Stuntwomen: Sanober Pardiwalla and Ky Furneaux

At the age of 28 Ky Furneaux swapped her job as a guide in the Australian outback for stunt work in Hollywood. "I don't think I really realised it was gonna hurt," she says of this sometimes "brutal" industry. Now aged 41 Ky is a veteran of more than 60 films including Catwoman, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Thor. She has a reputation for taking "hard hits" but admits that the first time someone punched her in the face, she cried. She won a Taurus award which is the stunt industry's equivalent of an Oscar for her work in the blockbuster Thor and is trying to retire but the actresses she doubles for are reluctant to let her.

Sanober Pardiwalla is one of the relatively few female stunt action performers in India's massive film industry. She says that being sporty and confident from an early age made her stand out among other Indian girls and propelled her to become a black belt in karate and learn to ride a motorbike. Now her skills are called upon by some of Bollywood's top action directors, but she would not recommend her profession to other Indian women. Sanober believes 'visualisation' plays a huge part in successful stunts and describes how she approached performing a fall down a 300-feet cliff face.

(Photo left: Sanober Pardiwalla. Credit: Sanober Pardiwalla. Photo right: Ky Furneaux. Credit: Ky Furneaux)