‘Black Widow’ Star Olga Kurylenko Need 4 Stunt Doubles To Help With Her Taskmaster Role

Black Widow one of the most anticipated movies of 2021, features an all-star cast of women actors performing incredible stunts. The Marvel film stars big-name actors such Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz, and Florence Pugh, but also includes lesser-known stars like Ukrainian actor Olga Kurylenko.

Kurylenko, who has starred in the films Quantum of Solace and Momentum, plays the Taskmaster in Black Widow. As one of the primary antagonists of the movie, she faces off against Johansson in several scenes and has to engage in some intense action sequences. 

However, even though many of Kurylenko’s scenes required strenuous physical maneuvers, many of them were not performed by her. She relied on several stunt doubles to execute the more challenging moves her character does and was required to wear a special suit throughout the movie. 

‘Black Widow’ actor Olga Kurylenko used multiple stunt doubles for her Taskmaster role

Kurylenko went into detail about the numerous stunt doubles she worked with while filming Black Widow during a recent interview with the Associated Press. 

“Usually, I have one stunt double that dubs me, and in this case, I had three or four,” Kurylenko said. “There were so many people because Taskmaster is so complicated and has so many different skills, that more than one person can do them all.”

She needed several stuntmen for her character’s numerous fighting styles

Because the Taskmaster has such a unique set of combat skills, it was too much to ask for one stuntman to master them all. Instead of relying on one, Marvel producers hired several stuntmen to execute the impressive moves. 

“They had to get different persons for each specific skill because there’s just not one stuntman who can do all of those moves, which is extraordinary, but it’s kind of cool because the character is so powerful,” Kurylenko explained. “And she mirrors whoever is in front of her. That means there’s nothing she can’t do. Her power is limitless.”

Stunt coordinator Rob Inch told Entertainment Weekly that the Taskmaster’s versatile fighting style made her one of the more fun characters to work with while filming Black Widow. 

“There’s no holds on that fight style,” stunt coordinator Rob Inch said. “There was no parameters — only our imagination.”

Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster costume was extremely hot and heavy 

On top of the fact that Kurylenko had to learn some complicated choreography, she had the added challenge of doing it all in an extremely uncomfortable costume.  

“There were a few layers to the costume, and the first layer was the muscle suit,” she said. “It’s just a suit that adds muscles, so you know, I look bulky and big. Fair enough, it’s the Taskmaster. And then all these other layers and clips that went on,” she told the Associated Press. “By the end, it becomes very heavy. It’s also very hot, and yeah, it’s a long process. … It doesn’t make it easier to move, so it’s even harder to move in it.”