Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Williams.
Jessica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Manaus, Brazil. I moved to the U.S. when I was eight years old. My family and I moved to Louisiana. We ended up in a small town called Walker. I was raised in a Christian home. I worked a few jobs doing construction, accounting, teaching at daycare, housing cleaning, and waiting tables. I was working at a Buffalo Wild Wings waiting table when I got the opportunity to work in films. Three gentlemen sat at one of my tables. The restaurant wasn’t busy, so I was able to spend more time with them. One was an actor, Louis Herthum, the other was a stunt coordinator, Phil O’dell, and the third gentleman was a writer, unfortunately I can’t remember his name. Louis took a liking to me, I have no idea why, but he seemed like he wanted to help me. He’s an incredible actor. You might know him from his role on Westworld as Peter Abernathy. He told me they trained stunts on the weekends with Phil and that I should come out and join them. He told me that there weren’t many stuntwomen of different ethnicities in Louisiana at that time. This was back in 2009.
Of course, I was interested. I exchanged contacts with Louis. We were supposed to get together and train that upcoming weekend, but it ended up being canceled because Phil had to go out of state to care for his aunt. I never went and trained with them after that because Phil was gone. Louis kept in touch with me through Facebook occasionally. I believe it was 6 months after I met them that I got a call for Louis. He asked me if I remembered Phil. Of course, I remembered him. He told me that Phil was coordinating a movie in New Orleans and that he thought I would be a good double for Angelic Zambrana. I called Phil, and he filled me in on everything. A month or so later I was on my first movie set doubling Angelic on “The Mortician”. It was an incredible experience. My first stunt job. I was doubling Angelic. Her character was dead, and Dash Mihok was throwing her a.k.a. me into one of the canals in New Orleans. This was mid-December, and it was cold. I did two takes and everyone loved it. It wasn’t hard playing a dead body. Phil thought me a lot when I first started.
Eventually, I had to find my own way because he stopped having training at his house. It wasn’t easy. Every day I’m thankful that I met Louis and Phil. If it weren’t for them who knows where I would be. I’m thankful that film allows me to be a creative person. You have to be disciplined and driven. I’ve gotten to do so many fun and amazing things that I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of doing. There’s so much room for improvement and growth in this industry. The possibilities are endless. I love it because it always keeps me on my toes.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road is never smooth. My biggest struggle is that I grew up a very shy kid and being in front of camera is a shy kid’s worse nightmare. Even though I struggle with this, I knew this is what I needed to break me out of my shyness. Just don’t ask me to say lines that’s a whole other beast which I will conquer eventually.
Networking and having to sell myself was my worst nightmare. I was a newbie with no previous experience or skills. It was hard to go to a coordinator and tell them to hire you when you didn’t know much.
I trained hard every day trying to acquire skills. For years my body was always sore. I was always pushing myself. I would run miles every day, train in different martial arts, practice falls, and cleaned houses on the side.
Till this day I am constantly training. It never ends. I love it now. I can’t imagine a day without training in something.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work as a stunt performer. I wouldn’t say I have a specialty quite yet. I am working towards specializing in fights. I love martial arts. I’ve taken a variety of martial arts classes from Wing Chun, JKD, Muay Thai, taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kali, Filipino Martial Arts, Northern Shaolin/Praying Mantis Kung-Fu and a few others.
A few years ago, I decided to take a fight. It was an amateur Muay Thai fight. I am most proud of that fight. It was my first and only real fight I competed in. I trained hard for three months straight. I was constantly training for it because I wanted to win. I decided to do the fight because I had never done anything like that in my life and I wanted to challenge myself. Real fighting and movie fighting are completely different. In one, you are trying to knock your opponent out and making full contact whereas in movie fighting if we do make contact, you are still trying to keep your partner safe and barely touch them.
What sets me apart from others the most is my ethnicity and also the fact that I train in both real fighting and film fighting.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Art matters the most to me. I love creating no matter what it is. To me everything we do is art. My art changes constantly. Sometimes I paint, sometimes I edit videos, and sometimes I create cool shapes with my body. Art is everywhere and it is important, without it the world would be boring and lacking. Art keeps us all entertained.
Contact Info:
- Website: direct.me/jess_vs_dworld
- Instagram: jess_vs_dworld
- Other: imdb.me/JESSVSWORLD
Image Credits
Noel Nichols Nate Dorn
