FREDERICK, Md. (AP) - On the island of Themyscira, nine fierce Amazons, clad in gold, race through a death-defying obstacle course amid the roar of a stadium crowd.
As they climb ropes, leap from bars and jump across narrow posts that stand 40 feet in the air, a young girl who will grow up to become Wonder Woman quickly takes the lead. When the competitors reach a swinging battering ram, a few of them get knocked out of the race - including 2002 Urbana High graduate and professional stuntwoman Jessie Graff.
“I’d wanted to be a superhero on TV since I was a little kid,” Graff told the News-Post. She grew up watching “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.”
Graff took on the role of an Amazon in the 2020 Warner Bros. film “Wonder Woman 1984.” She’s one of a few Frederick County locals who landed a spot in the movie, though hers required a unique set of acting and athletic skills.
Graff pursued a theater degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. When she realized over time that actors usually don’t do their own stunts, she had a decision to make: be famous and not do stunts or be the person who could execute these heroic moves. Fourteen years later, Graff’s stunts have landed her roles in several films and TV shows, including “Supergirl,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “The Dark Knight,” “G.I. Joe,” “Transformers,” “Die Hard” and others.
She’s also known for being one of the top competitors on “American Ninja Warrior,” where she dominated the 14-and-a-half-foot Warped Wall while wearing a Wonder Woman costume in 2016. She also competed on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s reality TV show, “The Titan Games.”
With all of these accomplishments under her belt, Graff felt like she’d met her goal of becoming a real-life superhero before the Wonder Woman opportunity came along. She’d just signed herself to a year-long tour with “American Ninja Warrior” when the Wonder Woman gig became possible for her.
“This is the definition of the most iconic job that a stuntwoman could ever want,” Graff said.
As fate would have it, the tour fell through, and Graff was released from her Ninja commitment, allowing her to pursue the one role she wanted more than any other.
She became part of the core stunt team for the “Wonder Woman 1984” production, having stood out during her audition for the first Wonder Woman film. For the sequel, she helped audition other Amazons by walking them through fight choreography. Graff assisted in training the selected Amazons, then found out she’d have a part in the Amazon Games opening scene.
At nearly 5 feet, 8 inches tall, Graff is one of the shorter Amazons in the movie. The rest stand at least two inches taller than her - except for actress Lilly Aspell, who portrays the young version of Diana, aka Wonder Woman.
Graff helped with Aspell’s training for the role by running Aspell through obstacle courses and giving her moves to practice.
Though Graff is a blur throughout most of the race sequence, viewers can spot her feet barreling through a narrow tunnel in the obstacle course shortly after young Diana goes through it, about four minutes into the film.
Part of Graff’s job was to fill any empty space between actors within the frame of the shot. During filming, she was suddenly instructed to find a way through a hole that was barely big enough for her body. It was a shortcut she needed to take so she could make it to the front of the pack. In less than 10 minutes, Graff and a stunt coordinator found a solution, Graff said. They laid cardboard to help her slide and made a handle for her to pull herself through the approximately 12-foot tunnel.
“I would have to jump and, like, through core strength, hold my whole body up to launch just far enough that I could hook my heels on the other side and then use my hamstrings to pull just far enough that I could get my fingers out the other side and then pull and get out.”
That series of moves occurs within about two seconds in the film.
“That’s my favorite part about stunts, when someone gives you a challenge that is clearly impossible and you go, ‘Alright, how are we going to make it work?’” Graff said.
In the battering ram scene, Graff was tasked with executing her fall from the competition. In reality, she’s fully capable of leaping onto moving objects, but her job was to get knocked off in a way that looked like her character wanted to reach the battering ram but failed. With the help other stuntwomen’s advice, Graff found the perfect way to reach and fall.
“That’s one of the ways that the stuntwomen and the Amazons are able to support each other,” Graff said. “We’ll let each other know if we see something that we can perform better, because we’re a team. The bigger focus is on Lilly (Aspell) and how to make her look super strong and fierce.”
Filming occurred mostly in the United Kingdom from March to December 2018, according to Graff. The crew also spent two months in Washington, D.C., and in the Canary Islands.
Graff anxiously awaited the film’s release, which was pushed back when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. “Wonder Woman 1984” released in theaters and on HBO Max in December and is still available for streaming on Amazon Prime and other digital platforms. Cast and crew viewed it in a few small screenings.
“It’s just beautiful,” Graff said.
When she’s not filming, Graff devotes time to recovery and healing, while preparing for whatever challenge might present itself next. In the past eight months, she’s had three surgeries and was recently cleared to gradually progress in strength training. She’s confident she can come back stronger.
Graff has obtained certifications in nutrition and strength training and is studying with a dietitian. She’s working on a pitch to host a healthy eating and fitness TV show with her mother, Ginny MacColl, who followed her daughter to “American Ninja Warrior.”
Flexing her theater degree, Graff and a friend are working on a script for a sequel to the 1987 film “The Princess Bride.”
She’s also studying sign language and posts videos to Instagram (@jessiegraffpwr) of her signing with a student who attends the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick.
Though Graff has already lived out an iconic role in “Wonder Woman,” she’s not done with stunt work.
“I need to hang from the skids of a helicopter,” she said. “Ideally, I’d like to run and leap off a cliff and catch the skids of the helicopter and then fly off over the ocean.”
The saga of the real-life Wonder Woman is far from over.
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