Dayna Grant is a Kiwi stuntwoman with multiple film and TV credits to her name: from the early days on Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess to Max Max: Fury Road, Snow White and Huntsman, Underworld 3, The Meg, Adrift and yes, Wonder Woman 1984.
Stuntwoman Dayna Grant Photo: Supplied
Her work on that last production netted her a Screen Actors Guild Award last year for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture.
The Ngapuhi performer and mother of three is also the founder of the New Zealand Stunt School, which helps to train the next generation of stunt artists.
It's not a job for the faint hearted. Midway through last year, Dana's suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her partially blind in one eye.
Growing up on a farm gave her a good start, she tells Kathryn Ryan
“I was having to do things that usually the boys would do. rounding up the sheep and riding the horses and falling off things and jumping into the just being a typical Kiwi child really.
“I think I was just a little bit loose as a child, to be able to do what I wanted to do physically, and I think that helped me.
“But mostly the gymnastics, the acrobatic side of things for the wire work, and then I was a dancer, so the dancing was massive for me for learning choreography and being able to mimic whatever was given to you to copy.”
The Xena programme was something of a breakthrough for her, she says.
“They were our grounding for film work here really in New Zealand. I mean Rob Tapert who is Pacific Renaissance and Lucy Lawless - they just they had all the shows that were going.
“And we were 24/7, we were six days sometimes seven days a week and for all year round, long days and when one job finished, another one was starting.
“So, it was a good training ground for us. When we first started we just never stopped, we just kept going.”
She has worked all over the world but Pacific Renaissance feels like family, Grant says.
“They're incredible, the most down to earth actors and producers ever, you'd go to a job and you feel like, you're not just a number, they care about every single person on that set.
“I can't sing their praises enough. I would hands down any job that I was offered, it could be a massive job overseas and if they were offered me a job I’d take me on over any other job. They've created a really neat family atmosphere on set. And I haven't had that anywhere else on the world.”
After her most recent accident they came through with financial and fundraising help, she says.
“They had done a Give a Little for me and managed to raise enough money to get the brain surgery and plus the hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, which I swear by.”
The chamber has speeded up her recovery, she says.
She says in 26 years of performing there’s been a few scrapes.
“I've done pretty well considering I've tried to take on all the bigger stunts that are around.”
She was stabbed in one scene and had to be brought back to life, she says.
“I slipped on a hill and a fake dagger hit the back of the other guy’s leg and it sort of flicked up towards my face. And I was airborne and I went through my right cheek through both nasal cavities into the back of my head and fractured my left eye socket.
“And I bled out on the hospital floor and got brought back to life.
“I've got a reconstructed right shoulder that got smashed into hundreds of little pieces. Bike versus a car, I was on the bike.”
But she loves the job and has no plans to retire.
“But I absolutely love my job and I'm not going to slow down anytime soon. As much as people think I should.
“I'm ADHD as well. I don't go on medication. And I was told that what I do is self-medicating. So, it's probably the best thing I could possibly do for a job.”
