'One in a billion': French stuntwoman putting fizz into Hollywood
When Sarah Lezito began messing around with motorbikes at 13 she never dreamed that one day she would become the stunt double of some of Hollywood's biggest stars. The French winemaker's daughter has stood in for Scarlett Johansson -- twice -- on "Avengers 2" and "Black Widow" and appeared in a dozen films including "The Batman". The 32-year-old is one of a very rare breed of motorcycle stuntwomen, with a massive social media following that helped bring her from the vineyards of France's Champagne region to Hollywood.
AFP caught up with her on her own personal training track amid the otherwise tranquil vineyards near Epernay, the Champagne capital in northeast France. Barely astride her red chrome Kawasaki, she was off down the track performing stunts with disconcerting dexterity, her long brown hair trailing out of her helmet in the wind.
"This is kind of my temple," she said after performing a series of gravity-defying tricks including standing with both feet on top of her 200-kilo (440-pound) machine and then flipping herself onto the handlebars. "People think I'm working, but it mostly allows me to release all the pressure," said Lezito, whose lucky charm -- a plastic beaded bracelet -- is wrapped around the throttle of her bike.
Sarah Lezito, takes her motorbike Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R out of the truck before training, on her private track near Epernay eastern France.
Sarah Lezito, performs a wheelstand while standing on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a wheelstand on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a drift by touching the ground with her hand on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a wheelstand on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a stoppie on her motorbike.
'Doing wheelies in a field'
The woman now popularly known as the "world stunt champion" (although there is no recognised world championship) began her acrobatics career young on the family holding near Epernay. "I fell into stunts by watching videos," she told AFP. "No one in my family was in the motor sports world. My father only had an agricultural quad, not at all made for sports, but I started trying to do wheelies with it in a field." Then she began posting her stunt videos on YouTube.
But she seemed destined to follow her family into wine and viticulture until she posted a video of a medley of tricks one day in March 2013 called "One out of Billion Girls". "It was thanks to this video that they noticed me," she said. The "they" being the team from the Hollywood blockbuster "Avengers 2". A few months later, she abandoned her winemaking studies to fly to South Korea to perform Johansson's stunts in the movie.
Because she "adapted quickly" to stunt work, Lezito decided to go professional, appearing in several major movies, including "Inferno", "Millennium" and "The Batman" with Zoe Kravitz. "I met all the actresses I've doubled for," she said.
Sarah Lezito, performs a wheelstand on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a drift while sitting on the tank of her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, stands on her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, stands next to her motorbike.
Sarah Lezito, performs a burnout on her motorbike.
30 million followers
She has had her moments on some of the movies, although she insists she has never felt fear on those she does "at home" for social media. "I had to ride through flames for 'Bad Girl', a film which was never released. On paper, it was very simple, but I didn't have a helmet," she recalled. And in the summer of 2023 while filming David Fincher's "The Killer" in Paris, starring Michael Fassbender, Lezito had a severe fall.
"I flew off the motorcycle, I wasn't going very fast but fast enough to land on my head and the helmet cracked." She ended up in the emergency room with a head injury. It "made her think", she told AFP, and she "decided to take a break" and put her Hollywood career on hold.
Lezito now devotes herself to her social media channels, posting videos of her stunts to her more than 30 million followers -- including 9.5 million on Instagram, some two million more than MotoGP star Marc Marquez. Her garage doubles as a studio, with her YouTube trophies and gifts from her fans displayed on the walls. But it is also where she gets her hands dirty repairing her fleet of roughly 10 motorcycles. "As long as I enjoy sitting on the motorcycle, I'll keep doing this," she said. - AFP
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