Michelle Rodriguez, Debbie Evans' bond helps create 'Furious' stunts - MotorSportsTalk

The fun behind the wheel Michelle Rodriguez has in the Fast and the Furious series? That isn’t really her.

Thanks to her longtime stunt double, Debbie Evans, it’s Rodriguez who’s among the stars of the franchise but Evans who’s getting to have a lot of the fun.

“If anything happens to her, the movie’s down. If anything happens to me, they get someone else!” Evans laughs.

It’s that immediate chemistry between the two that has allowed them to work together over several films throughout the Universal Pictures’ Fast and the Furious franchise, continuing with the eighth installment of the series The Fate of the Furious, which opens today in theaters nationwide. F. Gary Gray directs this film, which besides Rodriguez also features stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron and Tyrese Gibson leading the cast.

Evans is one of Hollywood’s top stuntwomen with a resume that sparkles. She’s been Rodriguez’s lead stunt driver for six films in the series and been inducted into the American Motorcyclist (AMA) Hall of Fame and The Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame, among others.

The two also collaborated on another fun feature to help build anticipation for the movie, a Castrol EDGE Titanium Trial video called “Titanium Ice,” a virtual reality display.

“The performance was amazing. I pushed that car to the edge! It performed flawlessly. I thought the engine might blow!” Evans laughed.

Virtual reality is one thing, of course, but the appeal of the Fast and the Furious is the visceral reality of driving. The car connection that has permeated throughout the previous seven movies has appealed to a primarily young audience, but has made waves to such different demographics.

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA – MARCH 12: Actor Vin Diesel (L) and actress Michelle Rodriguez arrive at the premiere Universal’s “Fast & Furious” held at Universal CityWalk Theaters on March 12, 2009 in Universal City, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Rodriguez has played Leticia “Letty” Ortiz from the start, with the franchise having been an integral part of her career almost straight from the start.

“It was more of an interview than anything, and it was Vin (Diesel) saw me in Girlfight… and the director sought me to cast him as his girlfriend in the franchise,” she told NBC Sports.

“It was my introduction into Hollywood, and it was really my third film as I did another indie in-between. For me it was an introduction to Hollywood features… and I thought I would be having the same kind of fun Debbie does! Little did I realize that insurance says no!

“So half of the cool stuff, working in action movies, which was the realm that as a tomboy, that I just dreamed of, jumping out of windows, doing gun tactical training, racing cars, yeah… no. Debbie has all the fun!”

Since Evans has done the majority of the stunt work, it’s up to her to recap some of her favorite stunt scenes she’s performed. In this series, Evans said one from the original film was best.

LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 20: Stunt woman Debbie Evans arrives at the 7th Annual Taurus World Stunt Awards at Paramount Pictures on May 20, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images)

“My favorite stunt was on the first one, driving the car underneath the semi-truck and then flipping it! Today to this day I have people ask that was CGI. No, I was in the whole thing. That was all real,” Evans said.

Rodriguez laughed and responded, “I’d love to feel what it’s like to flip a car and land in the roll cage. (I bet) It’s like being in a laundry machine!”

As the Furious franchise isn’t Evans’ only series, there’s been other stunts she’s loved to perform.

“Another one was I turned my car over in a tunnel in What Dreams May Come, a Robin Williams movie,” Evans said. “I had a Porsche 911. The coordinator said it’d be nice if you could hit the top of the tunnel. It was about 18 feet high.

“So we figured out just where I needed to hit the ramp, broke the light at the top of the tunnel, flew 95 feet, then hit the ground.

“I was in the air so long, I’m like, the ground’s coming…”

Evans though, it seems, was destined to drive from birth. Her professional accolades come as she started as a kid, only progressing from there.

“I grew up riding motorcycles; I started riding when I was 6, competing when I was 9, rode against the men, rode for Yamaha, factory-sponsored and all that,” she said. “So I’ve always been into motorsports. I’ve always loved cars. I am just the luckiest person, most fortunate person to drive an Enzo Ferrari, the Jag F Series.”

Rodriguez brought some humor to that description when discussing her own interest in cars and racing, piqued by her role within this franchise.

“I think when Debbie was born, she came out in a Ducati!” she laughed. “Mom gave birth and there was a motor sound… then a cry after the liquid came out!”

It’s that witty banter that has allowed the two to flourish together over the length of the franchise, continuing with today’s release of the latest installment.

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(Editor’s note: This story on the Heart of Racing sports cars shootout for women is one in an occasional Motorsports Talk series focusing on women in racing during March, which is Women’s History Month.)

Heart of Racing driver and team manager Ian James says his daughter, Gabby, isn’t so interested in auto racing. But she is interested (as a New York-based journalist) in writing about the sport’s efforts and growth in gender equality

It’s a topic that also was brought up by James’ wife, Kim.

“They’re always saying, ‘Hey, you manage all these guys, and you help them, so why not a woman?’ ” Ian James told NBC Sports. “And I feel like there are a lot of women that haven’t had a fair crack at it in sports car racing.

“Our whole DNA at Heart of Racing is we give people opportunities in all types of situations where there’s been crew personnel or drivers. And I felt like we hadn’t really addressed the female driver situation. I felt like there was a void to give somebody a chance to really prove themselves.”

During the offseason, the team took a major step toward remedying that.

*Hannah Grisham at the Heart of Racing shootout (Mike Levitt/LAT)*

Heart of Racing held its first female driver shootout last November at the APEX Motor Club in Phoenix, Arizona, to select two women who will co-drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the SRO SprintX Championship.

The season will begin this weekend at Sonoma Raceway with Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt behind the wheel. The team also picked a third driver, 17-year-old Annie Rhule, for a 2023 testing program.

The Phoenix audition included 10 finalists who were selected from 130 applicants to the program, which has been fully underwritten by Heart of Racing’s sponsors.

“We didn’t want it to be someone who just comes from a socio-economic background that could afford to do it on their own course,” James said. “We can pick on pure talent. We’re committed to three years to do this and see if we can find the right person. I’m very hopeful.”

So is Grisham, a Southern California native who has been racing since she was 6 in go-karts and since has won championships in Mazda and Miata ladder series. She has several victories in the World Racing League GP2 (an amateur sports car endurance series). The last two years, Grisham has worked as a test driver for the Pirelli tire company (she lives near Pirelli’s U.S. headquarters in Rome, Georgia, and tests about 30 times a year).

Starting with the Sonoma during SprintX event weekends (which feature races Saturday and Sunday), she will split the Heart of Racing car with O’Meara-Hunt (a New Zealand native she got to know at the shootout).

“It’s huge; the biggest opportunity I’ve had in this sport,” Grisham, 23, told NBC Sports. “Now it’s up to me to perform how I know I can. But I’m super lucky to be with such an amazing team and have a good teammate. The Heart of Racing has a family vibe and energy to it that’s really amazing. It’s super exciting. It’s hard to put into words.”

Grisham is hopeful that a strong performance eventually could lead to a full-time ride with Heart of Racing. The team has full-time entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and won the GTD category of the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona with the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 piloted by James, Darren Turner, Roman DeAngelis and Marco Sorensen.

James said “there’s no guarantee” of placement in an IMSA entry for Grisham and O’Meara-Hunt, but “if they prove themselves, we’ll continue to help them throughout their career and our team. The GT3 program is an obvious home for that. If they get the opportunity and don’t quite make it, we’ll be looking for the next two. The next three years, we’ll cycle through drivers until we find the right one.”

Grisham described the two-day shootout as a friendly but intense environment. After a day of getting acclimated to their cars, drivers qualified on new tires the second day and then did two 25-minute stints to simulate a race.

*Hannah Grisham reviews data with Heart of Racing sports car driver Gray Newell during the team’s shootout last November (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

“Everyone was super nice,” she said. “Once everyone gets in the car, it’s a different level. A different switch gets turned on. Everyone was super nice; everyone was quick. I feel we had an adequate amount of seat time, which is definitely helpful.

“It’s always cool to meet more women in the sport because there’s not too many of us, even though there’s more and more. It’s always cool to meet really talented women, especially there were so many from all over the world.”

IMSA has celebrated female champions and race winners, notably Katherine Legge (who is running GTD full time this season with Sheena Monk for Gradient Racing). The field at Sebring and Daytona also included the Iron Dames Lamborghini (a female-dominated team).

*The Heart of Racing’s female driver shootout drew interested candidates from around the world (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

James believes “a breakout female driver will be competing with the best of them” in the next five years as gender barriers slowly recede in motorsports.

“It’s been a male-dominated sport,” James said. “It’s still a very minute number of women drivers compared to the guys. I’m sure back in the day there were physical hurdles about it that were judged. But now the cars are not very physical to drive, and it’s more about technique and mental strength and stuff like that, and there’s no reason a girl shouldn’t do just as well as a guy. What we’re just trying to achieve is that there isn’t an obvious barrier to saying ‘Hey, I can’t hire a guy or a girl.’ We just want to put girls in front of people and our own program that are legitimate choices going forward for people.”

“There’s been some really good female drivers, but a lot of them just haven’t been able to sustain it, and a lot of that comes from sponsorship. I think (with the shootout), there’s no pressure of raising money and worrying about crash damage. We’ve taken care of all that so they can really focus on the job at hand.”

Funding always has been a hurdle for Grisham, who caught the racing bug from her father, Tom, an off-road driver who raced the Baja 1000 several times.

“I don’t come from a lot of money by any means,” she said. “So since a young age, I’ve always had to find sponsorships and get people to help me, whether it was buying tires, paying for entry fees, paying for the shipment of a car to an actual race. Literally knocking on the doors of people or businesses in my town.

“So yeah, it’s definitely something I’ve always struggled with and held me back because the sport revolves so much around money. So again to get this opportunity is insane.”

*Rianna O’Meara-Hunt was one of two women selected by the Heart of Racing to drive in the SRO SprintX Championship this year (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

Grisham credits racing pioneer Lyn St. James (an Indy 500 veteran and sports car champion) as a role model who has helped propel her career. She was hooked by the sights, smells and sounds of racing but also its competitive fire.

“There’s a zone you get in, that subconscious state of mind when you’re driving. It’s like addictive almost. I love it. Also I’m just a very competitive person as I think most race car drivers are.

“For sure I want to stay with the Heart of Racing. Obviously, I’m still getting to know everyone, but it’s a super family vibe. That’s how I grew up in the sport with just my dad and I wrenching on the cars. That’s what I love about this sport is all the amazing people you meet. And I think this is one of the most promising teams in this country. For sure, I want to learn as much as I can from them and hopefully continue. I feel so lucky and grateful to be one of those chosen.”

Michelle Rodriguez, Debbie Evans’ bond helps create ‘Furious’ stunts

Heart of Racing program aims to elevate new generation of women to star in sports cars