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

Pruitt and Crawford practice vamp-slaying techniques.

Though he's worked on a vast number of projects, Pruitt is probably best known these days for Buffy, where he not only coordinates the stunts, but also gets into the action.

"I've doubled Spike and Xander during season two and three," he says, "and I've been various characters, vamps, cops, and drivers during every season."

And while you may be able to make quite the rousing Buffy-watching game of Spot The Stunt Coordinator, more of Pruitt's work is done behind the camera than in front of it.

"I usually storyboard everything an hour before we shoot," he explains. "I'll then show it to the stunt doubles so they can practice a few times, and later to the director so that we can lay out the camera positions and plan spots to include shots of the actors."

Crawford sidekicks stuntman Kevin Foster.

And what about those actors? Are they all gung-ho on doing their own stunts? Do they crave a taste of the violence?

"They leave it up to us, unless they are new," Pruitt says. "Marc is going through the phase where he asks to take a fall now and then, but we have to be careful with him. They are so worried about him getting hurt that they have to make an order from upstairs that he not be allowed to hit the ground. They saw him do it in one graveyard fight and that was the end of that. He still gets to throw some punches around, and that's more fun, anyway."

Pruitt also offers cruelly vague comments about his work in the final episodes of the season:

Clockwise from left: "Sammy" Valdivia, Crawford, Faith stunt double Karen Sheperd (in vampire makeup, rear), Blade stunt double Clay Fontenot, Angel stunt double Mike Massa, Luke LatFontaine, and Pruitt (center).

"May 9th is 'The Yoko Factor'," he says. "In it I'll have some fighting between Angel and Riley. I employ a couple of wire stunts and a couple of air rams within the fight scene that they have.

"May 16th is the actual season finale, 'Primeval', that involves the Initiative and Adam. I used around forty stunt people during that show. I did six wire gags in one battle and many, many air rams, too. I also did something that I have never done with the Buffy character: I put Sophia on a wire twice for some kicking action. Usually I only use wire gags to jerk her in a reaction or once in awhile to get her up onto a high place. I only did the kind of wire kicks that you see on The Matrix or Power Rangers [where Sophia doubled as the Pink Ranger] with Sophia before. Joss always preferred the down-to-earth fighting style. This time I used a wire, but kept it very subtle so that you may not even know it is a wire stunt when she kicks. I think there are nine wire gags in that episode altogether."

Pruitt also adds: "I like doing the fast multiple opponent combos and getting to do falls to more than one level. You can see an example of that kind of fall when Sophia kicks the stuntman off of the platform in front of the fat demon in the tub that the crew called 'Jabba the Hut' [in the episode 'Bad Girls']. Also check out the fall from the car when Spike clotheslines the stuntman. I like doing that."

Pruitt and Crawford duke it out.

And it's not just the fights that Pruitt puts together, either; there's been quite a bit of car crashing in Buffy's run, from Joyce's Jeep to Giles' tin can.

"Everybody cheered when [Giles' car] was smashed up [in 'A New Man']," Pruitt recalls. "We used to have to push it into shots sometimes."

He also comments on the nice new Hummers used in "A New Man" as the Initiative soldiers chase down Spike and Giles. "Those were hard to slide," he says, "but it was nice just to be out away from the cluttered stages and on location. I like the Jeep driven by Buffy's mom. Sophia got to do some stunts in it in 'Band Candy' when I rammed her with another vehicle."

Pruitt's work on Buffy extends beyond the actual filming of the show, too; over the summer, he and Sophia Crawford will be working on the new Buffy and Angel games from Fox Interactive. Yes, you read that right: games for both shows. Fans of the world rejoice.

Sophia Crawford, Buffy stunt double, will be working with Pruitt on the Buffy and Angel video games.

"Sophia and myself will play all of the characters," Pruitt says. "We hope to accomplish most of it in around 40 hours or so."

Of course, the transition to video games is accompanied by a little more adjustment than that from film to television. "The video game requires us to wear those motion capture balls all over our bodies," Pruitt explains, "and we have to return to the exact same position after an exchange, which is sometimes hard to be accurate with."

Though Pruitt and Crawford had originally planned to work on a new series called Sheena during the Buffy hiatus, Sheena would have conflicted with their work on the video games, so they had to abandon the television project. But that doesn't mean that life stops with Buffy, even if the show does keep him busy.

"I'd like to direct my own small independent martial arts movie," Pruitt says. "That would be fun. I do get calls to go in front of the camera still to this day. I've just been too busy. I was asked to say some lines and do a shoot-out scene on ER today; I had to turn it down because of Buffy. I have not even had time to appear on Angel; they asked Sophia and I to play a couple in a disco scene. We just couldn't break away."

So when will that independent flick get done?

"If I have time, I'm going to shoot some trailer either this hiatus or next for a low budget direct-to-video project that would feature a lot of action from the stunt department," Pruitt elaborates. "I'm hoping to have Sophia and [Faith stunt double] Karen Sheperd really take the Buffy vs. Faith fight to a whole new level in it. As far as actors go, I'd love to see Chris Walken on Buffy or even my little video project. He's just fun to watch. I'm sure Joss [Whedon, Buffy creator] could give him some juicy stuff on Buffy."

Buffy versus the Headless Horseman? Now there's an idea with potential.

The 11th Hour would like to thank Jeff Pruitt for his participation in this article and for providing the images that accompany it.

We welcome your comments on The 11th Hour and this feature. Please send letters to: letters@the11thhour.com

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