Exclusive: Alicia Vela-Bailey Reveals Stunt Challenges for 'Divergent'

Alicia Vela-Baily has been working as a stunt person for more than a decade. She has done work on "Avatar," "Ender's Game," "Total Recall" and a number of other Hollywood productions. This year she recently took on one of the most challenging films of her career: She was the stunt double of actress Shailene Woodley in the upcoming young adult adaptation of "Divergent." Latinos Post recently had a chance to interview her regarding the challenges and experience of working on "Divergent."

Latinos Post: How did you first get involved with the film? 

Alicia Vela-Bailey: I worked with Garret Warren the stunt coordinator before on "Avatar" and he found out Shailene Woodley measurement and he's worked with me a lot before and he knows my capabilities and he thought I would be perfect to double her. So that's how I got the job.

LP: How many hours did you train for this and what kind of preparation was needed for the role?

AVB: We had almost two months that we were in Chicago training like every morning. It was pretty much at least eight hours a day. We would get the actors in every now and then and even some of the background actors to get them up to speed and used to some of the drills we were going to be using in the film. But it was like a full on boot camp.

LP: What was it like to work with director Neil Bruger?

AVB: Neil was so nice and very cool. I remember just doing the fight scenes a lot and he wanted to get a lot of coverage of it; different angles and what not. So when you came into work that day, you're going to be working pretty hard. When your working for Neil you just want to do a good. It's a great working environment.

LP: What was it like to work alongside Shailene Woodley? Did you give her any tips?

AVB: Shailene is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She is so sweet and done to earth and super cool. She really wants to do all of her own stunts and she tries really hard. But of course there still some action that is still a bit too dangerous. But the action she was able to do I would always be there and if something didn't look right or if she was hitting a knee to hard, I would give her tips to help her out along the way and make her job a lot easier.

LP: Since you worked with "Avatar" and other big budget studio films, how does "Divergent" compare in terms of difficulty, training, hours and the length?

AVB: The stunts in this movie were so diverse. It wasn't just fighting or doing wirework. I thought working on this film was great for a stunt person because you got to do some much different things like water stuff, running and jumping off trains, high falls and fighting and falling. It wasn't just the same thing over and over like some movies. It keeps you on your toes and you have to be ready for anything.

LP: Was the diversity the biggest challenge of the film?

AVB: Yeah, I haven't done too much underwater and the tackling of the dogs was different for me. I was kind of a little nervous to do that. We had a lot of training for it, working really hard and trying to figure out different fights and not all of the fights worked all the time and we had to redo them. It was a good training process and it took a lot out of you but it was worth it in the long run. You felt stronger at the end of it.

LP: What are you looking forward to audiences seeing and what are the most interesting stunts in the movie that will appeal to audiences?

AVB: For me the most interesting thing would be the jump into the dauntless area. That was my first time doing a really high fall and that was kind of nerve-wracking for me. But I was definitely glad to do it. Even some of the training jumping stuff seems very really cool and I want to see how it turns out in the movie. It's different always being on set and then seeing it on the film and I'm interested to see how everything turned out and what it looked like on camera. So I'm excited.

LP: How did you get into stunts and what inspired you to do this line of work?

AVB: Actually I grew up being a gymnast for a long time and I also got into dance. That was mainly my background. I actually never thought of ever doing stunts before. My friends who got into stunts, he recommended me for a movie and I flew out to L.A to audition. I didn't know what I doing but because of my dance and gymnastics background I was able to pickup fight choreography really fast and I was able to just imitate movements really well and easy. I was able to flip around, was not afraid heights. I was able to do wirework because of my gymnast training. I knew air awareness and knew how to fall because in gymnastics you learn how to crash and learn how to fall safely.  So that really helped with stunts. You have to learn to tough it up and if you fall you get a few bruises, you have to get up and do it again. In stunts you might have to do that same crash like ten other times. It prepared me way before I was getting into. So getting into stunts was kind of an accident, it wasn't something I tried to do; it kind of found me, which is awesome.  And I'm so happy I did because it's such a cool job and I'm so grateful for being in this industry. It's been pretty cool!

LP: What are you most excited for 2014?

AVB: I'm waiting for the film to come out. 2014 is so exciting and they're talking about the next film as well. I'm not sure when its supposed to start. This industry is so surprising; you never know what's coming next and kind of like that. I go with the flow and see what door it takes me. It always exciting and you never know whom your going to work for next. It's exciting and I know it's going to be a great year starting off by seeing the movie.

LP: Will you be working on the next two installments; "Insurgent" and "Allegiant"?

AVB: Well I know they want me to work on it. I just don't know when it is yet and when it's going to start up. I'm just hoping there won't be a conflict like if I want another job. Its just working out the scheduling stuff. I would love to do it and I know Shailene wants me in it. So I'm waiting to hear back.