander Payne in the past. There are some obvious stunt moments in the film, like when Dominic Sessa dislocates his shoulder on the vault. And then there is a fight in the beginning of the film, like a dorm room squabble. We set stuff on fire on the back of the car, and we had some fireworks. There are all of these pieces that might not stick out in your mind, they’re not superhero stunts, but they are also pieces of action that really help tell the story. I think that vault scene that his stunt double, Justice Hedenberg, does I feel is really pivotal to the story, and it kind of carries on for the rest of the film after this event happens. Dominic is injured after that incident, and he’s got his arm in a sling for a portion of the film.

That is a part of the film that I personally worked on. I’ve dislocated both shoulders unfortunately multiple times, so I drew on my own personal experience. Since Dominic hadn’t dislocated a shoulder before, I also helped with all of the scenes that come after that chronologically to make it feel realistic. I also worked with the medical techs and some people to make sure that we were doing the right type of 1969 resetting of the shoulder, which I love, because that is really how they handled the dislocation of shoulders back then. They tied bed sheets to the patient and leaned them back into separate directions to pop the arm back in place. That’s all very real. So some of it is about authenticity, and working with the cast. Then obviously working with the director is really important. And for something like that, we had four different stunt men do previews of the stunt for Alexander. I did a million different versions of what that could possibly look like. He chose the version he liked the best, and the performer he liked the best. And then on set, we did it a few different ways as well. 

There are all of these little steps that make this split second in a film. It’s a lot of work and a lot of people are involved. I feel that’s an interesting backstory regarding that one scene. But that scene means so much in the film. And then we landed a helicopter where helicopters don’t land. It’s not exactly a helicopter stunt, but we had to deal with the permissions and the aerial work near the cast. All of that takes a lot of coordinating. I’ve done other films that have bigger action sequences, like chases and huge fights, and wire work, and all sorts of exciting things. But I’m really proud of “The Holdovers,” just because I feel like the action is so purposeful and so believable. 

Can you talk about producing and stunt coordination in “Suncoast”? And can you talk about working with the director Laura Chinn?

I love Laura. I’m a big fan of hers forever, and we really had a great time in South Carolina. That script came to me and my producer partner, Chris Stinson. He and I do a lot of our movies together with stunt coordination and producing. The script for “Suncoast” came to us through friends, Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri, who produced “The Florida Project.” We’d been looking to make a film together for a long time, and we just hadn’t found the right project. They sent us Laura’s script and we read it, and knew we had to produce it because it’s so beautifully written, and the story is based on her own life experience. Her way of using comedy through some of the darkest times we could imagine is something really special. I just really admire her outlook on some of the hardest times in her life. It’s set in Florida, but we couldn’t film in Florida, so we had to shoot in a tax-incentive state. So we ended up in South Carolina. We had a hurricane that hit during the production, and had to move all of our cast and crew and everyone more inland for a few days. And luckily we had hurricane insurance on that project. There is a piece of the movie that has a hurricane right in the beginning in the film, and we actually filmed some of the scenes with Nico Parker boarding up the house when it was still safe, but before the hurricane. So it was really crazy and windy. 

I also stunt coordinated for that film. I was personally involved with the near-miss car accident when the girls are kind of wild, and Nico’s shirt flies out of the car. So a lot of the safety concerns are with any of the driving scenes. Sometimes when we could, we used a process trailer. In this case, we used a pod car which I really love for stunts. 

What’s a pod car?

Pod cars are so cool. It’s kind of like a self-driving process trailer, and then your trailer drives itself so you can focus on the actors in the film. So there are cameras everywhere and lights everywhere.

That’s so cool.

So you can put whatever you want on the car for the process trailer. But when you use a process trailer, you can’t shoot angles in the front of the car. So a pod car is kind of a self-driving platform. The driver sits in this kind of cage, and it’s always a stunt driver, but the stunt driver can sit in the cage and you can move that pod to anywhere in the car. Famously the pod car was used in “Baby Driver,” and Jeremy Fry was the driver. They put Jeremy on top of the car, so they were filming the actors in the car using the steering wheel, and it looks very realistic. But the whole unit is being controlled by the stunt driver in the pod. 

Are there any projects earlier in your career that have shaped your direction as a producer and stunt coordinator that you’d like to mention?

I actually started in studio movies and I used to work on bigger budgeted kind of blockbuster films as a line producer. After a while, I got really burnt on the really big budget films. Then I started making smaller budgeted indies with my producing partner Chris Stinson. Some of those are the films that I’m most proud of, like “Sound of Metal.” 

That’s such a great film!

Thank you. That was incredible for us. We made this teeny tiny movie in Massachusetts, and ended up with six Oscar nominations, which was out of this world. So “Sound of Metal” I loved, and we actually shot that back to back with “Knives Out” in Boston. Then I ended up moving to New England. As a stunt coordinator, I would say “Sound of Metal,” “Knives Out,” and “The Holdovers,” are the films I’m the most proud of. I also worked on this tiny sci-fi film called “Mother/Android” a few years ago with this director Mattson Tunnel and he’s a great writer. It’s a beautiful little film, and it stars Chloë Grace Moretz. It’s got a lot of great action, and I think what we’re most proud of is the action sequences in that film.

I also worked on “Only Murders in the Building.” I worked on seasons one and three. I stunt doubled a couple of the characters. On season one, I doubled Amy Ryan, and on season three, I doubled Meryl Streep. It’s really a super fun show to work on. 

How cool is that! I always cry laugh when I watch Steve Martin and Martin Short together. For emerging stunt coordinators, especially women or non-binary people, what kind of advice would you have for them?

My advice for getting into stunts or stunt coordinating specifically is I always think it’s good to start with gymnastics or the martial arts if you want to double stunt double. I mean there are different ways into stunts, but a background like that is super-helpful. As far as coordinators and running the department, it’s like any other department on a movie or department that is producing a film.

I do feel that the most important thing is to treat everyone on set with kindness. I think we work in an industry where people can be in a hurry a lot, and as I mentioned, it can have high stress. I think taking a step back and remembering kindness is really important to me. When I’m hiring people for the stunt department in a movie, I look for people who are kind first. I make sure the people I hire are people who start out with kindness.