Meet Orlaith Doherty - Jennifer Aniston's Dublin born stunt double

A typical ‘day at the office’ could involve a martial arts battle, jumping off a crane or being hit by a car for Ireland’s stuntwomen, writes Esther McCarthy

Eimear O’Grady, aflame in the line of duty.

Fires, falls, car chases and doubling for Jennifer Aniston — for Ireland’s growing number of stuntwomen delivering onscreen thrills and spills is all part of the day job.

Whether it’s staging a martial arts battle, performing stunt driving for a thrilling action scene or doubling for a well-known star, Ireland’s stunt performers bring a wide variety of skills in a career that is never routine.

It has always been a traditionally male-dominated career, but growing gender parity in the film and TV industry internationally — and demand from viewers for strong female characters and stories — means that is all changing. Female characters are now commonly front and centre across all major productions, meaning more demand for female stunt specialists.

And with streamers and TV channels the world over crying out for new stories and projects, Ireland is rapidly becoming a major TV and film production destination.

According to Eimear O’Grady, one of a growing number of the Irish female stunt community, opportunities for women in the industry have never been greater.

“It used to be just word of mouth so it was hard to get in, male or female — the internet helped that. When I started in 2008, there were day players but there were no females making a full-time career out of it. Now full time there’s about seven or eight.”

And as women move their way up to more senior positions, career opportunities are becoming more varied.

“They’re moving into becoming fight choreographers and stunt coordinators. Girls see that there is possibly more than one role and the potential for other talents, that they can find the way.”

The growth in the stunt industry is down to increasing numbers of TV and film productions being made in Ireland. Before production here and globally was shut down when Covid-19 first struck in March, the country was thriving as a production hub. More recently, production work has been able to continue on a variety of projects here with strict safety measures in place.

Production activity in Ireland has doubled in the last five years, and the success of shows such as Normal People and The Young Offenders and films such as Black ’47 and The Hole in the Ground are getting Ireland noticed internationally.

Big projects such as The Last Duel, Ridley Scott’s historical epic which saw star Matt Damon have an Irish lockdown this year, are also being made here.

The Last Duel, which recently wrapped, filmed in several locations across Ireland including Meath, Wicklow and Cahir Castle in Co Tipperary. It also stars Adam Driver, Ben Affleck and Killing Eve star Jodie Comer.

Other projects which returned to complete filming here in recent months include Wolf, a psychological thriller starring George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp. Vikings: Valhalla, the spin-off to hit series Vikings, is filming in Co Wicklow with 24 episodes ordered for Netflix. It’s set 100 years after the original series.

The development and expansion of studios such as Troy in Limerick and Ardmore in Co Wicklow is also drawing large-scale international TV projects.

Eimear is currently working as stunt coordinator on Foundation, a sci-fi series for Apple TV, in Limerick’s Troy Studios. It is one of the biggest-scale projects ever to be filmed in Ireland and tells the story of a band of exiles who discover the only way to save an empire from destruction is to defeat it. Hundreds of crew are working on the series, which stars Jared Harris and Laura Birn, including Eimear and the stunt team.

Eimear, who is married to the musician Declan O’Rourke, was a cello player and studied music before turning to stunt work. “I was a competitive open sea swimmer and springboard diver and studied music in college. When I left, I decided I wanted to do some acting and went to the Gaiety School. We did stage combat and fencing and I really enjoyed it.”

Partly because of her diving background, Eimear was offered her first stunt for an advert — to jump off a crane onto some boxes while wearing a red silk dress. The performer who was jumping with her noticed she was nervous. “He said: ‘This is a great thing! Let’s go!’” she remembers. He was Giedrius Nagys, one of Ireland’s most-established performers, and Eimear works with him to this day.

She says that he and others in the industry have been instrumental in enabling women to enter what was traditionally a male-dominated career path. “We were supported into the industry by good men. They looked at your abilities and potential and guided you.” While people who work in stunts are often regarded as dare devils, and stunt work is known best for dramatic elements like car

chases and falls, a great deal of the work and focus actually involves safety and risk assessment.

“That’s the trickery of stunts, and why stunts are stunts and not just people smashing themselves into things,” said Eimear.

“There’s magic involved in it. I got lucky because I worked with somebody like Giedrius who knew a lot of tricks from 35 years in the industry. It’s for camera, so there are ways to tailor action. It looks very impactful and dynamic, but is very

Still, there are big stunts too. One of Eimear’s first big stunts involved being hit by a car for a BBC drama: “That was a biggie for me. There are a couple of different tricks that we use. But physically, yes, it was contact made and over the top. I’ve done a lot of body burns. Either you do a partial burn, which is just an arm or leg, or you do a full-body burn, which is your whole self.”

Every performer says that being calm, extremely focused and working closely with and as directed by your stunt coordinator are vitally important on any job.

There are different elements to the job too — stunt performance involves performing a stunt on camera, while stunt doubling is another skill, as you double for an actor in a scene (for example drowning, falling over backwards) that involves risk.

Orlaith Doherty

For Orlaith Doherty, that once involved doubling up for one of the most famous women in the world — Jennifer Aniston. The Dubliner got to work with the star who was filming a Netflix comedy called Murder Mystery in Italy.

“I’d worked with the stunt co-ordinator on a couple of other projects. You don’t get too excited until you’re standing there because things can change. But when it’s all over you can go: ‘did that just happen?!’ “Sometimes you’re around the actor a lot, sometimes less so. I was fortunate to meet her a number of times. She’s really lovely, a very chilled lady. Comedy is her forte and it certainly came across that way. I did some of the stunt driving in a Ferrari for her. It was a really relaxed, enjoyable production. There was a family feeling on set.”

Those who double will be dressed and styled to closely resemble the actor as much as possible. “If you’re doubling you go for a fitting and you might get a wig, clip-in extensions or whatever it might be.”

Orlaith Doherty with Jennifer Aniston

Like Eimear, Orlaith went to study acting at the Gaiety but finished among the top of the class for stage combat. She went travelling and on returning, took up some additional training organised through Stunt Guild Ireland. It marked a natural progression for her as she has always had a focus on fitness and comes from a very outdoorsy family.

“I skied for Ireland in the Youth Olympics. I was skiing since I was three years old. My family were keen scuba divers. I’ve always done a bit of everything but I have definitely pushed my training in stunt driving, and I’ve been really getting into motorbikes now as well.” She’s worked on several high-profile projects including Nightflyers for Netflix (where she got to do a lot of zero-gravity work), and Horizon Line, due for release this month. “That was one of my favourites. It filmed here in Ireland then we got to travel to Mauritius. I was doubling for Alison Williams, the American actress. We got along really well. She was in the water a lot and I was there beside her.” She agrees that there are more opportunities for women in the industry than in the past, as we see more female-orientated series. “There are a lot more projects coming through where the women have as many roles as the guys.”

Orlaith says it is vital to stay in shape when you’re not working as you never know when a call’s going to come to join a production. “Keep training. There’s such a wide variety of skills that are needed. To specialise as well is fantastic but it’s good to be an all-rounder. Keep training hard - you have to be ready because you never know when that call might come. Like an actor there can be quiet times but you need to keep training, look after the body as much as possible.”

Aoife Byrne

Like her peers, Aoife Byrne has also always been into fitness. “I was a dancer since the age of three and I have four brothers so I was raised on action films and Jackie Chan.” She got into kickboxing in her teens and went on to work in the costume department of film and TV productions, but was always fascinated by the work of the stunt department. One day she got talking to two stunt-coordinators and decided to start training in stunt driving.

“Because I’m quite short it helped, I could double kids as well as women. I’m a fitness instructor and I’ve trained in martial arts, gymnastics. I’ve always been interested in training.” It meant that when film production halted this year, she could keep fit and keep working by moving her Flow Fitness classes online.

“Most of my work is doubling work. I’ve been double for Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Ellen Page, Anna Friel, Charlie Murphy, Sarah Green.

You’re trying to make them comfortable and let them know that you’re there for them. My job is to make sure they don’t get hurt in any way whether you’re doing the stunt or not.

“You’re watching their movement and mannerisms the whole time. If you don’t see me double on screen it means that I’ve done my job. And it always goes back to safety. You have to be aware at all times of your surroundings.”

Stuntwoman Aoife Byrne in action in the series Vikings.

Like Aoife, Jessica Grant loves the buzz of being on set and is currently working on her biggest project yet — Foundation in Limerick’s Troy Studios.

Jessica, who runs a martial arts school in her native County Wicklow with her brother, trained the national martial arts team until this year. Through that, she was asked to work on US TV series Into the Badlands, which filmed here, and was bitten by the bug. “I then started going to Stunt School Ireland and started training there. I knew how to fight but fighting on screen is very different. I was learning about how film sets worked, how cameras worked.” Having worked on a number of productions, working on Foundation sees her working as a fight choreographer for the first time.

“My role is to make the fight for others. When I’m training them I’m looking to see what their strengths are and coordinating them into the fights.

“It’s been amazing. It’s my first time being fight choreographer, so I’m coming up with the fights and training the cast. It’s nice to be able to come up with everything and be creative.

“We read the script and then come up with action that fits that scene best. It’s one of the biggest productions in Ireland. It was very exciting especially as this would traditionally have been a man’s role.”