When things get dangerous in Hollywood, she comes into play: Marie Mouroum has worked as a stuntwoman in blockbusters like "Black Panther," "Star Wars" or "James Bond. Here she gives us an insight into her everyday life full of danger and adrenaline.
The stunt industry is arguably one of the most exciting and thrilling industries in the film world. Whenever a scene is too dangerous for leading or supporting actors to do themselves, stunt pros specially trained for such moments come into play – no matter how tricky, daring, and wild things get. Marie Mouroum is one of them. One might say she found her calling in the things others shy away from. We give you an exclusive insight into a world where danger and adrenaline are a part of everyday life.
Our lives are often shaped by coincidences.
Marie Mouroum’s life is no exception. "I never wanted to become a stuntwoman, it just kind of happened," she says. As fate would have it, representatives from a film production company came to the DOJO training centre where little Marie was doing her karate exercises one day. "They were looking for kids to do some kata in the background for the movie Ninja Assassin," she says. (Kata refers to the traditional sequence of exercises in karate.) Marie was chosen as an extra for the film.
On set, Marie met professional stuntmen for the first time. She became friends with them and kept training with them even after the movie was shot. A seed was planted. "The way these people moved was just insane. It was so different from traditional karate, which is what I knew. They just jumped around and did these cool moves that I was really impressed by," she recounts enthusiastically.
Marie continued to train with discipline, earning her her first stunt role at the age of 18 in the fantasy horror film ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’. She doubled for the actress playing a witch who got cut in half by a trap consisting of wire ropes.
After this role, jobs started coming thick and fast: "After one job immediately came a new one, and then another one. It just suddenly kicked off," she says, sounding almost amazed at the start of her own career. She never felt any fear or pressure: "I was always very light-hearted, always in the moment, always spontaneous, sometimes even to the point that I hardly prepared myself for a job," she says with a smile.
Overthinking is just not something Marie typically does: "I like to throw myself into situations and see what happens. Anything else would just slow me down." And so the proverbial leap into the unknown became her life motto, even though the world of stunts, for all its light-heartedness, obviously doesn't work without preparation. "There are situations that are so dangerous that I specifically train for them weeks and months in advance," she says. Hazardous scenes are usually planned and choreographed down to the smallest detail.
So, no fear, no pressure, and not even a bit of nervousness? "Oh, I do feel nervous," says Marie, adding that it’s a good thing. "Without nervousness, I'm not 100% focused." She says it's important to accept and allow this feeling but she doesn't dwell on scary scenarios for long:
"I never think about what could happen if the rope would break, for example." Once a stunt is done, the feeling is indescribable – "the best moment ever." Until the next stunt or the next challenge, that is. "The only way you develop confidence is by always pushing your limits and proving to yourself that you can do it," she says.
However versatile Marie's stunts may be, her ritual before an important scene is always the same: "I don't talk to anyone, not even small talk, and I don't eat or drink anything." Instead, she concentrates fully on her breathing and is completely present. Marie also maintains fixed routines in her training, making sure to keep a balanced workload that includes endurance, strength, and stretching in equal measure.
"Especially for kung fu stunts, you definitely need a certain amount of stretchability. Then again, in other situations it's more about endurance or inherent strength," she explains. Marie's martial arts repertoire includes numerous techniques, from karate to Pencak Silat – a traditional martial art from the Indonesian-Malay region – judo, Muay Thai, and jiu-jitsu. She also trains with former professional athletes from Ultimate Cage Fighting and members of the National Judo Team.
For Marie, technical perfection has a lot to do with authenticity: "You can only stage fights well if you know the techniques and sequences. Besides, I always try to look dynamic and stylish." This is also how the young Berliner sees the AMG brand – and not just visually.
I always think of the maximum I can achieve and I think AMG has brought the same mindset to where they are today.
The two share a "boundless youthful curiosity to get to the bottom of their own potential," she says. Is there a stunt she particularly remembers? "In ‘James Bond – No Time to Die’, there were lots of stunts that made me go, Oh my god!” she says. The so-called wire stunts, for example, in which Marie was pulled through the air and flung from house to house (attached to a cable, of course). Definitely not a trick for the faint of heart. When it comes to risky stunts like that, Marie needs to rely on the preliminary work of the technicians. "You're giving away full control to strangers," she says. And that's day after day, for eight months straight, with hardly a break. The now-29-year-old had to push herself to her limits every single day of shooting.
And what about her favorite project so far? "That’s definitely Black Panther. It was my first project in the U.S., I had my own Marvel character, the stunts were challenging, and the whole experience was simply wonderful on a human level." And not only that. For Marie, Black Panther, which hit theaters in 2018, was also special for a very personal reason: "I’ve experienced a lot of racism in Germany. A thousand dreams came true at the same time by being part of such a fantastic film with so many other Black people."
Marie is currently working in New York as a stunt double for hip-hop musician and actress Queen Latifah. She’ll probably stay in The Big Apple a little while longer, but she’s also been thinking about the future.
Marie sees herself in front of the camera one day, working as an actress. She even gets plenty of offers to do so. "I'm turning them down for the time being," she says, although she knows that being a stuntwoman comes with an expiration date. "I can't keep doing this job for life, I’m not getting any younger”, she says with a laugh. One day, however, she wants to accept those offers. And she already has one big advantage: Marie Mouroum certainly doesn't need a stunt double.
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