Q and A session: Spice Williams-Crosby
Action actress Spice Williams-Crosby's career has been about stepping into harm's way just so that action shot will look badass when a character has to be blasted flying out a window. As a stuntwoman, she's taken it for the team in movies like The Lost Boys, Batman Returns, Arachnophobia, and Natural Born Killers, and TV series like Scrubs and Bones. Her credits also include acting roles in Reno 911, Charmed, Seinfeld, and in Star Trek V as Klingon warrior Vixis. We caught up with her to study the mechanics of a good fall, and what happens when all it goes sideways.
What's the difference in your approach to memorizing a scene of dialogue as opposed to memorizing a scene of action?
A scene of action really requires a lot of physical muscle memory and making sure that you're hitting your mark, you're not taking an actual hit, and being able to work with another human being that's throwing punches at you, hoping they don't connect.
Do you ever get punched in the face?
I have, yes. I've had those moments where it took two weeks to close my jaw. And I've had my nose broken three times.
What sort of acting or stunt challenges are unique to sci-fi genre stuff like Star Trek?
You're always wearing some kinda costume, prosthetic, or something. When I did Guyver, oh my god – I mutated into a red, hairy beast with big boobs, and I had a mechanical head on, and it was heavy, and it was hot. When you have a mechanical head on, you have to open your mouth [extra wide] to make the beak open up. With any kind of prosthetics, it can impair your vision, or being able to grab with your hands, or kick, or move. That's kinda unique to it.
What do you make look better: kicking ass or getting your ass kicked?
That's a difficult question! I remember doing a movie, I was a hostage, and I was a secretary, my hair was up in a French roll, and I was wearing a suit, a business suit. The director wanted a bad guy to grab me and drag me down the hallway, so it looked like he was going to take me to be killed as an example. He said “Make it look like you're slamming her up against the wall, and you're really brutal to her.”
So I turned to the stunt guy and I go “Just hang on.” And he's like “What?!” and I said “Just hang on.” So as he was dragging me down the hall, I was throwing myself up against the wall and screaming. He laughs to this day if I run into him, he's like “Yeah, 'just hang on!'”
But I do like beating people up, because I can grab them, I can make them look good, especially with what we call the “bread and butter.” The “bread and butter” are your stars. You never want to hit a star, you never want to hurt the main principal actor. I keep them very safe, but I make them look badass by being a badass myself.
Is there any Spice Williams-Crosby signature hook or uppercut or fall or anything?
I'm always flying backwards. I fly pretty hard. My stunt guys are always like “Let's put the pad here.” And I go “No, you better put it way back there, because I'm going to fly!” I can fly, hit the ground – I just did Terminator 5. My stunt coordinator came up to me and he said. “Can you do a Home Alone?” - which is where you [fall] flat back.
I had a 15-pound AK-47 and I squibs that are going to blow up and I got to push buttons, and he said “I want you to make them all look like pussies.” And I said “Yes, sir!”
What are you in Terminator 5, what's your role? [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]
I'm just playing a soldier, but there's a big monster that comes out, it looks like a spider. I start – we all start running at a certain time, and everybody's machinegun-machinegun-machinegun. When I get hit, I got to push the button to blow myself up and take this real high and hard hit.
When you hit really hard, if you hit right, it feels good. Like stair falls, if you know where you're going to hit. I like stair falls. You can throw me down fifty-five feet of stairs and I'm happy.
What's an exceptionally gruesome combat injury that you had in the line of work?
Oh my god, I've had a lot of those, trust me. Getting clocked.
My knuckles were broken, my wrists were broken, my ankles were broken. I did this move in Pittsburgh called Backstreet Justice. I had to go up the incline there and we had a big fight sequence where this guy slams me out the window and a car almost runs my head over, and then we go tumbling down a flight of stairs. And I wanted a stunt double [for him], but it was the actor that said “Oh, I played football, I can do this.” But it's not the same. We went – it's called going “ass over teakettle,” and you're tumbling. There's another guy, another person involved.
So when I got to the end of the stairs, I kind of laid in a fetal position, hoping this 250 pound guy would dive over me, but he didn't. He came down on my shoulder and snapped my clavicle. So that snapped, and he was supposed to lose the gun and start hitting me with his fist, and he forgot to lose the gun, so he started hitting me in the face with the gun. As a result, we had to cut and do it again. They had to snap my shoulder back into place so we could do it again. And he did it again! And I couldn't double Linda Kozlowski at the time, because my arm's hanging out.
He also had to do a little close up with her and he broke her nose!
I've had thirteen concussions, chipped some teeth. What can I say?