Zoë Bell

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Zoë J. Bell

Born	November 17, 1978 (age 28) Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Zoë J. Bell (born November 17, 1978) is a New Zealand stuntwoman and actress.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Career
2 Footnotes
3 External Links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Bell was born in New Zealand, the oldest child of Tish and Andrew Bell. She has a brother, Jake.^[1] As a girl, she participated in competitive gymnastics. Bell attended Auckland Girls' Grammar and Selwyn College.

[edit] Career

For three years (1998 - 2001), Bell worked as Lucy Lawless' stunt double on Xena: Warrior Princess. She fractured vertebrae in her back doing wire work on Xena. Bell continued working for a week until another stunt in which a breakaway chair was smashed on her back, incapacitating her. She then went on to double Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Initially hired as Thurman's "crash and smash" double,^[2] the stunt team realized Bell would also make an ideal double for fight scenes and was trained accordingly. Bell had to learn to fight in the wushu style; this required her to consciously stop mimicking Lucy Lawless' physical mannerisms.^[3] Near the end of filming for Kill Bill: Volume 2, she injured her ribs and the ligaments in her wrist and spent several months recuperating. After production wrapped in Kill Bill, she received "The Bells" sign which hung outside of Vernita Green's house. She later gave it to her parents.

Tarantino was impressed with her and cast her in his next film Grindhouse, in which she plays herself and performs her own stunts, the most notable of which is on the hood of a 1970 Dodge Challenger. She also did stunt work for the movie Catwoman, doing high falls and doubling Sharon Stone. Her most recent project is Tyger Tyger, which is set for release this year.

In 2004, the documentary Double Dare was released. It focused on Zoë Bell and fellow stuntwoman Jeannie Epper, following them as they attempted to find success in Hollywood. The filming of Double Dare covered Zoë's career from the end of Xena to the beginning of her work on Kill Bill: Volume 1. In 2004, Bell and Angela Meryl (Vivica A. Fox's stunt double) were nominated at the Taurus World Stunt Awards in the categories "Best Overall Stunt by a Woman" and "Best Fight" for their doubling of the knife fight between Beatrix Kiddo and Vernita Green in Kill Bill 1.^[4]

In 2005, Bell was nominated for a Taurus in the categories "Best Overall Stunt by a Woman," "Best Fight," and "Best High Work." She and Daryl Hannah's double won Best Overall Stunt and Best Fight for their fight in Budd's trailer in Kill Bill 2. Her Best High work nomination was for a fall of over 200 feet in the film Catwoman.