Did Eliza do a lot of her own stunts?

[Monkey Pants]

Eliza obviously had stunt doubles in season 3, but during ats 4 (vs The Beast, Angelus, and in prison) and in btvs 7 (vs the cops, Caleb, and the final fight) it looks like she's doing it all herself, or at least most of it. If so, it definitely looks a lot better and she seems quite good at it. They should have let her do her own stunts originally in season 3 like she wanted!

 

[Priceless]

Maybe it had something to do with her age, as I think she was only 17 when S3 was filming?

 

[Athena]

Mostly it's an insurance thing, studios don't want their major stars to get injured, so stunt people exist for that very reason. They're highly trained and less likely to break bones.

Unless you're someone like Tom Cruise, who famously does do his own stunts (but has the clout with the studio to demand it!), chances are you'd have a stunt double for most, apart from facial shots. I'm sure there were things she could do herself.

But also, the quality of the stunt people was better towards the end of Buffy, apart from Buffy's stunt double, who looked massive compared to SMG! Generally, they go for someone of a similar height/build so the viewer can't tell the difference.

 

[Bluebird]

I think she done more stuff on Dollhouse too. She seems like she likes the stunts. 😀

But also, the quality of the stunt people was better towards the end of Buffy, apart from Buffy's stunt double, who looked massive compared to SMG! Generally, they go for someone of a similar height/build so the viewer can't tell the difference.

There's a moment in Never Leave Me where she stabs a couple of bringers with their own knife, and it looks so out of place because the stunt double has some crazy big muscles in her arms. I thought it was a dude at first. 😕

Even Joss mentions it in the commentary on Hush, that when there's an action scene SMG puts on her fighting boobs lol