Kara Petersen
Kara Petersen is a stuntwoman whose resume features over 100 stunt appearances across TV and film, including Jurassic World, The Hunger Games, and Captain Marvel, among many, many others. At a height of 4 feet, 11 inches, Kara primarily doubles for child actors, so she can often be seen on Nickelodeon & Disney Channel.
With COVID-19 having halted most, if not all, live action production work, Kara took the time to join me for a phone interview to discuss herself and her career.
To listen to the interview with Kara Petersen, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Kara Petersen is a supporter of Circle of Hope.
If you'd like to donate, you can do so here, via their website.
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Mike Reflects
Kara is the first stunt performer I've ever interviewed.
It wasn't until fairly recently that I really started paying attention to stunt-work in productions, and, when I did, Kara's name stuck out as appearing again and again. So, naturally, when I thought "you know, I should interview a stunt performer", Kara's was the first name that popped into my head. And it was the perfect choice.
As you can hear, she didn't disappoint. I learned a lot about her, as well as the industry, and she seemed more than happy to share. I probably asked a fair number of stupid questions, but that's how we learn. Stunt-work, compared to its counterparts, is, in my opinion, under publicized. You can turn on any TV talk show and find out how an actor got their latest role or what their average day on set looks like, but you generally don't have that with stunt performers.
Heck, even the behind-the-scenes featurettes that focus on stunts generally focus primarily on the actor, the director, and the stunt coordinator. If you even see the actual stunt-doubles, they're generally relegated to the background of the establishing shots.
As Kara said during the interview, she's not in the job for fame. And, if I had to guess, I'd guess (likely correctly) that a number of her colleagues feel the same way. I, of course, don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's a contributing factor to the lack of mainstream publicity that stunt performers get.
What I do know is that I'm very happy that Kara took the time to give me, and all of you, a glimpse into the not-so-often-seen life of a stunt performer, on & off the set.
Oh, and, make sure you check out the photos in her website's photo gallery. I love the doubling photos.