‘Top Gun,’ ‘The Fall Guy’ And ‘Ballerina’: Inside the Wild World of Hollywood’s Top Stunt Stars

Ana de Armas – From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

The 37-year-old, who plays a trained assassin, said she freaked out when asked to wield a flamethrower in the action flick, despite being assured that the stuntmen she was aiming at were fully protected.

“They got the main fire guy that gets burned, and he’s all covered in this sticky grease or whatever… and they’re like, ‘OK, go ahead. Just burn him,’” she told Entertainment Weekly last month, “And I did, and I started crying… I’ve never seen anyone burning, even though it’s fake.”

Ryan Gosling – The Fall Guy

Even though he was playing a stunt man in the 2024 flick, the 44-year-old admitted he used doubles for most of the more dangerous scenes.

Still, he insisted, it was “important” for him to do at least some of the stunts — which wound up being a problem. “They dropped me 12 stories off the building,” he told People. “And I have a fear of heights!”

Jennifer Connelly – Top Gun: Maverick

“Originally, when I signed on to do the movie, there was no flying for my character. My character was on land. She was on the water. She was never in the air,” the 54-year-old, who has a “crippling” fear of planes revealed on the The Graham Norton Show after the 2022 movie wrapped.

Before she knew it, her daredevil costar — and trained pilot — Tom Cruise had persuaded her to join him in acrobatic stunts on high. “That’s how I found out I was going to be up in the P-51 with Tom flying it,” she joked.

Bryce Dallas Howard – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

She was so frightened, she passed out! Director J.A. Bayona wanted realistic reactions as the 44-year-old plummeted off a cliff in a gyrosphere, so he designed a special roller coaster to create the terrifying scene in the 2018 movie.

“I was so scared,” Bryce admitted to Jimmy Fallon on a 2018 episode of The Tonight Show, adding, “Normally, with stunts, with each take you get more and more confident. With each take my panic increased substantially… I just blacked out!”