Ever wonder what it takes to bring your favorite superheroes to life? We know we have.
That's why we reached out to stunt coordinator Heidi Moneymaker and asked her to shed light on the magic behind making Marvel movies and shows. Though you may not recognize Heidi's name, you've likely seen her work, as she's been a key player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for over a decade, having been Scarlett Johansson's stunt double in Iron Man 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow.
On Marvel's current Disney+ series, Hawkeye, Heidi served as a stunt coordinator and second unit director, which pretty much means she helped oversee all of the action on the show. And, if you've tuned in to the first five episodes, you know there's been a lot of action.
For the answers to all of our burning Marvel action questions, scroll through the Q&A below!
E! News: Are there any key differences to filming a Marvel show versus a movie?
Heidi Moneymaker: I would say it's basically like doing a six-hour Marvel film. At least on my end, the action is just as big. The scenes are big, but instead of it being a two-hour movie, it's six hours of content. However, sometimes we don't get the same kind of prep and time to shoot it that you would if you were shooting a six-hour film. So there's a little bit of a challenge there, but I would it's say very, very, very similar.
E!: You have such a long history with the Marvel movies, which means you've worked closely with Jeremy Renner before. Was it kind of different to be his stunt boss for Hawkeye?
HM: You know, I have known Jeremy for a really long time and we have worked really closely together. And I've spent a lot of time in rehearsals with him, training him for action scenes in the past, so we kind of had that relationship a little bit. But I've never really been in a position as his stunt coordinator. So it was a fun opportunity.
He's such a great, wonderful, open guy and he works really, really hard that he made my job pretty easy. I got to help design his style of action.
E!: Can you break down the distinct fighting style for Hawkeye/Clint?
HM: Predominantly, he uses his bow, but there is some hand-to-hand work. Having him have a polished fighting style didn't fit the character, because he's almost retired and all about his family. The last thing he wants to do is be back fighting in this world. We used close quarters, sort of trapping, you know, judo kind of mishmash of a style with him.
E!: Could you talk to us a little bit about crafting the different fighting styles for each character, especially in regard to Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld)?
HM: With Kate, we had a really open playing field, because we could throw in a little bit of aikido, we can throw in archery versus close-quarters hand-to-hand and kickboxing. We had some judo moves that had a little flair to them.
E!: And with the recent arrival of Florence Pugh on Hawkeye, we'd love to discuss what it was like working with her, especially as she's carrying on the Black Widow moniker.
HM: Having been Scarlett's double for 10, 11 years in the Marvel Universe and us being Black Widow as a unit and—spoiler alert, in Endgame things came to a bit of an end—that was like an end of an era for us. So for me, getting to work on this show was sort of a reentry into that world, but in a different way. And I feel like Florence is—No. 1, she's a brilliant actress, and No. 2, she's very athletic and very able to do anything that we ask her to do. I feel like she is the perfect person to let this legacy live on.
E!: How do Yelena (Pugh) and Natasha (Johansson)'s fighting styles differ?
HM: Yelena and Natasha have very similar fight styles, as we saw in Black Widow, because they were trained in the same place. Natasha tends to have a little bit more of a flashy, you know, swinging-around-guys-like flair to her. Yelena is a little more gritty, kind of like her character is in real life. She doesn't do all the flashy bulls--t stuff. She's very sharp and very purposeful with what she does.
New episodes of Hawkeye arrive Wednesdays on Disney+.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)