Kiwi stuntwoman gets Lost and found

ACTION WOMAN: Kiwi stuntwoman Zoe Bell is enjoying the ride as her career evolves to include acting in a new Tarantino film.
'I'm gonna be an action hero,' she says.

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Kiwi stuntwoman Zoe Bell's acting career is rocketing ahead with a role in the hit television series Lost.

Bell, who grew up on Waiheke Island, makes her acting debut playing herself in the Quentin Tarantino movie Death Proof, which is to open in New Zealand on November 8.

Bell said from Los Angeles yesterday that her next project was in Hawaii filming episodes of Lost, starting next week.

The series, now in its fourth season, follows a group of passengers marooned on a mysterious island after their plane crashes.

Bell described it as "a little acting role" that would involve some stunt work. She also has two upcoming action movie projects in which she has the lead role.

"I'm injury-free and I've got a Green Card and I'm gonna be an action hero," she said of her rising career as an actress.

"Something new is always exciting. My life has been made up of a series of events that I've chosen to jump at and run with and see where they end up, and I never really know where they're going, but it feels like quite an organic transition and I'm enjoying the ride."

In Death Proof, Bell speaks in a broad Kiwi accent and talks about coming from Auckland. "Every day I was giving a shout out to home, that made me feel really good.

"And Quentin was definitely giving a shout out to New Zealand because he's definitely a fan of New Zealand and Australia."

The film's most terrifying stunt sequence has Bell straddling the bonnet of a 1970 Dodge Challenger reaching speeds up to 150 kilometres an hour.

"If we'd had a major glitch during that sequence I could've very easily not walked away from it so well."

She said she was concerned by YouTube footage of people trying to emulate the stunt. "The most I can do is state clearly that there is an amount of illusion involved in all movie-making."

Her first job as a stunt double was jumping out of a car in Shortland Street. After doubling for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess for three years, she left New Zealand and her big break came when she was signed by Tarantino as a stunt double for Uma Thurman in his Kill Bill films.

- © Fairfax NZ News