You in all probability don’t acknowledge the identify Lee Chesley, however if you happen to’ve seen Marvel’s most up-to-date record-breaking blockbuster, you’ve completely seen her work. She’s the stunt double for Awkwafina in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings—and that’s not the one spectacular entry on her resume. io9 acquired an opportunity to talk with Chesley about her tremendous cool profession thus far.

Breakdancing is concerned (with some footage to show her bona fides!), as is an comprehensible quantity of Michelle Yeoh hero-worship, who Chesley acquired to share the set with on Shang-Chi. Her different stunt performer credit embrace Jumanji: The Next Level (her first time working with Awkwafina), DC’s Birds of Prey, and the upcoming Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. Check out the interview within the video above, performed by Aiko Tanaka for io9.

“I got into being a stuntwoman at a gym that I trained at. Some people that saw me training were like, ‘Oh, do you do stunts? You should get into it! You look like you could do it!’—because I would just throw stuff and chuck stuff and land, and they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re good at hitting the ground!’” Chesley recollects. Of her idol, Chelsey says, “Michelle Yeoh was such a big influence and inspiration [for] me because there were very few women already that did action, that looked badass, that weren’t, like, just a pretty face. And on top of that, Asian women,” she says, including “the awkward part of me came out” when she met Yeoh on the set of Shang-Chi. Even although Chesley labored on the Marvel Studios movie herself, she admits, “I still fan over it… hardcore,” noting that she’s a giant anime and comedian e book nerd.

The course of of creating Jumanji is when she actually realized she’d discovered her excellent area of interest. “I think it was during that movie and then working on fights with people that I felt this is what I really like to do. I’ve always been into martial arts films, I’ve always been into movement, it really felt like everything that I had done up to this point had facilitated making this job work for me.”

If you’d wish to see extra of Chesley’s work, you may check out her Instagram. And control io9 for extra enjoyable behind-the-scenes stunt performer profiles.

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