Stars Who Have Done Their Own Stunts: Jennifer Garner, Tom Cruise and More

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Stars Who Have Done Their Own Stunts: Jennifer Garner, Tom Cruise and More

Taking risks for the best shot is in their nature! Tom Cruise, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lawrence are among the stars who often perform their own stunts in their action-packed films. The Top Gun star is known for his dedication to stunt work, even when it leads to injury. Cruise broke his ankle while jumping from scaffolding to a nearby building during filming for Mission: Impossible – Fallout in August 2017. His accident caused a hiatus in filming. Cruise detailed the mishap during a January 2018 appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “I was chasing Henry [Cavill] and was meant to hit the side of the wall and pull myself over but the mistake was my foot hitting the wall,” he explained. [jwplayer yNLDF0v3-zhNYySv2] The Risky Business actor did not let the injury stop him from finishing the scene, though. “I knew instantly my ankle was broken and I really didn’t want to do it again so just got up and carried on with the take,” he recalled. “I said, ‘It’s broken. That’s a wrap. Take me to [the] hospital.’” Cruise returned to filming before he was completely mended — and continued to perform his own stunts. “It’s still broken but I’m doing well. It’s not fully healed but we are shooting and we have a release date so I just have to keep going,” he noted. “I spent 8-10 hours a day, seven days a week in rehab because we still have some major stunts to do.” Garner is another celeb who frequently takes the reins in the action department — a habit she made while starring as Sydney Bristow on Alias from 2001 to 2006. The actress’ longtime stunt double, Shauna Duggins, told Variety in August 2018 that the Peppermint star did 98 percent of her own stunts in the film. “Jennifer worked her booty off,” Duggins said of her three months of training. “Every single fight scene is her. There are some hits, and you see her face hit the ground. Obviously she’s good at fights from Alias and Daredevil and Elektra and The Kingdom. [But this] was really rough and gritty. You feel her pain every time she takes a punch — you see her face feel the pain.” Scroll to see which other stars perform their own stunts! [podcast_block]

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Kumail Nanjiani

The comedian did his own stunts on Marvel’s The Eternals. “Well, I tried,” he joked on a November 2021 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Nanjiani revealed that there was a “big scene” in the film in which he had to “do, like, 10 different moves and then shoot the bad guy.” During his training, he was told he could “do it one step at a time” and then they could edit it all together in the end.

However, director Chloé Zhao had other plans. “On the day [she] was like, ‘This should be one shot, so there’s no edits,’” he told host Ellen DeGeneres. “I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s going to look really cool, but now I have to figure out how to do this.'”

The filming of the scene was “really, like, embarrassing, because there are people just watching you, trying to make their Saturday night,” he said. “And out of 30 times … the last two I nailed.”

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later, the Big Sick star “saw a guy dressed as me doing it again, and I was like, ‘All right, do what you gotta do. Make it look good,’” he joked.

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Maggie Q

The Nikita alum did nearly all of her own stunts for the movie The Protege — just two months after she had major surgery on her spine. "I went from, like, bed rest into rehearsals and I assumed everyone was aware of what had just happened to me," she told Entertainment Weekly in August 2021. "There are a couple of things I didn't do for safety reasons, but they weren't big things. Sometimes there are things you don't not do because you can't do them but because you shouldn't do them. ... We have to pick and choose our battles for insurance reasons and just to be safe and healthy."

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Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer

On Wednesday, March 3, the stars, both 50, opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about doing their own stunt work for the film Thunder Force.

“Where Melissa is fearless, I am fearful,” Spencer said. “I don’t like a harness.”

McCarthy, on the other hand, couldn’t be more different than her close friend and costar. “I love a harness,” the Bridesmaids actress said. “Throw me around, swing me against walls.”

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Tom Cruise

Cruise takes pride in doing his own stunts, especially for his role as superspy Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

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Jennifer Garner

Garner got back to her roots as an action star in 2018’s Peppermint after kicking plenty of butt as Sydney Bristow on Alias.

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Chris Pratt

The Guardians of the Galaxy star gave fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the consequences of stunts gone wrong in December 2016. “See #Passengers on Dec. 21st and see if you can spot the stunt that caused these bruises!” he wrote via Instagram at the time. “Here’s the other side. No rest for the weary. I do (some of) my own stunts.”

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Matt Damon

The Oscar winner proved his power as an action buff playing Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise, with films spanning from 2002 to 2016.

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Cameron Diaz

The Charlie’s Angels star met Cruise on his level when they costarred in 2010’s Knight and Day.

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Angelina Jolie

Jolie made her role as a rogue CIA officer believable in 2010’s Salt, taking on her own stunts in addition to delivering a solid acting performance.

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Daniel Craig

Just call him James Bond! The Brit has been injured on multiple occasions while filming for the franchise. He lost two teeth during 2006’s Casino Royale, sliced off his fingertip in 2008’s Quantum of Solace, hurt his knee on 2015’s Spectre and injured his ankle on Bond 25 in 2019.

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Jennifer Lawrence

Us Weekly reported in 2012 that the Oscar winner learned how to climb trees, scale rocks and jump logs from stunt coordinators for The Hunger Games.

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Christian Bale

Bale chose to do his own stunts for his role as Batman but passed on the process for 2010’s The Fighter, for which he won an Academy Award.

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Kristen Stewart

The Twilight star performed the majority of her own stunts during 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman.

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Chloë Grace Moretz

Fans were rightfully impressed by the actress’ turn as a foul-mouthed vigilante in 2010’s Kick-Ass.

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Jason Statham

Car chases? Check. Fighting? Check. Scuba diving? Check. Statham did (almost) everything in 2002’s The Transporter.

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Keanu Reeves

Reeves wowed audiences as a police officer attempting to avoid a bombing in 1994’s Speed.

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Jackie Chan

Chan has a similar tactic to Cruise, performing his own stunts in nearly every movie in which he stars.