Before you judge a horse girl, walk a mile in her cowgirl boots. Better yet, try riding a horse.
It's not an easy task, a fact that Fivel Stewart can attest to as someone who's worked with the animal for most of her life. So she can't understand why the term 'horse girl" has taken on a negative connotation over the years.
"Getting on a huge animal that weighs hundreds of pounds and riding it and guiding it and loping and fully running on mountains and down steep hills—that takes a lot of balls," she told E! News. "I don't know why the horse girl thing is so frowned down upon!"
It's a topic that the actress has become even more passionate about after starring in the Apple TV+ anthology series Roar, in which she plays a girl who sets out to avenge her father's death in the wild, west. For her episode, "The Girl Who Loved Horses," she worked alongside a stunt double, but some of the most intense scenes feature Fivel riding a horse bareback.
"Nothing compares to riding bareback," she explained. "That is like a whole different world. You don't have the reins, you only have the main and you don't have a saddle, so you only have to like hold on with your legs. I'm 25 and I don't have those muscle reflexes, so no matter what my background was with stunts, it was still really hard."
It's not hard to see why Fivel is so proud of the episode, though. In addition to allowing her to display her expert equestrian skills, Roar made her the strong Asian American woman at the center of a period piece.
"I don't really have a dream role," she reflected. "Any role that I get is a dream come true, but I knew I wanted to do a period piece."
She just didn't know if it would be possible: "I'm Native American and Asian American. And usually those people wouldn't be leading roles and in westerns. So [being casted] was also a huge, jaw-dropping moment."
To see Fivel in action, watch Roar, streaming now on Apple TV+.