Get ready to step into the heart-pounding world of Hollywood stunts as we sit down with the remarkable Diane Peterson in this riveting podcast episode. A trailblazer in the world of action-packed cinema, Diane's journey from a young dreamer to an accomplished stuntwoman is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Join us as we delve into the stories behind the scenes of some of your favorite movies, where Diane's fearlessness and dedication brought to life some of the most unforgettable moments on the big screen. From high-speed chases to breathtaking falls, she's done it all, and her tales of courage and tenacity will leave you on the edge of your seat.

But it's not just about the action – we'll also uncover the human side of Diane's journey. Hear how she navigated the challenges of a male-dominated industry, breaking barriers and proving that passion knows no bounds. Discover the camaraderie and bonds that develop on set, creating an unbreakable family of stunt professionals.

In this candid conversation, Diane shares insights into the artistry behind the stunts, the meticulous planning that goes into every heart-stopping moment, and the adrenaline-fueled rush that keeps her coming back for more. From her early days as a fearless teenager to her current status as a respected icon in the industry, Diane's story is a testament to the power of chasing your dreams, no matter the obstacles.

Tune in to this episode as we unlock the secrets behind Hollywood's thrilling spectacles, celebrating the bravery and skill of the stunt performers who bring the magic to life. Whether you're a fan of action movies, an aspiring artist, or simply intrigued by the world behind the camera, Diane Peterson's interview is a must-listen. Get ready to be inspired, entertained, and amazed by her incredible journey!

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Diane Peterson's Bio:

Diane grew up in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. Her parents were John and Ann Peterson and she has one brother Dr. John M. Peterson of Montpelier, Vermont..Diane graduated from the University of Miami with a BA Degree in Drama. She did a stint as a Playboy Bunny in Great Gorge, New Jersey and then London, England. Diane got her start in New York on an acting role in Kojak. There she saw two stuntmen do a car chase and she knew she found her calling. Diane worked in New York with the Eastcoast Stuntmen's Association for two years and then moved to Los Angeles. She became the President of the Stuntwomen's Association of Motion Pictures for seven years and continues to work as an actress and stuntwoman in television and film.

Links For Diane:

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodstuntwoman/?hl=en

Buy Diane's Book At Amazon!

 https://www.amazon.com/stores/Diane-Peterson/author/B0CDPCPB47?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

 Buy At Barnes & Nobles!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hollywood-stuntwoman-diane-peterson/1141670314

 Get The Book On Audible!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Hollywood-Stuntwoman-Audiobook/B0CDNB24JK

You know, we've been fortunate in the past to

be able to bring on some top stars from

80s movies to come in to sit with us

and talk about their career and some of the

movies we grew up watching and loved. But we've

never really had the opportunity to have somebody from

behind the scenes come on the show and talk

about that aspect of the movies. So this week,

we are very happy to announce that we have

got Diane Peterson, who is one of the top

stunt women in Hollywood, if not the top stunt

woman in Hollywood. And she's on the show with

us this week talking all about doing the stunts,

how she got started, some of the people she's

doubled for, people she's worked with. She has a

new book she's just put out. She's all around

great, and I think you're really going to enjoy

her. So just sit back, grab something to drink

and take it in. Here we go. Hello again,

everybody. Welcome back to the podcast Retro Life for

you. My name is Chris Adams, host of the

show, and sitting in with me this week, as

always, is Mr. Travis Rollins. Travis, how you doing?

What's going on, everybody? Y'all can't see it, but

I got my Dolly Parton shirt on today because

we girl power today.

Boy, you're girl power today.

Yeah, we're girl, all right.

Well, we do have a fun show. You know,

we'd sit here and we ramble on about a

movie or something, but this time we got somebody

in with us, going to sit in and talk

to us and tell us about her story and

things that she does. And I'm going to go

ahead and bring her on with us here.

Travis, I'm so excited.

And bringing into the show with us here is

Ms. Diane Peterson. Diane, thank you so much for

coming on the show with us tonight.

Oh, thank you. I'm happy to be here.

So just for the people that don't know, diane

is a Hollywood stunt woman. She's been in some

movies and TV shows. Well, and some acting roles.

Just a few.

Just a few. She's got a few credits under

her belt.

Was it 200 credits?

Yes.

And was the president of the Stunt Woman's Association

of Motion Pictures for seven years.

That's right.

Anne just wrote a book, so we're staying busy.

Yes. My book, Hollywood Stunt Woman, launched in March,

and the audiobook is launching August 22.

I'm an audible addict, so I can't wait for

that.

Perfect. So many people were asking me to do

an audiobook, so that's why I did it and

I narrated it myself.

I was just about to ask that. That's so

awesome.

Then when I was talking to her last week,

I asked her the same question, I believe, and

I told her it just made perfect sense for

the person who's writing the book to do the

audible version, too. I mean, to narrate it.

Absolutely.

Yeah. It was funny. When I talked to the

studio director, he said, have you ever done an

audiobook before? And I said, no. I said, but

I'm an actress and I've done dubbing for Line,

so I can do it. And it was really

fun.

Absolutely.

I imagine it was a blast. I'm for I

noticed, you know, of course, looking at your bio

before you got your start there as an acting

role with Kelly Savalis and Kojak, how long did

it take you to actually get into the stunt

part of the business?

Well, it's funny. That day on the set, it

was like an epiphany. My role was the woman

with the baby carriage, and I was pushing a

baby carriage across 77th street in Madison Avenue, and

a car chase went by. A cop car was

chasing the bad guys. And the scene was they

were supposed to almost hit the baby carriage. So

it was like, wow. I was like, I want

to be driving those cars. Yeah. And so it

just got my adrenaline pumping, and I knew that's

what I wanted to do. So that was in

the went over to the stunt guys. They're always

drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes after a take. And

I said, I'm Diane Peterson and I ride horses

and motorcycles, and I race my car in quarter

mile drags, and I really want to do stunts.

And they said, Forget it, honey. We put the

wigs on and we do it. And that's what

they did in the 70s. They didn't want to

give any of their work away to a girl.

You were actually the first stunt woman of the

East PSA. Yeah.

Yes, I was.

I'm sorry for the listeners. That's the East Coast

Stunt Men's Association, right?

That's right. I was the first token female. So

after that day when they said, forget it, I

mean, the gauntlet was thrown, and I wasn't going

to take no for an answer.

There you go. There you go. Heck, yeah.

She's like, hold my beer.

Watch me do this.

The first stunt woman.

Yeah. So every time I ran into them on

different stunts when I had little acting roles, I'd

be watching how they set up a fight, and

I'd be bugging them for a job. Bugging them,

give me a job. And so it probably took

about three or four months of me hounding them.

And they called me and they said, we have

a job for you. I was like, great, what

do I have to do? You have to get

hit by a car. Oh, my God. Are you

sending me a message?

Welcome to the business. Welcome aboard. Glad to have

you. We're going to run you down today.

Okay? So they were like, don't worry, we'll teach

you how to do it. So they padded me

up like the Michelin tire man. I had elbow

pads, knee pads, hip pads, all these pads on.

I walk across the street. It was like a

four lane highway, and the first car stopped, and

then I sauntered on, and the next car came

speeding by and hit me. I took the hit,

but it's all in timing. So it's all in

timing where they hit the brake for 1 second,

and I swing myself on the car, and then

they pour the gas, and I go flying off.

Wow.

So the timing is absolutely critical. And so on

the first full speed take, I got hit in

the knees really hard, and I go, that's it.

I quit. I'm going home. I was acting. I

was modeling, and I certainly didn't want to get

run over by the car on the next hit.

And the guy that was teaching me, who was

the president of the East Coast Stuntman's Association, alex

Stevens, he grabbed me by the shoulder, and he

goes, diane, it's like falling off a horse. If

you don't get right back out there and do

it again, you'll never do another stunt in your

life. Right. And I was like, I fell off

plenty of horses in my life.

A few of those, too. It's not fun.

Did you get back on?

Yeah. That was the way of life back then,

too, though.

That's right. So I went back out there, and

I did a car hit that was, like, unbelievable.

And they were like, wow, that was incredible. And

then I got to drive and hit them. Then

I was a club.

There you go.

So it made up board altogether when you got

to run them over, right?

Exactly.

Awesome.

Yeah.

I didn't tell that's back before. Really? A lot

of you all kind of had to pioneer the

safety of it all as well, wouldn't you? I

would think, like, wires and well, of course. But

certainly we didn't have airbags in the 70s would

be something else.

Yeah, we definitely was pioneers. There were cardboard boxes

then to do high falls into, and right before

I left New York, one of the stunt guys

called me up. His name was AJ. Bacunis, and

he actually died doing a high fall. And he

said, we have a thing called an airbag, and

do you want to learn how to do a

high? And, like, in my head, I'm going, no

way. I hate heights. I knew that I needed

to learn how to do this because I wanted

to be a top Hollywood stunt woman. And so

I said, yeah, sure. And I went out to

the set, and they had a fire engine there

with the cherry picker, and AJ. And this other

guy, Alex. And I get in the cherry picker,

and they go up about 40ft, and they both

jump out, and they leave me up there one

way down. It was a cruel torture. It really

was. And so I'm like, bring me down, bring

me down. So they brought me down to about

20ft, and then they explained how to tuck my

head and land flat out. And so that was

my first thing into the airbag, which was probably

in 76, but it was cutting edge then. It

was just coming out.

Right. I would imagine when you take the fall,

it would be kind of like taking a bump,

and you want to tuck your chin and kind

of put your arms out so your shoulders kind

of take the brunt of everything when you hit.

Yeah. And you kind of want to land flat

out on your back, kind of as flat as

you can and not near an edge.

I'm sure of that.

Yeah.

Well, I know basically, you answered one of my

first questions. My other questions I had, too, like,

what was the first big stunt that you did?

I imagine that jump from the height. Like, that

was the first big stunt that you did, right?

As far as yes, but all stunts are kind

of different and challenging, even kind of like small

stunts that you think are a piece of cake.

Stuff goes wrong. I mean, unusual things happen. I

was working an Annie Hall movie in New York

in the was doubling Diane Keaton, and I was

driving the Volkswagen bus, and Woody Allen was afraid

to ride passenger with me, so they had a

stunt guy for him. And I'm racing through the

traffic in New York City. I have a cameraman

in the seat with a camera taking my point

of view, and in between the cars, a guy

walked out, right? The streets were supposed to be

blocked, but somebody came out of a doorway, and

boom.

This was unexpected then. This wasn't part of the

stunt.

Totally unexpected. So I was young and new, and

I knew the cameraman was in the seat. I

aimed for the guy, right? I aimed for the

guy, and the guy jumped out of the way,

and then I slid sideways into this tiny little

parking space, and Woody supposedly gets out of the

car. All of a sudden, a policeman comes over,

and he goes, what was that? What do you

mean? He goes, you almost hit that pedestrian. And

I go, well, he kind of just walked out

between the cars. He said, but you aimed at

him. And I was like, I'm sorry, I won't

do that again.

Did that make it into the movie, into the

final cut? The guy yes, it did. Watch it

now.

Yeah. So things like that happen unexpectedly, and I

mean, that's a small thing, but big things happen

unexpectedly as well. A friend of mine was killed

and doing a stunt, a movie I was working

on. That movie was released in 1978 called The

High Riders, and it was a fun car picture.

In fact, I went to a documentary on Friday

night in Beverly Hills. They called it the Masters

of the Grind and the Grind.

I saw your photo on IG.

Yeah. So the grind is when they were grinding

out all those low budget car pictures and things

in the 70s. Anyway, they did a documentary, and

it was amazing. But my friend, it was the

last shot of the movie. We had been filming

for four weeks or so. Last day, last shot.

He was doing a ramp jump in a pickup

truck, and he was supposed to come down this

bumpy road and hit a high ramp, about a

five foot high ramp, and then sail into a

pool of water. Well, when the truck was bouncing

like this, it hit the ramp. It busted a

hole in the ramp, and the truck went upside

down, flipped upside down into the water.

Oh, no.

And instead of coming out the side window, he

went out the back and he got trapped under

the bed of the truck.

Oh, man.

And the safety divers went in. The water was

all murked up, and they looked around in the

cab and they couldn't find him because he wasn't

in the cab. He went out the back. So

they had to put a chain and a tow

truck and pull it out, and by then it

was too late. It was absolutely horrific. It was

just the worst.

No doubt the worst ever.

He was 29 years old and a fabulous thrill

show guy, and his name was Vic Rivers. He

was amazing. But stuff like that happens that you

just right.

It's not nearly as tragic as that. I think

that for a lot of us, especially my age,

jackie Chan kind of introduced us to how cool

the stunts were, the actual stunt people. Well, actually,

the fall guy did that.

Yeah, I worked on the fall Guy a lot.

I know, but I remember I believe it was

Rumble in the Bronx. It was Jackie's first big

American production, or the one that got him big

over here. And one of the simplest stunts in

the entire movie. He jumped off of, like a

bridge pylon onto a boat or hydra. It was

some kind of boat, and he just hit the

landing wrong and just snapped his ankle. Been through

all this other crazy stuff and then just this

little ten foot jump and boom. Broken ankle. This

teeny tiny little thing that's like me last winter.

I was walking through the front yard and it

had snow. And it doesn't snow very much in

South Carolina. That red clay mixed with that snow.

And I'm just walking across the front yard casually,

and then all of a sudden, my foot slips

and goes up underneath my back. I land on

my knee. It's just little tiny things. It's crazy.

Oh, wow. So did you break your knee?

It hyperextended. It pretty good. I hadn't yelled like

that in a long time.

It was a good one.

Definitely sounds painful.

Yeah, does. Yeah.

Of course, in California you get lots of snow,

right?

Well, only about 2 hours away. I can be

at Big Bear skiing. Big Bear. I live in

Malibu, so I live on the beach. And it's

pretty sweet here. It's really great. I love it.

What were your favorite types of stunts to do?

Was it like fighting or cars or.

Jumping out of car chase is my absolute favorite

and one of my favorite jobs doing a car

chase. I got to go to Hawai and do

a car chase with the Magnum Ferrari.

No way.

Yes. It was the best. It was unbelievable. And

it's funny how it came up. I was working

on a movie. I was doubling Sharon Stone called

Ellen Quartermain the lost city of Gold.

Like it?

And in between scenes, I had to do a

sword fight with another stunt guy. And in between

scenes and practicing our sword fight, I was telling

him that I was saving to buy a Ferrari.

Right. That every job I did. I put away

a little money for my Ferrari that I was

going to buy someday because I wanted to buy

one, but I didn't want to have huge car

payments. So I said, I have a Ferrari fund.

I love Ferraris. We finished that movie, and a

couple months later, he called me. He was the

stunt coordinator for Magnum, and he said, Diane, you

want to come to Hawai and drive the Ferrari

in a car? Like, yeah, sure. I thought he

was kidding me. And he goes, no, really? It's

an episode where a girl steals the Ferrari. You'd

be perfect. And I was like, when do I

live? And it was so fun. It was so

fun. I got to go to Hawaii. And working

with Tom Selleck was pretty cool, too.

I'm sorry, I have to do this to my

cousin real quick. That's the Volkswagen 308 GT Quattro

valve. Ray, we were talking about the fall guy

one day, and I said, I think was it

a Dodge F 150? And then Chris stopped and

said, what did you just say earlier today on

Facebook, my cousin said something about that. And I

was like, hey, we can talk about the Magnum

Pi. Volkswagen 308 GT Quaco Valve, too, if we

want to.

Drive them crazy.

Oh, my goodness.

They have the car in the Peterson Automotive Museum

here in Los Angeles. And last summer, when my

book was in pre sales, they brought the car

to the San Marino Car Show. And so I

was there with the car, and I was pre

selling my books. It was cool.

Hey, beautiful. Remember me? Close as we get to

something like that's, like the Star Cars Museum or

something. Did you ever get to drive any, like,

monster trucks, crush stuff?

No. That would have been fun. Yeah. But I've

gotten to drive 18 wheelers, and there was an

episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, and I was working

on that a lot, and I read an upcoming

episode, and it had an 18 wheeler in it.

So I said to the stunt coordinator, I have

my Class One license. Let me drive the truck.

And he said, forget it. He said, the guy

that's bringing the truck is going to drive it.

Right? So that day we were having lunch. We

finished lunch, and the stunt coordinator threw me the

keys. Heck, it's all yours. I was like, really?

And so the guy that brought the truck, he

said, Can I ride passenger with you? And I

said, well, if you promise to be quiet. He

goes, I promise I won't say a word. Because

we were doing a head on near Miss with

a bus. And the bus and the bus driver

was my friend stunt guy. The bus driver called

it at the last second and nearly ran into

us head on. This guy was like white knuckled.

I mean, you got to have, like, nerves of

steel for this job, it sounds like. Yeah, I'd

be the guy with the white knuckles at this

point, headed toward the bus, for sure.

And then I get all kinds of other stuff.

I drove a train one. Yeah, that was pretty

fun. And all kinds of tractors and yeah, I've

driven all kinds of weird equipment.

I remember talking with you the other day. What

was it you did to MacGyver? You said you

loved MacGyver. You get to be on there a

couple of times.

Oh, yeah, I did so many stunts. And MacGyver's

like explosions and fights. MacGyver was a great series.

I love that.

When you said explosions, did you get into doing

setups and wiring and stuff, or were you just

involved? Were you like not to put this too

crazy, but a flying body?

Yeah, I was flying body in front of the

big explosion.

That's what I would want to do, too.

It's pretty intense. It really is the first explosion

I was ever in. I said to the special

effects guy, how big is it going to be?

How big is the blast? He goes, It's just

going to be a little thing while my ears

were ringing for a week.

That is, I think, shocking for someone who hasn't

ever been in front of any kind of explosive

happenstance. The concussion from it, the way that the

air moves, the air itself is, like, against you

and wants to hurt you. It's an incredible feeling.

It makes you tumble like a tumbleweed when concussion

hits you. So after that first time, I started

studying Pyrotechnics, and I got my Pyrotechnic operator's license

so that I could look at what they were

using for explosives. And I had a pretty good

idea of how big the blast was going to

be, except when I was working on a movie

in South Africa, they could use nitro there. And

we weren't allowed to use nitro in the United

States.

Race cars over here.

That was by far the I was ever in.

It was unbelievable. It just threw me like a

rag doll.

So my stepson would choke me if I didn't

ask you this question. It might be kind of

out of the blue, but RoboCop favorite movies. So

if we go back and watch RoboCop again or

RoboCop Two.

RoboCop Two? Yeah.

Where are we going to spot you? How many

places are we going to spot you there?

Well, I'm in the scene, it's like in the

convention center when the RoboCop goes crazy and starts

machine gunning people. And so I was squibbed with

probably 200 squibs. And so there's a lot of

people in the scene, but you can see me.

I'm getting machine gun down. Right.

We're going to go look for it. I guarantee.

You've done so much with so much stuff that

I love. It's like Universal Soldier. Chris and I

are suckers for any kind of martial arts. And

old eighty s. I said old retro eighty s.

Ninety s. Seventy s. Action movie. And then the

remake of The Green Hornet. Like, there's so much

had to be oh, yeah.

And the Steven Seagal movies were great, too. Out

for justice and Mark For were those were really

great. I got shot in the head. Out for

justice.

Travis I know you know the parts he's talking

about, too, because the crazy guy, Richie, gets out

of his car at the lady who's yelling at

him.

In yeah, yeah, I'm yelling at him. Move the

goddamn car. Was you talking to me? Yeah, I'm

talking to you. Move the damn car.

That's so awesome.

But it wasn't the car.

And on the first take, they had this blood

bag set up under my wig so that when

he shot me, they had too much pressure and

too much blood, and it, like, blew across the

street.

Did that hurt? Surely you could feel that coming

off.

There's like a leather pad that they put on

your head that protects your head. I mean, you

can feel the think.

Of another thing that I would have never thought

of. With the squids. When they explode, are they

concussive, too? Can you feel it? Do those ever

get painful?

No, because there's either well, they used to use

leather pads, but now they use, like this, mylar

stuff. And you can't feel anything, which is bad,

because at least with the leather pads, you could

feel a little you knew it was happening. With

the smiler stuff. You don't feel anything. And if

you're not on the number that it's supposed to

happen, you can be late. Late. And then they

have to redo. So that's what they had to

do on out for justice. They had to redo

they had to redo my wardrobe and my hair

into another cake. Yeah, that was a great scene.

Now, you obviously love the stunt work. Well, we

can tell that and everything. It looks like it's

a really big part of you and everything. Do

you still go out and look for roles to

act in as well? Or is it mostly just

stunt work you concentrate on?

Well, at this point, people just call me people

call me to do a little part in something.

And now I'm older, so I get called to

be like, an older person that gets beat up

or something. I did a movie with Meryl Streep

a couple years ago, and it was called The

Laundromat. And they hired me and a bunch of

other older stunt people to be the retired people.

So they stick a gray wig on me and

they put some frumpy clothes on and we loaded

onto this boat. And it was a true story

that in 1995, all these retired people got on

a boat in Lake George and there were too

many people, and it was kind of top heavy

and a big boat went by and the boat

capsized and 20 people drowned. And that happened in

real life, so they were recreating this. And so

we shot the exteriors out here on Lake Arrowhead,

and then we shot the boat capsizing in the

pool at Universal. And so they put, like, a

rotisserie mechanism on the boat that they could control

the speed of the boat flipping over. And then

they had a crane that would bring it back

up into position. So all these stunt people were

all on the boat. And the guy sitting next

to me, I was on Titanic with him. I

said, what's up with us and sinking boats here?

There were three of us in this seat, and

it's a line from the Titanic. And I said

to these guys, women and children first.

There you go.

When this boat flips, I'm going first. But it

was all arms and legs with this boat flipping

over, and it was kind of fun. So at

this point in my career, people call me for

stunt jobs. And my favorite jobs now are car

jobs where I'm the Cougar and I pick up

the young guy and my.

How cool would it be if you got to

play the Cougar driving the Mercury Cougar with Alan

Jackson singing? If I was to make a movie,

that would happen. Yeah, the thing that you just

said about the boats made me think of something,

too, with having so many experienced. And I would

think if they're calling you in because of the

age, then I would think that most every stunt

person who would be on that type of movie

would be super experienced. How hard does it become

to not make it look like you're not falling?

You know what I mean? Like, if you're all

going into the water at the same time, you

know what's safe, what's not, especially with water and

drowning and this and that. Yeah, I already asked

the question once. How hard is it to actually

make it look like you're not falling properly and

safely to look like it's wild and cold?

We're trained to make it look real. We're not

there to make it look like a gymnast doing

it. So I make it as natural as I

can and be as loose as I can, like

you would be in real life. We talk about

the safety of it and where I'm proposing I'm

going to land and where the other guys are

going to land. But then once action happens, you

don't know exactly how it's going to happen, but

you have to be loose and feel like in

your head that you're just falling. You don't get

tense in the moment.

So do you when you hit the water, or

it's one of those things when you know you're

out of frame, I guess you count, like a

high fall. You would count split seconds or seconds

or whatever. Is it one of those things where

you at a last moment would maybe tuck or

make those micro adjustments to try to do better?

You just go for it. Yeah, you just go

for it. And then you try to yeah. And

like, under my clothing, I had, like, a wetsuit

vest that would take some of the shock out

of hitting the water and also give a little

buoyancy. I could hide anything. You could hide to

keep you safe. You do. In the beginning, I

used to not want to look fat, and then

in the end, give me every tag. Who cares?

You brought up the Michelin man earlier. You look

like the Michelin man now. We won't have a

problem at all with it.

Right?

You want me to slide down a dam in

a bikini now you want to give me some

pants and paint them beige.

Do you ever get asked about how to get

into the business and what it takes to get

going and started on it?

Yeah, especially when I was the president of the

Stunt Women's Association. I would get calls and letters

from ladies all over the country on how to

get started. And my advice always was to learn

everything you can. Like, I went to driving schools,

bob Bonderan school of high performance driving and skip

barber school, and I studied taekwondo, and I learned

how to fence, and I'm excellent on horses and

motorcycles. So you have to learn how to do

a whole lot of things, and then you have

to be in the right place. Like, you can't

stay in Peoria and expect to be a stunt

person. Nothing against Peoria, but how many movies are

shot there? So you got to be somewhere in

either preferably Los Angeles, where it's the movie capital,

where something good can happen, but you got to

have the talent, you got to have the goods

when you get the opportunity. Like when I moved

from New York to La. I was sent out

pictures and resumes. That's what you did in those

days. And I had a interview at a modeling

agency on Sunset Boulevard, and I. Had a little

corvette. And I parked on Sunset Boulevard. And I

walked across the street. I got in the elevator

and a guy says to me, excuse me, are

you a stunt woman? And I go, yeah, how'd

you know that? He said, I parked behind you.

And in my rear window, I had East Coast

Stuntman Association sticker. And he says to me, can

you drive? I said, I'm a dynamite driver. I'm

the best. And he said, well, come to my

office after your interview and meet the stunt coordinator.

I went down, I met the stunt coordinator, Conrad

Palmisano. He said, can you drive? I said, I'm

dynamite. I'm the best driver ever. He goes, OK,

we're going to Arizona and we're doing a picture.

And boom, we started doing car picture after car

picture after car picture. We did Ronnie Howard's first

directorial picture, grand Theft Auto.

That's awesome.

Yeah. So what I'm saying is you got to

have the goods. And then you got to be

in the right place for the magic to happen.

You got to be prepared. And you got to

be in where.

It is basically for those that are listening. If

you do have that bug and you want to

do this, like she said, learn everything you can,

but don't just think you can stay at home

in today's day and age with Internet and remote

access and stuff like that and think you're going

to get these jobs. You really need to be

out there selling yourself to people, putting it out

there, hey, I can do this. Let me do

this for you. Hire me for the job. Let

me show you what I can do at least.

And you can't do that from sitting at home.

I was going to say, too, I would think

as well that on top of that, it would

take a certain toughness and determination too. Because like

you said about getting hit by the car, this

isn't your regular I'm going to Hollywood. And I

would think, too, that a lot of people are

looking up to Jesse Graff. I'm a big American

ninja warrior. American Ninja Warrior. I don't know why

people don't why is that not a water cooler

talk show? But I know Jesse Graff has done

stunt work for maybe not Gel Gadot, but on

the Wonder Woman movies. And I think a couple

of the X Men things transition.

Well, her dad her dad is a stuntman.

Oh, really?

Her dad, Alan Graff, is a stuntman who I

worked with for many, many years.

So then you probably know Jesse too, then.

Yes, I do. I know her mom and her

dad. And yes, she's amazing.

She is. And there's so many kids like Chris

talking about with wrestling because of American Ninja Warrior.

There's so many people that's looking up to her

now. But there again, we look up to them

because of that toughness and desire and want that

they have too. And then that being a natural

transition over, I would think, into the stunt work

and things like that. I can't imagine how a

day would go. You know what I mean? Gosh,

you've done so much of it. How does your

day go from, let's go wreck a car, let's

go jump out of a building? Are you an

adrenaline junkie? I guess we'd say, do you love

the adrenaline, or was it something that just kind

of grew from having that first experience where you

almost got sideswapped by the car with the baby

carriage?

No, I'm definitely a born adrenaline junkie. Definitely. When

I was just a little kid and I started

riding ponies, I'd make the pony rear up and

run fast, and all the other kids were hanging

on for dear life. And then as soon as

I got my car, I was doing quarter mile

drags, and as soon as I got the motorcycle,

I was jumping over stuff. It's like it's in

my blood. It really is. And in my book,

I give an inspirational message about people to follow

their dreams and to overcome their fears. Like, fears

can stop you from following your dream. You feel

a fear of failure, or in my case, fear

of heights, or you feel you're not good enough,

but you can't let fear bully you. You have

to just take control and be strong and focus

on your dream. There's obstacles, but you need to

get over them and keep going for it 100%.

I love that you just said that, too. It's

wild because I tell people that fear is the

only true emotion that we have, and they ask

me why. I said, Because it's the only one

you can feel physically, mentally and emotionally. You can't

feel anything else all three ways. Those are all

three planes of existence. So which one are you

more scared of? Are you more scared of getting

hurt? Are you more scared of not living your

dream? Are you more scared of, you know what

I mean? What causes the more fear? So that's

awesome. Yeah. And like you said, know, being in

the right take. If you're going to live a

life taking chances of being a stunt person, you

got to take that first chance of getting out

there to get seen, get out there.

And, you know, I've run into people working on

sets when I've been in Arizona or I've been

on locations, and they're going, I really want to

be a stunt person. I said, well, you come

to know, and they're in Phoenix, and I'm like,

you got to come to La. Well, I don't

know. I don't know if I'll ever get a

job. I said, well, you can't think that way.

You got to think, I'm going there and I'm

going to get a job and I'm going to

make it. If you're doubting yourself, you're finished before

you start.

That's a lot of times, too. We always talk

about speaking things into existence. If you have that

little bit of doubt or that room for that.

And if you start putting out there into the

universe the things that might happen.

Exactly. You got to visualize the future. Like I

visualize every stunt going perfectly right before I do

it. I have some meditative time where I just

see the stunt going perfectly right from beginning to

end. And I keep going over that in my

head like you would a mantra. And so when

the stunt is ready and they call me for

action, boom. I already see what's going to happen.

I know what's going to happen. And if something

pops up and I have to readjust, I still

know it's going to go right.

Absolutely. That just came up. So you can make

this it was all supposed to happen that way.

It's got to go. It all happens the way

it's supposed to happen. When nothing bad is going

to happen, it's all going to go right.

One time, a stunt woman was riding passenger with

me, and I was about to start this very

intense car chase. And she says to me, what

do you do if you have to abort? I

just said, shut up, man. There is no aborting.

Just shut up and hold on.

My dad drag race. Motorcycles, actually. Michael Tate Held.

Oh, my gosh. It's like four or five records

back in the early to mid eighty s on

the naturally aspirated gas powered Harley Davidson. But anyway,

that's what my dad used to say. But brakes.

That's just extra weight. That'll slow us down. Brakes.

Wow.

Full throttle.

So you probably saw the clip from Bachelor Party.

I did that movie Bachelor Party with Tom Hanks,

and we're watching a 3D movie, and all of

a sudden a punch comes out and it hits

me in the face.

I was going to bring that up to you.

I was I was going to tell you to

refresh my memory because I could not remember if

it was Bachelor Party or if it was something

different. But there was a fight in theater, right?

You're watching a 3D movie, and the boyfriend with

you goes, man, this is the best thing that's

3D I've ever seen. And you're like, I've seen

better.

And all of a sudden, you get.

Clocked right in the nose, and you're like, whoa.

Yeah. That was an award winning scene. We won

actually best fight scene for that scene because it

was just so funny.

Who are some of your favorite people to work

with over the years that.

You'Ve been you know, there's a couple people that

guys that I just love, like know, he was

like an idol. I loved, you know, I love

and, you know, some of the girls I really

love diane Keaton. She was wonderful.

We love her. Watching anything with her. My wife's

in love with her. It seems like whatever movie

she's in, I just believe with all my heart.

She's that sweet in person and she know. On

Annie Hall, I shared a trailer with her. These

days you never share a trailer with the star.

In those days you did. And she was just

so wonderful, really fantastic. And then there's been so

many people over the years know when you do

a stunt for them, they're so know. Jessica Lang

was great. I worked with her on King Kong

and then again on the movie blue sky. I

don't know if you saw that, but that was

a really great movie about when they did h

bomb testing out in the desert and they weren't

telling anyone, and these bombs were going off and

I had to gallop this horse through the desert

with a helicopter chasing me. And then an h

bomb went off and I mean, this horse just

stood up on its hind legs and twirled around.

It was pretty.

Awesome that you said Charles Bronson, too, because that's

like one of my dad's favorite ever. I grew

up on the death wish movies and I can't

remember which one it was. He was real young,

but he was stacked and he was a boxer.

I can't remember it's all black and white one,

but that's so cool.

I was on death wish four, and I'm walking

to my car in a lonely garage, and I

get in the car and I see this hooded

guy coming toward me. I lock the doors and

he starts smashing the windows and dragging me out

of the car. It was scary even though it

was a movie.

Speaking of movies and all, you had mentioned to

me along with your book and the audiobook, you

had a desire to have it go into some

kind of a movie of its own if it

could.

Yes.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes. So I'm hoping that my book gets made

into a movie. It would be really a terrific

movie and I'd really like Jennifer Lawrence to play.

Yeah. So my agent sent my book to her

manager and then they asked for a treatment for

the screenplay. So I wrote a treatment. Know writer's

strike is on now. I'm not in the writers

guild, right. So I wrote a treatment and I'm

going to start writing the screenplay for it now,

hopefully.

What an amazing woman, people. We are in the

presence of greatness. I swear, the first stunt woman

we've got the most probably prolific stunt woman because

she's still working books like movie. And you're going

to write the screen. So you narrated on audible.

You wrote it, narrated it, and now you're going

to write as a movie for it, too. I

love it.

And if you get Jennifer Lawrence, please, you're my

new best friend. Because I want to meet Jennifer

Lawrence.

Yeah, she's amazing.

Got a couple of overweight middle aged nerds that

will.

She would be perfect for the role.

What an amazing movie, too. Oh, my God. Let's

turn it into a TV series, too. Let's do

the movie of the book and then do your

life story as a TV series. It's the new

fall guy. But that's what I was going to

say.

We've had the fall guy, now we got the

fall girl.

It's time for the fall girl.

For sure it is no time for the fall

girl.

And she really is a funny person and really

good actor. So that'd be an excellent choice. Yeah,

I almost got choked up thinking about it.

Right.

I worked on Titanic, too. I know it's not

the 80s. That was the.

Some of us had to see that movie several

times at the theaters. And it wasn't out of

choice for the most part. I did like the

movie. No, I liked the movie, but I did

not go watch it four times out of personal

preference.

Okay, yeah, 3 hours in the movie theater four

times would be tough. But I love the movie.

So why did you have to go four times?

I went with four different people to it.

Four different dates, right?

Yes. What? We don't watch Titanic. I'm like, okay.

You didn't have the heart to say, I've already

seen it three times.

No, I couldn't do it.

I tested out.

It was a good movie, though. I'm not going

to take anything away from it.

Well, the funny part is James Cameron, the director,

brought us to Mexico, Rosarita Beach, Mexico, four days

before shooting began to watch documentaries of what happened

to the Titanic. And all us stunt people are

sitting in there thinking, we're getting paid to watch

these documentaries. What's up with this guy? We just

didn't get it. But anyway, it gave us the

feel for what really happened then. And it was

so great working on the movie because he was

a stickler for detail. All the costumes and everything,

the hats, the shoes, everything was from the period.

And there were stunt people from all over the

world there. In a rehearsal, there was a guy

from the Czech Republic, and he was sitting across

from me in a lifeboat, and he had his

name on his shirt and something else was written

underneath it. And I said to him, what's that?

And he said blood type. I'm like blood type.

You have to blood type on your jacket. It

was an accident waiting to happen.

Best be prepared, I guess.

Just in case I need a transfusion here.

But it was so great working on the movie,

and then we went to the screening of it

at 20th Century Fox and they had, like, smokestacks

going on top of the theater. And we saw

the movie. We had no idea it was going

to be that terrific. I mean, it really was

amazing.

I think for its time, too, was second to

none. We just went over what was it? The

Matrix. That was made around the same time. And

we were hitting kind of a quasi renaissance for

filmography or cinematography during that period. I think it

was just blown away by the Jurassic Park and

the Matrix, the Titanic. We just had all this

new special effects stuff happening and then yeah, just

mind blowing how it looked.

Yeah, well, I get residuals on all the movies

and TV shows that I've done and Titanic has

certainly been the best in that department.

I contributed four times.

You mean hulk hogan ain't making any money on

suburban commando.

Oh, my gosh. We do a lot of here

as far as movies go and everything. What do

you think was your favorite thing during the 80s

that you did since we are a retro podcast

like that. What's your favorite of that time frame?

Yeah, I'm trying to think in the 80s. Let's

see. In the 80s, airplane. That was the 80s,

wasn't it?

Yeah.

Airplane. Surely you can't be serious. Yeah, and stop

calling you Shirley, okay?

I am.

Yeah. I love the airplane. I was in a

scene we were in the airport when the nose

of the airplane came crashing through the window and

all the people were in the terminal. That was

amazing. Yeah, I love that. And then I love

the Steve Martin films. The jerk. Do you remember

that movie? The Jerk?

Absolutely. I just need this lamp in this remote.

I was in the scene where he's in the

French restaurant with Bernadette Peters and it's his birthday

and he's got 100 gold chains on his neck

and she gives him a birthday present and it's

another gold chain, right? And he leans forward for

her to put the chain around his neck. And

then as he's going back, he loses his balance

and he starts crashing through tables in the French

restaurant. And he crashed into our table and everything

went flying. And then he lands on the floor

and he goes, check, please.

Steve's. One of the best ever. I got a

question for the lot of people that I know,

at least haven't seen it. And I got told

about it by someone that I used to work

with when I was a teenager, but it was

Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway and Barfly. So we

were talking a while ago about what would you

do in these other kinds of where you wouldn't

think of this as stunts needed to be done

in it. Was that something that you would have

just driven in or was that something.

No, this was a great scene. I love barfly

too. It's great. So I was doubling Faye Dunaway

and Mickey Rourke is sitting at the bar in

that sleazy bar, talking to another woman. And I

walk in the bar and I see this and

my blood is boiling. And so I walk up

to the girl that's sitting next to him and

I wrap my hand in her hair and I

yank her back off the bar stool and start

a big fight.

Right.

And so the first take, I yanked her back

off the bar stool, I pulled the wig off

her head.

So you had to reset.

And the director didn't yell Cut. And so we

continued fighting, and she had, like, a skull cap

on, and we continued fighting until he yelled, Cut,

and then everybody was laughing.

So did you get to be on set during

times with this movie? That was a great scene,

too, and the fights and everything. So when Mickey

was fighting in the alleyway with the two or

three or four guys in the alleyway, as a

stunt person, are y'all always on set for shooting

in case something like, if there's something that they

need or do they actually call in a like,

so if you were Dublin for Faye and say

something? I don't want to do that. Call a

stunt lady. Not that she would, but I mean,

does that really happen like that in.

Well, they know in advance that the actor is

not going to do it. That's a given. It's

not a last minute thing. So they'll either have

me on a daily contract if it's just that

fight, or they'll have me on a weekly contract

if there's a couple of other things I got

to do to double her, and then I don't

have to sit on the set the whole time.

I go to my trailer, my dressing room, my

trailer, but a lot of times I want to

be on the set because I want to watch

them doing the fight with doing the fight. But

it's the other stunt guys, and a lot of

time you just want to watch them doing the

fight. Right.

Actually, some of the question, too, I guess you've

added to it what I was kind of getting

at you. Do you hang out like I would?

Frank Stallone was in that movie as well. Sylvester's

brother. Yeah, but that was fun. That was really

fun. I'd like to say dunaway. She was a

sweetie, too, but Mickey Rourke was a trip.

Mickey's got to be like, I can imagine from

beginning of his career to now, he's got to

be something else to be around.

Yeah.

Character as much as he is his characters.

I love that movie, though. That was a great

one.

It's weird to me that I don't find a

lot of people that but there again, I go

to work and we're talking about Top Gun, too,

and one of the 20 somethings. That was great.

And they've never seen the first top. I've never

even seen it. You don't even know who Goose

is. Then you don't get to talk about the

second movie. How are you?

We have this conversation every single week, Diane. You

so understand. Every week we have this conversation. I

can't believe these people have not seen this movie.

Or like the Goonies or the last starfighter or

the picture of China or the last dragons, the

American ninja. Anything with Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger or

Stallone in it. And they're like, rambo. Who's?

Rambo king Kong.

I know it's know? I did. Chuck's TV show.

Walker, Texas Ranger. I worked on that for a

number of years and he was great. I loved

working with Chuck.

I actually got to meet him about it was

June. He came to Nashville with his wife for

a Comic Con here, and I got to meet

him there. He's the only reason why I went

to it was just to meet him.

Oh, wow.

And he's a really nice guy. I thought, what's

that, Travis?

I said, whereas I want to meet Don Cheadle.

Don was on Walker for a while, too. He

was like his way in the beginning for a

few wasn't he?

Don Cheadle.

Wasn't he on Walker?

Clarence Gilliard was.

Clarence, clarence. Clarence passed away, too.

Yeah, last year. The year before, I believe.

Swear to God. I remember Don Cheadle being on

Walker.

You know, I'm not going to tell you he

wasn't just because I can't remember last week.

Maybe he was a guest star.

I swore I remembered it. That might be that.

2012 hadron Collider that knocked us into another dimension.

That's what that was.

That's what it was, yeah. I think you landed

on your head, Travis, and you didn't recover from

it.

Mandela Effect.

There were some other good TV shows, too, that

I did besides that, besides Full Guy. There was

Cagney and Lacey and Mike Hammer. I don't know

if you remember those. Oh, yeah, those were fun.

And then there was a lot more movies in

the 80s besides let's see the Sentinel gumball rally.

That was the 70s, right? Man with two brains.

That was Steve Martin man with Two Brains. You

remember that?

I don't think I've seen that one.

I know it's his, but I don't think I've

seen it, though.

Oh, it's really hilarious. He has this brain and

he's running around trying to find a body to

put it in, and he takes the brain out

in a rowboat, and he's talking to the brain.

He's got the brain in a jar.

He's got a ton of hilarious things in 80s.

He's one of my favorite for comedians, for sure.

Yeah.

You got another one with Mickey Rourke, too, don't

you? Year of the Dragon.

Oh, yeah, the Year of the Dragon, yeah.

Mickey Rourke. Flick.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. That was great. I

did a near miss with a taxicab as a

body, her running across the street and taxicab is

doing a car chase. And luckily I didn't have

to get hit. The girl I was with had

to.

Do the car watching. I'm going to be watching

every single one of these movies.

In that movie, I was doubling an Asian, which

you're not allowed to do that anymore. They have

to have an Asian double, an asian, so I

had a black wig on. I don't look anything

like this. And like in Titanic, I had a

wig on. Brown curly wig and a big hat.

I'm in many disguises in all these movies except

where I'm playing a part. But I'm always in

disguise as the character so I don't look like

this. So it's hard to pick me out.

So was that you? And I won't get this

name wrong, I promise you. I might have got

Don wrong. I'm sorry, but I won't get this

one wrong. Were you the one that Carl Weathers,

Mr. Action Jackson, jumped on to knock out of

the way of the taxicab?

Was that a new no, I crashed through a

window on Action Jackson. I went backwards through a

gigantic window.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

I believe that's in your demo reel, isn't it?

Yeah, probably. There's a bunch of me crashing through

windows in the demo reel.

I think I've seen something like that in the

demo reel when I was watching that.

Yeah, but in Action Jackson, it was this huge

window, and it's tempered glass. And what they do

is, right before you hit it, the special effects

guys have a little prong that hits the window

and it gets the molecules moving in the glass.

And then when you hit it, you can bust

through. If they're late, you bounce off it. And

if they're early, the window will collapse before you

hit it. So it has to be right on

time. And in that one, I crashed through the

window and I slid, and my hands got all

cut up from the tempered glass. So I had

to go to the hospital and get all this

glass taken out of my hands.

I know we're right at our hour, but I

got one more question. Slide in sure. Out of

the stars that our listeners might know of hearing

their names. Who is the one that you've worked

with who's been the craziest about wanting to do

their own stunts? Did you ever have anybody like

no, you can't do that. You have to leave

that.

Well, it's kind of know sean Penn. We were

doing a movie I can't remember the name of

the movie right now, but anyway, sean Penn, we

were doing a movie, and he wanted to drive

the cop car in a chase scene. Colors.

Oh, my gosh. You were in colors, too, Dang.

Yeah. Thank you for remembering the name. And so

he wanted to drive the car, and the director

was like, no. And he insisted on doing it.

So he drove the car and he came around

the corner and he smashed into a fire hydrant.

So all the stunt guys are there.

Drive the car, big man. Drive the car.

Do the stunt.

That's great. You need to figure ordering pizza spicoli.

But most of the women, they don't want to

do the stunts. They're happy and grateful. That it's.

So anyway, I hope people buy my book, Hollywood

Stunt Woman. It's on Amazon and other sites.

I was about to ask you if you could

put that out there for everybody. And also, if

you will, when we're done with this, if you'll

send me a link or something, I'll get it

out in our stuff and everything we put out,

too.

Oh, perfect. Great. Audible august 22.

August 22 for audible.

So write that down. Travis, that's your next book,

birthday.

I don't have to. I'll remember it. I'm going

to daughter Diane's book for her birthday. It really

is, though, because she's in college, and she's entering

into her senior year this year, too. So it

would actually be perfect.

Oh, she'll love it. It'll be inspirational for her

to follow her.

Yes, if you will, before we go. Let everybody

know where they can find you at online, like

your website, any social medias you might be a

part of that you want them to have.

Yes. On Instagram. It's Hollywood Stuntwoman at hollywood Stuntwoman.

And it's Hollywood stuntwoman on Facebook and LinkedIn. And

then my website is Hollywood Stuntwoman.com. And the book

is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and

all those great stores. And hopefully a movie soon

hopefully a.

Movie soon that you pinned as well.

We have to make sure the word gets out

for that movie because we got to get Jennifer

Lawrence in here, no doubt.

Not just speaking with us tonight, but for all

of your body of work, the phenomenal, amazing woman

that you are and continue to be in putting

this book out to inspire others, not just young

women, but anyone who might read it. So just

thank you. Thank you. We love oh, thank you.

I enjoyed talking to you both. Thanks so much.

Thanks a lot, Diane. I'll follow up with you

soon. Thank you.

Okay, bye.

All right. Bye bye. All right, Travis. What's? Diane

Peterson, everybody. That was such a fun episode, man.

I mean, things that she has done and everything,

that's awesome.

I'm blown away by that woman that's like, wow,

she's done more on a dag on Tuesday.

Than we have in 20 years. Yeah. No, she's

great. That's a lot of, like you said, over

200 credits of work, and we just touched the

surface of it. Talking with her tonight. We could

have probably had her on all night long telling

these stories, and we would have just been blown

away.

With all of them. No doubt.

It's really great. I guess we better go ahead

and start wrapping things up. Joe.

Hey, when you follow up with her, I'm going

to say this while we're on the air. When

you follow up with her, I'm going to go

ahead and ask her if we mail her a

copy of her book and a donation, if she'll

sign it for me to send it back to

my daughter, I'll send a stamp with it, too.

So I'll have. The postage covered.

We can put that out there. I can help

you out with that, for sure. All right, well,

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That's right. Heck yeah, baby. Man.

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Can't go wrong.

Yeah, she hasn't done any stunts in the Teslas.

Because I shouldn't say that.

You can't even get it out, can you? Because

the Teslas burn up before you.

I don't want to involve her in it. It

might be in bad taste. I was saying, like,

so, you know, Tesla has actually named their new

car.

Don'T. I don't want to hear it.