The Association of Women Drivers is the first team for female stunt drivers in Hollywood

The Association of Women Drivers is the first and currently only team for female stunt drivers in Hollywood.

With more than 300 commercials and 500 film and TV credits to its name, this team is at the top of its game.

The group is the brainchild of Olivia Summers and Dartenea ‘Dee’ Bryant.

The two of them spoke to Supercar Blondie about the origins of the group, their time working in Hollywood, and what challenges female stunt drivers face.

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How the Association of Women Drivers got started

Olivia Summers and Dee Bryant have an impressive array of credits to their names.

Summers has been the driving double for actresses like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kristen Wiig, while Bryant has doubled for Kerry Washington and Angela Bassett.

But despite their long list of credits, it was a lack of awareness around women stunt drivers that prompted them to set up the Association of Women Drivers.

It all began when Summers heard a shocking comment at a meeting with a production company back in 2020.

“At the meeting, someone said, ‘Oh, Olivia, we didn’t know there were female drivers. We just put someone in a wig’,” Summers told Supercar Blondie.

“When I left, I was really frustrated, and I just couldn’t figure out what I was going to do to get the word out.

“My dad had just passed away, and I got into my truck, and I was just like, ‘Dad, I need help. I don’t know what to do anymore.’

“And as I put the key in, I heard him say, ‘Start an all-female stunt driving team because there wasn’t one’.

“So I called Dee and asked if she’d be my partner. She just said ‘F**k yeah’, and that was the kind of the start of it.”

From the get-go, they wanted to make sure the group had the right image.

“[We didn’t want to] sound like a bunch of b***hy women saying ‘Why aren’t you letting us drive’?,” Summer explained.

“Because that’s not what it was about. It was just like ‘Just give us a seat at the table’.

“We’re just really a team of the top female stunt drivers; we’re not purposefully trying to make a statement.

“The whole goal was just to be able to compete with the guys.”

The group connects ad agencies and production companies with the ‘best of the best’ in female drivers.

“Olivia and I are creating visibility for professional female drivers,” Bryant said.

“So that just happens to be the extra purpose of AWD. But we’re definitely just a team of professional female drivers.”

The issues facing female stunt drivers in Hollywood

Within Hollywood, the practices of ‘wigging’ and ‘paint downs’ continues.

The former is when a man wears a wig to perform as a woman for a stunt, whilst the latter involves wearing make-up to perform as an ethnic minority during a stunt.

“It’s something I’ve fought against for my entire career,” Bryant said.

“And I know I’ve been punished for it and lost work over it.

“I’ve always tried to find qualified women who can replace these guys that are ‘wigging’.

“It’s not something we set out to fight against, but visibility helps to dissolve that need for a stunt coordinator to wig a guy.”

There’s no doubt that the AWD is doing great work – the credits on the group’s website are very impressive.

Films like Bird Box, Bridesmaids, Kill Bill, Captain America: Civil War, and Skyfall are among their credits, in addition to tons of TV shows and commercials.

Let’s face it, we all love a good stunt.

Whether it was Katy Perry’s Ford Mustang crash or the underwater stunts in Meg 2, they always get our blood pumping.

And who could forget Tom Cruise’s daring stunts?

To learn more about the work that the Association of Women Drivers does, head over to their website.

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