'Kimmy Schmidt' Stunt Coordinator: From Tina Fey's Double to Emmy Nominee

As final-round Emmy voting gets underway (now through Aug. 28), Yahoo TV is taking an inside look at one of the most fun categories: Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or a Variety Program. Today, Jill Brown, who was nominated for her work on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and would be the first woman to take home the trophy if she were to win, takes us inside two of Season 1′s memorable moments and her path to becoming New York City’s first female stunt coordinator (thanks to Tina Fey, whom she doubled on 30 Rock before earning the title on that show).

Let’s start with Kimmy falling off her bike. Ellie Kemper did that herself. How did you pull it off?
In the world of comedy, what works the best is having the actor do as much as they possibly can. Sometimes when you’re in a big action movie, unless it’s Tom Cruise, you can say, “Well, OK, that’s gonna be a stunt double. No one has those kinds of moves.” But in comedy, you really want to incorporate using your lead actors as much as possible. And Tina Fey is a big proponent of doing that. She doesn’t want anything stunt-y or really action-y.

So we wanted to rig it to where we could actually use Ellie the whole time. Now, it seems simple enough having her just fall off the bike, but it’s really not. These spin bikes are incredibly heavy, and she has to rock the bike to make it fall and the bike has to fall on top of her. What we did was, we put her on a wire and we put the bike on a separate wire. It has what’s called a dead man’s stop, so that no matter what happens, the bike only falls to a certain point on the ground.

Related: Emmy-Nominated Stunt Coordinator Talks the Secret to ‘SNL’

With the wire on Ellie, when she falls off the bike it looks like she hits the ground, but it’s almost like she’s just brushing the side of her leg. We take all the pressure off her. I’m definitely telling you trade secrets. And then at the same time, we have someone on another wire dropping the bike. So the timing has to work out perfectly so it’s like she falls and the bike falls. If the timing’s wrong, it’s gonna be like, “Well THAT looked fake.” And she is really game to do all this. She’s athletic, she gets physical comedy — she was made for it.

I still don’t want to have an actress fall on the ground over and over. So we went in early and rehearsed it with our stunt double. And then the poor stunt double, all she does is sit all day in the wig and the wardrobe watching our actress do all of her own stunts. [Laughs.] But you know what, there’s worse problems to have.

And there’s that scene with Kimmy throwing the big jar of protein powder through the glass while they’re in the Spirit Cycle class. She gets empowered to leave her second cult. I was actually on the bike that she throws it at, because I was like, “You know what, I’m gonna get myself in a scene on this show.” [Laughs.]

We should also talk about the “Dong double” crashing through the wall at Kimmy’s birthday party. You told me before that everyone enjoyed saying “Dong double” on set.
Yes. [Laughs.] Because of scheduling, a tricky wire gag, and the need of a certain skill set, we thought it would be best to double him. Our actor, Ki Hong Lee, who plays Dong, is supposed to do some sort of parkour move where he’s about to run up the wall and do a backflip and he gets stuck in the wall. Our first challenge was, our actor was about 5′11″, and all the Asian stunt guys in New York are not that tall. So it was really challenging to find a stunt double who does parkour and can do these moves, that looks like our actor. But we did. We found this kid named Bryce Biederman, who’s very new. So we set up a scene where instead of him doing a backflip, we’re gonna have him go after his nemesis, and he gets stuck in the wall and then he has to fall upside down and he’s just stuck there. It’s hilarious. It happened in many steps and many days.

Related: Emmy-Nominated ‘Sunny’ Stunt Coordinator Takes Us Inside the Fish Factory

First, we measured our stunt double’s torso to the top of the head, so when he hung upside down, his head wouldn’t hit the floor. Then we built the wall. The area where his feet would go through, we scored that drywall with enough pressure that he could puncture through the wall in just the places where his feet were. We put him on a hand-pull wire, so we could lift him to his exact mark and when he went upside down he wouldn’t hit his head. The production designer, and the art department team, and construction did the most amazing job of building this fake wall that was supposed to look like it was made out of Valpaks and papier-mâché. And they built a wall behind that wall so you could see the foyer into the apartment. I use the word “foyer” loosely because the apartment is tiny. But there’s an area when you first walk through the apartment, so when he busts through you can kinda see that area behind and not the stages. And then we had the actor upside down to do his lines, which he was pretty game to do.

So the stunt actually took a multitude of departments: The wardrobe department had to work on fitting the clothes over the harness, the production designer and the art department had to build the walls, construction, stunt riggers — it was definitely a full-team effort. That’s by far the most fun, when you’re working with other departments and everyone can put in their expertise.

And I assume there was a lot of pressure to get this right?
There is a little bit of pressure to nail it on the first take, because if you don’t, it’s a big set-up. You gotta move the wall out, you gotta move the wall in, you gotta reset the whole thing. We had a rehearsal day where Tina and Robert [Carlock] and the department heads signed off on it, which really helps.

Did they give you any kind of direction on how they wanted it to play?
Well, they first wanted it to be like he ran upside down. But it wouldn’t have worked that way, just because of physics. Sometimes what’s written on the page is just a loose interpretation of what they want. They wanted something to do with parkour, but it’s sort of up to the stunt department to work on the individual moves. Initially they wanted him to just have one leg stuck in, but that would have made him have his head and his shoulders on the ground, which isn’t really as awkward as being completely upside down suspended and not being able to have anything on the floor. So we pitched having both feet go through, and they said, “Well, let’s see it.” We built the wall and did a rehearsal, and we all were pleased.

I wish I could say these were the most intricate stunts on the planet, but the show’s really fun and it’s a dream to work on. I honestly can’t believe I get paid to go work sometimes for this job.

You’re doing Season 2 as well?
I am.

You’re the stunt coordinator for a lot of TV comedies: Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, Starz’s new Patrick Stewart show Blunt Talk, and MTV’s Faking It. Looking at your IMDB page, as a stuntwoman, you’ve done a lot of action movies. What’s the difference?
I’ve done Titanic. I’ve done the ginormous Michael Bay movies. You go to set and you’re X162. They’re such big movies, they’re a little impersonal to work on. The stunts are big and challenging, and that’s fun, and you get to work with the best in the business, and the checks don’t suck, I can’t lie to you. But I had a… I don’t want to call it a midlife crisis, but I had brain surgery in 2012, after a stunt that went wrong. I got checked out because I had a concussion and they found I had a brain tumor. And so I healed, got it removed, and then swore that I would never work on another project with directors that were jerks or movies that weren’t fun. I’ve kinda vowed to live a little more honestly. I’m lucky enough to work in the greatest business, for Tina Fey, the greatest boss, on the most fun production.

Related: Emmy-Nominated ‘Community’ Stunt Coordinator Takes Us Inside the Paintball Episode

You were the stunt coordinator for 30 Rock as well. Is that where your relationship with Tina Fey began?
I actually was doubling Tina for 30 Rock, and she made it happen where she said, “You get our sensibilities and we’d like for you to be the coordinator.” So I became the first female stunt coordinator in New York. If I win the Emmy, I’ll be the first woman to ever win. I won two Stunt Awards [for Best High Work doubling Jennifer Lopez in 2000′s The Cell and Best Specialty Stunt for 2004′s Taxi], but no one’s ever won an Emmy. I hope this is a time in Hollywood where producers can see that there’s great stuntwomen that would make exceptional stunt coordinators if they just had the opportunity, but they just have not been given the opportunity yet. I’m probably one of four or five female stunt coordinators in the country.

You still work as a stuntwoman as well.
I doubled Tina in [the upcoming movie] Sisters. I just worked on Ghostbusters a few weeks ago, and I would say it was probably one of the most fun weeks I’ve ever had in my life.

And you’re also writing a book?
I’m writing a book that I call Fall With Me right now. It’s just going to publishers. It’s like a Chelsea Handler-meets-my stroke of insight. Every chapter is a name of a movie, which parallels what I was going through personally and then what I did on the movie. I would say it’s a lot less sex and a lot more, like, almost crapping my pants. [Laughs.]