Master of Mayhem
Jeff Pruitt fights Buffy's good fight.
      by Lisa Kincaid

Pruitt practices a sequence with Buffy stunt double Sophia Crawford.

It's a combination of factors that make Buffy the Vampire Slayer a hit. There's comedy, drama, heaping gobs of angst, and lots of pretty people to look at. But take away the short skirts, the leather pants, the bare chests and the witty punning, and you've still got at least one good reason to watch Buffy: the violence.

Don't pretend you don't like it. You know you're completely hooked when Buffy pummels some big ugly demon or Angel throws a vampire head-first into a garbage can. Some of the show's greatest moments are born in violence: Buffy versus Angelus in a swordfight to the death; two Slayers battling on a rooftop; Spike and Buffy duking it out in daylight. The fights, the falls, the crashes and the general destruction are a key ingredient in the Buffy recipe, and the man who's cooking up that particular dish is stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt.

"I supervise every shot and every little movement and make changes as we go," Pruitt clarifies. "I also personally control the wire rigs and mini-tramps during any stunt -- just to make sure it goes the way I want it to."

And he's definitely got the experience to make things go exactly the way he plans: Pruitt has worked on a wide range of projects, from Buffy to Bounty Tracker, Double Dragon to Deep Space Nine. Some of his most well-known work was the stunt choreographer for The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, where he set up those high-flying, gravity-defying maneuvers performed by the brightly-clad teenaged superheroes.

Sophia Crawford practices a technique on one of the demons from "Earshot".

"I got my break from the second [assistant director] on a movie I'd worked on in Georgia called Invasion USA," Pruitt explains. "He started directing and took me along to work in his films in Hollywood."

Pruitt, originally from Georgia, grew up on the action flicks of yore. "I loved the old James Bond movies," he says, "Our Man Flint and the TV series Wild Wild West and Green Hornet. These were loaded with stuntwork. I used to watch Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks and the Keystone Cops silent films and try to imitate them. I grew up making little 8mm flicks using my toys as the actors. Somehow I just kept going from there."

Of course, getting into stunt work isn't as easy as it may initially sound.

"I started out in Tang Soo Do, and trained and practiced many styles over the years," Pruitt says. "I've been in martial arts for over 27 years now."

Pruitt with Buffy actor Seth Green (Oz).

And if the thought of all that studying and training doesn't make you wary of making stunts your career choice, there's always further discouragement available. After all, your high school guidance counselor always did tell you to speak to a professional in the field...

"I would say don't do it unless you absolutely can't help yourself," Pruitt cautions. "It's a very small business with very few jobs available. You have to be crazy to do this."

Still not dissuaded? Maybe the thought of pain -- and lots of it -- will convince you that you need to go into something safe like accounting, instead.

"I have two torn ligaments right now," Pruitt says. "I've broken my ankle and fist and had huge internal bleeding situations occur. Sophia [Crawford, Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy stunt double and Pruitt's girlfriend] broke her foot in Hong Kong and has broken her fingers a few times on Buffy, as well as many other injuries. There is never a day in which she is not covered in bruises and swollen knots."

Actor Danny Strong (left), stuntman Zack Hudson, Pruitt, Crawford, and Oz/Jonathan stunt double Lee Whitaker.

Cringing in fear yet? If that still hasn't scared you off the stuntwork path, just think of the things you'll have to do, like this stunt for Bounty Tracker that Pruitt cites as the most difficult he's ever done:

"Throwing myself into a back-flip off a mini-tramp, hitting groin-first on a post and sliding down. Something about throwing yourself backward towards a post with that sensitive part of the body was tricky -- if you know what I mean. I just made myself do it."

Of course, being in the stunt business isn't all bad, though you might have to be crazy to enjoy work that puts your delicates in danger. Pruitt is particularly fond of his work on a series of Sprite commercials from last summer.

"I did five commercials for Sprite that aired mainly on MTV and BET," he says. "They star rap artists Eve, Kool Keith, Amil, Mia X, and others. Though, all of the action is performed by my stunt team. The rap stars only did the close-up rap stuff. Everything else is my guys made up to look like them. It was fun for us because it was a take-off on old Kung Fu movies that we loved."

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