Heidi Moneymaker Gets Her Kicks (And Punches) Being Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow Stunt Double - Exclusive Interview

This article contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame

As one of the most prolific stunt performers in the movie and TV business, Heidi Moneymaker has been involved in several blockbuster franchises over the past two decades. In fact, her stunt resume for the first dozen years alone included several smash films, from "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," and War of the Worlds" to "Mission: Impossible III," "Fast & Furious" and the big-screen reboot of "Star Trek."

But Moneymaker's world changed dramatically in 2010 with the introduction of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in "Iron Man 2." Not only did the film signal the beginning of the widely regarded stunt performer's work in the MCU, it also kicked off Moneymaker's longtime pairing with Johansson that continued through "Avengers," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Captain America: Civil War," "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame."

Now, two years after MCU fans were shattered by Natasha's sacrifice in "Endgame," Moneymaker has reteamed with Johansson to do stunts in "Black Widow." Set between the events of "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Infinity War," "Black Widow" finds Natasha confronting her past as a Russian spy and the cruel Red Room training facility that helped shape her. By revisiting her past, Natasha encounters her former colleagues-slash-ad-hoc family members, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) aka the Red Guardian.

As if the excitement over "Black Widow" isn't enough, Moneymaker's profile rose even higher with another near-simultaneous project that chronicles her career and work in the MCU. Narrated by Johansson, "E60 Presents Moneymaker: Behind Black Widow," was released July 5 and is streaming now on ESPN+. In an exclusive interview with Looper, Moneymaker recalls the rapport she developed with Johansson over the years, discusses her work with her sister and fellow stunt performer, Renae Moneymaker, and reveals details about her future work not only in the MCU, but also on James Cameron's "Avatar 2."

Of course, you started being Scarlett Johansson's stunt double in 2010 in "Iron Man 2," and since the movie was supposed to come out last summer, it's probably a span of nine years between then and "Black Widow." Every time you come back to do the stunts for the Black Widow character and Scarlett, does that feel like a family reunion of sorts with you and Scarlett, as well as some members of the crew?

Somewhat, yeah. I mean, actually we filmed "Iron Man 2" in 2009, so it really was a decade when we finally wrapped the last time. The last day we worked together on "Black Widow," it was just like, "Hmm, I wonder if this is going to be the last Black Widow that we do?" So, we'll see. But yeah, it was pretty emotional because it had been a decade and we had worked together for so long and there's other doubles that come and go and that have been around and stuff. It does feel quite like a family. We call it "Team Widow."

I would imagine this one was emotional though, because as much as we would love Natasha to stay around, I mean, it'd just be nonsensical I'm afraid at this point. unless she went back even further in her storyline. "Black Widow" made complete sense, though, taking place between "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Infinity War." So, I'm afraid to say it, but it does seem like the end for the character, doesn't it?

Well, I mean, here's the thing. You can look at it like an end or a new beginning. I mean, Scarlett's got a lot of other stuff that she wants to do. I'm starting to stunt coordinate and second unit direct. And I feel like her and I will be back together working on projects, maybe just in a different capacity, and maybe we get this chance to let somebody who's coming up and is really excited about that new role, and that action role gets to fill that space a little bit, you know?

So, "Black Widow" marks, what, the sixth or seventh time you've been the stunt double for the character?

At least.

That's pretty rare, isn't it?

Well, I don't know. People get attached to their stunt doubles, attached to their actresses. And like I said, there's also more than one double on a show. Normally, you have one main double, maybe a second unit double, or two doubles together that are sharing the load and stuff. So, if you've doubled a character, especially if it's very specific like this, you generally will come back and double that character again. Because also we kind of created the style together and stuff as well. So, it was very, like you said, it's kind of like a homecoming or reunion when we get back together, because it's like, "Okay, we've already done this, now how can we expand that and make it bigger and better?"

And for this last Black Widow appearance, actually, I had a head injury when they first started filming principal photography for "Black Widow." And so, I couldn't go out for the first part of principal photography. So, I only came in the end, on additional photography ... We were doing reshoots for "Endgame," and I actually sustained a pretty bad head injury on the dive off the cliff after Hawkeye. So, it was a very weird symbolism of like she had died there, and I had this really bad head injury. And then I couldn't go on to do the first part of "Black Widow," and C.C. Ice, Micki Facchinello, and Michela McAllister — all these amazing girls — went out and started the whole film and did this amazing work, which I'm really excited to see their portion of. But it was very amazing and touching when I came back, and Scarlett and I got to work on the end of the film, and we had a very emotional kind of goodbye at the end of that.

So the scene where Black Widow sacrifices herself in "Endgame" is where the injury happened?

Yeah.

Wow.

It's just one of those things. You're like, things happen and you're knocking heads with somebody else pretty hard on the fly. So, yeah, it was kind of a strange, I guess, coincidence.

So, you bumped heads with the performer doing the stunts for Jeremy Renner?

Yeah. So, the other double and I, we just got a little off center or something when we jumped. I'm not exactly sure what the issue was, but this is why we're here. This is why you have a stunt double, because this stuff is dangerous. And even when it's very straightforward, like this was fairly straightforward, sometimes things go wrong, and things happen. And just so happened at this time, this went wrong and yeah, we hit heads pretty hard.

You were talking about developing a style with Scarlett. How do things change when you're going from a director like Jon Favreau in "Iron Man 2" and Joss Whedon for the first two "Avengers"; to Anthony and Joe Russo for "Winter Soldier," "Civil War" and the last two "Avengers," and Cate Shortland for "Black Widow"? Do styles change over the course of those films with different directors?

As far as the styles, I think that every director that's come on board has appreciated the style and we've always tried to advance it, to make it bigger and better, and have more amazing fight scenes for her. And that has always been sort of steadily, consistently evolving forward. I will say that with the different directors coming in, you kind of have a different process of how things are shot and how things go. But I will say that Marvel has a really amazing team and every cog in that machine has a part in these films. So, generally, it's somewhat similar, because it's coming from the top and they know what they want for their movies, and they know how they want them to be made.

Like Joss Whedon, for example, I learned early on that he just— he knows the edit. He knows what he's going to use, and he knows what he's not going to use. If you go in there and you're doing a piece of a fight scene and you don't hit everything proper — like how you want to hit it the first time — he might move on because he's seen what he wants, and so, he feels like he doesn't need to keep going. That's scary for somebody like a double, because you want every piece that you do that might get used to be good all the way through in case somebody in the editing room grabs a bit of that, but it doesn't look so good. So, I learned with Joss early on that I had to be nailing it in one shot. And granted, he'd do multiple takes, but I needed to nail it on the first take, just so that I knew no matter what we had a good take in there.

And then with the Russos, I mean, they're amazing. I don't know how they pulled off half that stuff. They're very good about letting us take the liberty with the action. And obviously, they know what they want and they don't want, but they're really good about letting us handle that side of it somewhat. All the directors are — they're all different, but at the end of the day, they're all part of the same team that comes from the top, from Kevin Feige. They make these films that are just obviously amazing, and people love.

What sets Cate Shortland apart from the other directors?

You know what? I remember first looking her up on IMDb before I started, and I ended up seeing that she did this film called "Lore." And so, I watched the film, and it was just so beautiful. I feel like she just has an eye for beauty, which is really nice, because we're talking about a film that's very female driven and it's about very hardened females — Russian hardened females — that are assassins. So, when [you] have that character and you bring on somebody who sees the beauty in everything, even when it's what we would say ugly, I feel like that's her strength there. She's able to bring forth that beauty, even in ugliness.

Now, you have been known a time or two to show up in supporting roles as yourself. Did you get that opportunity in "Black Widow"? Because "Captain America: Winter Soldier," I believe you were in that one.

Yeah. I ended up playing a super soldier in "Captain America: Winter Soldier." And then on "Endgame," I played — seeing as we had already died on "Endgame" — sorry, spoiler alert! In that big scene at the end, where everyone's come together to help save the world, I ended up getting to play one of the wizards opening a portal. So, I do get opportunities like that, but not on "Black Widow."

You and your sister, Renae, have had fantastic success in the MCU. And I must tell you, that fight scene where you get heavy makeup application in "Captain Marvel," that must've been a fun opportunity for her to double for Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and you for the grandma character (Marilyn Brett) on a train — who you didn't know was quite so skillful with her martial arts.

That was really fun. That was an amazing opportunity. [Second unit director] Jeff Habberstad and [stunt coordinator] Hank Amos basically allowed us to do the fight together. I think they went to Renee and said, "Hey, who do you want to fight in these sequences?" And she said, "Heidi." So, they actually brought me in and were trying to figure out if they could put some prosthetics on me and then visually enhance so that I could actually just be the character. But they ended up thinking that was maybe not going to work, so they ended up casting this lovely woman. She was just so sweet. I really appreciated her. But that was a really fun shoot. And then we did a behind the scenes piece for that, where I forget exactly what we did, but I ended up convincing Shaun, our behind-the-scenes guy, I was like, "Let me flip around as the old lady." But I had all this padding on and every time I'd flip, it'd flop up over my head and I almost fell a couple of times. It was like, "Hmm, I don't know." I don't know if it's on the end of that DVD.

Are there times where you and Renae sit back and reflect and say, "How did we get so lucky?" And not only to be involved with all the films you've both worked on, but in the sprawling story of the MCU?

Yeah. We're both really grateful. We didn't come from a family who had a ton of money. We just came from a very hard working, very dedicated family. And I think we very much appreciate where we are. We very much appreciate that we wouldn't be here without how hard our parents worked to help us get through gymnastics and get here in the first place. Yeah, we do it all the time, especially now. She first got into the business, and I thought, "This is great because we can train together, and we can work together, and this will be really fun." But really early on, she's so talented that she got swept away and she was doing big shows, and I was doing big shows and films. It was a little sad because here we are in this business together and barely get to see each other.

However, now, we are, especially after this last show, we realized, you know what? Now we can work together and we're going to make that happen. She's amazing. She wants to be a producer at some point. I want to direct. So, we're right now working towards the next phases of life, and bringing up people along with us to fill our spots and all that good stuff. So, yeah, we're really excited about it, actually.

I'm happy you've had more opportunities with the MCU. I caught a post of yours on Instagram, where you said you worked on "Hawkeye."

I was the stunt coordinator on "Hawkeye," an upcoming streaming show for Disney+.

I know this is very touchy and Marvel doesn't want any details to get out. So, you're the stunt coordinator, but do you do any stunts for any characters?

No, I was just the boss on this one. I did a couple of pre-vises [pre-visualizations] before we had our full team, and when we didn't have all of our doubles and stuff. So, I did a couple of pre-vises with my sis. And my sister was on the show as well, and some of the guys. But I didn't actually do any on-camera. Too busy. It was a busy, busy show.

Did you work directly with Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld?

Yeah, I worked with them both. Jeremy and I have worked together since the first "Avengers," so pretty much about a decade. So, we have a lot of experience together, which is great, because we know each other. I kind of know how he vibes. He knows that I've been around long enough to trust in what I'm doing. So, we had a great relationship. And then Hailee's just [a] wonderful creature. She's just ... I shouldn't call her creature! She's an amazing woman — just really talented, very hardworking, very dedicated. I had a really good time with both of them.

In your previous interview with Looper, you said that Halle Berry was game to go for it and be involved as much as possible with her stunts. How game is Scarlett Johansson in that regard? Is she willing to take part in those riskier stunts until somebody like Cate Shortland or Kevin Feige steps in and says, "You know what? We better let Heidi handle this one?"

Scarlett's very game. And she has been since the beginning. We trained probably, I want to say six weeks prior to starting filming on "Iron Man 2." It wasn't her wheelhouse, but she had a physical trainer that she went to every day. She was eating to support this new athletic endeavor. She was coming in and doing fight training with us and learning to do wire work and all that kind of stuff. So, she was super dedicated and very game, and she still is. Part of what happens to us, especially with something like "Infinity War" and "Endgame," where you have so many characters and so much happening that we're not always able to be on the same shooting unit at the same time. So, sometimes even though she could do a lot of the fight stuff and whatever, I'll do a big path of it, and we'll do some closeups on her because she has to be somewhere else, acting somewhere else.

So, she's very game for it. She's very talented. We've worked together for so long that I know what she's good at. I know what she likes doing. So, when there's a fight and I know she's coming in for it, I usually plug in everything I know she can do, so she can walk in and doesn't have to worry about it. Usually she'll ask me, "Hey, can I do that?" If she'll see something and if it seems like something that she wants to do, or she can do, she'll look at me and say, "Can I do that?" Knowing that I'm not going to let her do anything ... if anything, I'm going to err on the side of safety with her. But I know how capable she is, so usually it's a yes.

Naturally, as the stories progress in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems like the action is amped up just a bit more, maybe a lot more every time. Obviously, you got to push the limits. You got to take things to places they haven't been before. Do you find that amped up action frightening, exciting, or maybe a bit of both?

I don't find it frightening. I think that we're always striving to make things bigger and better. And when you've seen a film and you've seen the way it's been shot, the next time you come in, you want to see something different. And usually, you want to see something a little bigger and bolder with action. So, it doesn't frighten me at all, especially considering they really do a lot to protect us these days. Visual effects has come in and helped out in so many ways. For example, there's been a lot of head injuries. I've had a couple. There's been a lot of things like that. It's easy to have concussions and whatnot. You get yanked through an entire building and you land on the cement, and you whack your head and then you have a concussion.

So, they've been really good about letting us bring these one-and-a-half-inch, really thick, high density foam pads, and paint them like the bottom of the set. So, if we're doing a big wreck or something, often they'll let us put these down, and then they'll later paint out the edges for us and that kind of thing. So yes, we're doing bigger and better action, but they're also helping us make it safer, too, which I do appreciate. Because no matter how safe you make something, as a stunt person you're banged up all the time. All the time. You really are. And so, for them to put a little piece of foam down or to watch out for you in some little way so that you don't end up with a compound fracture, we're all really grateful for that.

So would you say that — and I don't think this is giving anything away, really — but there are scenes where Black Widow is hanging from a helicopter at some point. So, you do all that sort of stuff, too? Or did you do any of that in this space?

I did not in this film. I have and I do that type of thing. And a lot of times we'll do — and this goes back to talking — I can't speak of this film because I'm not exactly sure how they filmed that scene. But a lot of times they'll shoot a wider shot somewhere, actually with a helicopter, stunt person hanging. And then they do a little more stage work where you can put your actor and make them look like they're really there. And that's helpful because then there's a little bit less danger, you don't have as many days in a helicopter. Because I have done some of that work and helicopters are something that do frighten me, because they crash often!

Yes, yes.

And when you're tied onto one and it's doing crazy stuff around it definitely can be disconcerting!

So, again, you can tell me if another stunt performer did it, but there are some scenes where Black Widow is sliding down roofs, being kicked off a bridge, falling from buildings, riding and crashing a motorcycle. Did you have any involvement in any of those particular scenes?

I don't think so. Usually the riding and falling off a motorcycle ... I [actually did] some motorcycle work, but it was some basic stuff towards the end. Though usually with a motorcycle guy, you bring in a separate motorcycle double because you want somebody riding and crashing a bike that's been riding a bike since they were 2 years old. So, I don't usually crash motorcycles on purpose. I'll ride them once in a while.

Now, did you take part in some of the hand-to-hand stuff, the combat stuff?

I don't know how much I'm supposed to say about it, but I came in for additional photography towards the end and I was involved in hand-to-hand and some wire stuff.

I would imagine, again, because you were saying you're always bumped up, there's got to be times where you're going to be connecting with that other performer, whether they're playing the Taskmaster or any other villain for that matter?

Sure. I mean, we definitely had a few bangs and hiccups and sometimes you miss where you're supposed to grab and someone falls, especially with us doing a lot of those moves where we're swinging around a big person or flying through the air, sometimes your head's coming close to the ground. So, yeah, I definitely had a few mishaps throughout, but nothing serious.

It looks cool. But the sad thing is, Heidi, it looks cool to us as viewers, but my God, I feel sorry for you — the pain you have to endure to entertain us!

Oh, you know what? It takes a really specific type of person to want to do what we do. So, we're good.

From a fan standpoint, have you followed all the films in the MCU? I mean, obviously Black Widow is a big character in a lot of them, but not in every single one. You got different characters for different chapters, but still, there's interaction between Black Widow and those characters from their solo films. Do you follow them to help you inform your work with Scarlett in any sort of way?

I follow them because I'm interested in— I'm part of the universe. It's really important now that we're meshing together so much to understand the different universes and how they work, and who the characters are and everything. Like for "Endgame," we had "Black Panther" and all of Wakanda, and we had "Guardians of the Galaxy" and all these different films that didn't involve us before, which are great and interesting stories as well. So, I follow those for sure, because it's important to know. A lot of times a storyline comes down, if you don't know who these characters are, then it's confusing, you're trying to figure everything out. I also follow it because they're good movies and they're really entertaining, and I like watching them.

As I just mentioned, it's unfortunate that the pain you endure entertains us. Plus, I just don't think that stunt performers get enough credit for the fact that you are acting, too. I mean, what you do needs to be in sync with the person that you see on screen. Do you look at it that way, that you are just as much an actor as you are a stunt performer?

I would say I absolutely am an actor. And I came into the business as a stunt performer. And as you evolve, you have to learn how to perform I would say. And I say this a lot in interviews, the industry changed at some point where it became less about like, "Okay, just plug the stunt double in and they get hit by a car and they roll over here," and it became, "Hey, put the stunt double and we'll do a wide [shot] or let's get a master of this fight." And then [it became], "We don't have a lot of time to or money to train the actor. So, we'll train them a little bit. We'll bring them in for little specific pieces. And the rest is you."

And sometimes, like I said, you get stuck on different units and you are, you're doing lines with the other characters. They're over your shoulder onto Captain America or whatever, and you're doing lines and performing actions. So, yeah, you do become an actor as well. I'm comfortable acting now. I feel I've had enough experience and time in front of the camera where I'm comfortable with it, but I wasn't when I first got on the business.

Sure. Well, let's just get the Oscars on board with this already. I'm glad that Screen Actors Guild has their stunt ensemble award, but come on, stunt performers are such an important part of the industry and let's give you the damn credit!

I appreciate that. Thank you. I mean, it is really interesting because I never really thought about it so much until it became a thing of why aren't stunts in the Oscars? And I think now action films are becoming these beautiful depictions of cinema. They're not just an action film. So, they're being nominated for Academy Awards for costume department [and] sound. They're actually really amazing films. And I think a lot of us are filmmakers, we're not just action people. So, we want to make a film that's a piece of art as well as a big, exciting adventure. And so in that sense, I do feel like at some point we will be granted with a little spot in the Oscars.

Recently, my sister was given a book on producing and it was "The Hopeful Guide to Becoming a Producer." When you go in there and there's all these chapters and each part of the business had a chapter of your background, your actors, catering, everything had a chapter. No stunts, though. That is so weird!

I see you have "Avatar 2" coming up. Again, I don't know how much you can talk about it, but is it the sort of thing where you're a coordinator or you are going to be performing? If indeed you are, and James Cameron does a lot with motion capture, are you one of those people that is part of that motion capture? I know people who do motion capture have contraptions they wear, etc., so I'm wondering if that changes the dynamic of what you do as a stunt performer.

Yeah. So, I was on "Avatar 2" as a stunt performer. I didn't do very many days on it. I just got to go in for a little bit. I think I was in between working, and [second unit director] Garrett Warren called me up and asked if I could spare a couple of days. So, I was blessed with a couple of days on "Avatar 2" and I got to work with James Cameron, which has been a huge dream of mine. We did ... it is a lot of mo-cap and stuff, but luckily, I didn't have to wear like a big giant tennis ball thing or whatnot. So, it wasn't too painful for me. Actually, it was quite amazing. I'm very excited for that film.

Is it a Na'vi character or is it some different kind of character or can you even talk about that yet?

I don't know if I'm supposed to say anything about that. I'm not a main character by any means. It's sort of like a ... I don't even know exactly what that scene necessarily is or where it's going to be. But I was mo-capped and I was doing a bunch of fighting within a scene.

I had the opportunity to interview James Cameron twice before, and he's so incredibly passionate and energetic. What sort of energy does he bring to the set? It must be dizzying what sort of energy this guy brings.

I mean, he's just so honest. I mean, there was so much going on and he's right in the mix. He knows exactly what he's doing, where he's going. He's commanding the set, but at the same time being very courteous to everyone. I mean, he at one point called me by name. He's like, "Oh Heidi, can you go over there?" I was like, "James Cameron knows my name!" I mean, it was nice. He was actually a pleasure to work for or work with, I guess. Yeah. He's everything you'd expect him to be, just quite amazing.

Many stunt performers have gone on to direct — Sam Hargrave, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch. Obviously, you were mentioning directing too. I mean, talk about people and yourself, too, having such a handle on the physicality of what you do on a set. It must seem like a natural progression to want to direct, I would imagine.

Well, I'll say that I performed for so long for two reasons. One, I still could. I still can. I can still do a lot of things that a lot of other people cannot do yet. I'm still in good physical shape and I was handling it very well. So, I performed much longer than I thought I would and longer than ... not that I'm done performing, but my main source of film was performing. And I started coordinating here and there and slowly kind of moving toward ... forward in the business because I realized that I really do enjoy— I enjoy directing. I enjoy telling a story. I'm a writer. I like being involved in creating art. And so as much as I'm so grateful to stunt coordinate and I'm loving it and I'm doing, I'll be involved as much as possible on every single show I do, my ultimate goal is to go tell the story rather than to coordinate just the action. I obviously will start with second unit action directing because that's the natural progression, but ultimately, I would like to direct my own film.

Would it always be action? Could you see yourself exploring different genres?

Actually, I wrote a script about 10 years ago that was loosely based off of my family. Because I mean ... my family is basically like my "Big Fat Greek Wedding" except for we're Catholic. And I sat down and wrote this thing. And then it was almost done, and I remember thinking, "What am I doing? Why am I going to finish this? I'm never going to make it. If I ever get the chance to make a movie, it's not going to be something that doesn't have any action in it whatsoever." And so recently, I was going through an old computer, and I found it and I'm like, "I want to read this." And so, I read it and I was laughing. I thought, "You know what? This has legs. I'm going to make this someday." So, it's funny you asked that because I was like, "I don't care if it's not action, I'm going to make this movie." It's going to be funny. And also, I want to do action comedy. I love laughing and I love making people laugh. So, for me, if I could do a serious action film. That was an action-comedy film, that's my dream. That's the goal.

Now there's nothing listed on IMDb yet, but are you involved in "John Wick," in the fourth film? Because obviously you had worked with Halle Berry on "John Wick 3." Halle hasn't been announced in the fourth one, but I would imagine she's going to come back. So, do you have any involvement with the franchise for the fourth film?

No, I am not currently involved with "John Wick 4," but you never know.

Are there any other films that aren't listed on IMDb or other places that you can talk about?

I have a pretty big project coming up, but I have not asked if it's okay if I speak about it.

You are also guiding people in the stunt realm with your business, Fierce Lotus. I think it's great that what you've done is taken what you've learned and you're applying it to a workout regimen. When did you start it?

We created it when I was filming "Captain America: Civil War." Actually, I started it with one of my really good friends, Lisa Paul-Newman (above left), and she is a fitness personality as well as the chief financial officer for 11 restaurants. She's just an amazing go-getter businesswoman. And then Renae's come in and helped us out a lot with all of our fitness stuff, and passing it around and whatnot. It's been really fun for us. We're revamping right now and trying to figure out which direction we want to take it, now that the world's opened up a little bit more. I'm sure there's bigger and better things we can do. Ultimately, it was something to help people. So that's the direction we want to take it further.