Quotes from Zoe Bell

Basically, I'd finished doing gymnastics when I was 15, 16, but I'd stayed training because I'd just sort of loved it, and I'd met a man by the name of Peter Bell - no relation - who it turns out was a stuntman in New Zealand.

If it wasn't for 'Kill Bill' I probably would have been back in New Zealand three months after I left, and if it wasn't for 'Death Proof' I don't think I would be pursuing an acting career right now.

One of the things I really like about TV is the family, the maintaining of the family camaraderie. Film has it, too, especially when you're on location. It's like summer camp. You'll get really close, really fast. But, then you'll have to say goodbye.

The thing that I come across is that people think that I might actually be super aggressive, want-to-fight type in real life. The irony is that that's just not true, at all.

As a stuntwoman, I never wanted anyone to ever feel afraid for me. I didn't want anyone to ever feel sorry for me.

When I was on 'Xena,' I remember the sound guy and the director at some point being like, you have to make sounds when you fight, and I was like, what are you talking about? You're never going to use it. But they hounded me for a good couple of hours, and basically it was, you need to act, you can't just perform the moves.

When I worked on 'Xena' I had to concentrate on fighting like Lucy Lawless. In 'Kill Bill' I not only had to stop fighting like Lucy, after three years of copying her moves, but start fighting like a Wu Shu martial artist. I'd never done Wu Shu before so mentally it was a massive challenge.

If you give anything less than 120% as an actor then you end up looking uncomfortable.

People are far more protective [of women] instinctively.

I'm not immune to a lack of confidence or the recognition that I haven't asked for what I deserve or stated what I want.

I got a pair of roller skates for Christmas when I was 4 or 5 or something, so I had a pair as kid. But I also lived on a gravel road so I wasn't really skating up and down the street.

It never occurred to me that I'm intimidating.

I've worked with horses on and off most of my life, but literally 'on and off' - flipping on them and falling off them.

I did drama at school and when I was doubling Xena, one time for my birthday mom and dad bought me an acting course 'cause I've always liked the performance side of anything.

My strengths, I think, are that I deal really well with people. I like people. I'm fascinated by how they work so I'm good at handling situations between departments on set or pre-production or post.

I met this group of stunt people and it was like, I had found family instantly. We're all a variety of different personalities, but whatever that mutual joy or appreciation of the work is, I'd not felt it like that before. It was, 'Yeah, I'd like to do this forever.'

Whatever my job description consists of, becomes my job. Maybe it's just the way I tackle work, in general.

As a stunt girl I've done most varieties of female fight action.

As a performer, the more I scare the stunt coordinator, the better.

When I started to trust myself to be an actor, and to be considered that way and consider myself, that is when people started to see me in that way because that was the truth then, as opposed to me being a stunt girl going, 'Please see me as an actor, please see me as an actor!' when I didn't see myself that way.

For a stunt woman, emotions don't matter to the shot. It was easier for me to do my job if I shut all my emotions off.

Actors always ask their directors what their motivation is in this scene or that scene, so I've always had this joke where I ask the director what my motivation is too. As a stunt person your motivation is usually to fall over a bench or something.

When I'm a stunt woman on a movie, I'm strictly a 'Yes sir,' girl... But acting puts more in your hands, and producing gives you more control still.

It never occurred to me that being a stunt girl would get me recognized in any way, because the whole purpose of a stunt person is to not be known.