Victor Paguia and the crazy life of a Hollywood stunt coordinator

While the Oscars are only just getting around to (finally) recognizing stunt work, the Emmys have been giving out a variation of an Outstanding Stunt Coordination award for more than two decades. This year, Filipino American stunt coordinator Victor Paguia nabbed his first-ever nomination after years of hard work in the business. 

With more than 100 credits to his name, Paguia began his career as a stunt performer on I Am Legend (2007). From there, he was everywhere. Working with Christopher Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises (2012), pulling off wild stunts in Zombieland (2019), and coordinating all over television, if you’ve seen it, there’s a good chance Paguia has been involved in the action in some form or another.

This year, after eight seasons (with a ninth on the way), Paguia has been recognized for his work on FBI. As coordinator, he has been behind the most exhilarating action scenes in the drama of the high-stakes procedural. As he prepares for his first Emmy ceremony, I caught up with Paguia to talk about his career, the difference between television and film stunts, and his favorite stunt he’s ever performed. In a fun bit of life meeting art, Paguia was driving to set while we spoke over Zoom, giving me a little insight into his talents as a driver. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Brandon Streussnig: When did you realize, “I want to do this?”
Victor Paguia: I had a friend in college who graduated a year before me, and he found his way in. When he was describing it, I thought it sounded like the perfect job. I always wanted to be a stunt man. Watching Jackie Chan from when I was younger and trying to emulate him, just goofing around with friends, that was an early inspiration. Then when I learned that it's a real career and a real job that you could actually have, I fully focused all my attention to pursuing that. This was over 20 years ago, so it was before social media and before iPhones. So it was all sort of hidden. You had no idea how to find stunt people or stunt coordinators or anyone who worked in the industry. You just had to put yourself out into the world on your feet and go around.

BS: Since then, you’ve worked across television and film and in virtually every genre. How does your approach to stunt work change from action, to comedy, or drama?
VP: I was brought up in the business being taught that the stunts should help push the story forward and not distract from it. That's just how I learned. Things should feel logical if they're supposed to be logical. It shouldn't come out of nowhere. Sometimes it's disappointing when you're watching something and a character does something that just comes out of left field, unless it's a comedy and it's supposed to be funny or shocking. I feel like even as fun as it is to do the coolest possible move that you can do, I think that almost takes away. You have to push the story forward first.

BS: You mentioned doing the “coolest possible move.” Of everything you’ve done, what’s the one stunt you’ll remember most?
VP: Man, okay. I don't know if it's the coolest, but I'll never forget my first real stunt, where I was on I Am Legend and was playing one of the creatures. I jumped on Will Smith and rode him, or a stunt double, out a second-story window, and we were flipping through the air. That one was really cool. I think some of the craziest stunts were in Zombieland. I was a zombie in that. Some of us rode a Hummer into a lake, which is pretty insane. We were hanging out of it. We were trying to get into the Hummer, attacking the heroes, and they dove out of the car, and we just ghost rode the Hummer off a ramp and into the water, 

Also in Zombieland, I did one where I was attacking Jesse (Eisenberg) from the backseat of his car at the beginning of the movie, and we ended up crashing into a flower shop, and I went flying through the windshield and then through the window of the flower shop and stood up and attacked him through the hole in the windshield that I just made. It was fun because the stunt was pretty unique and kind of gnarly, and also it was just a fun character to play, just playing a zombie who flies through a window and then continues to attack.

BS: Stunt work encompasses so many disciplines: fire rigging, driving, fighting, wirework. Is there an area that you consider your specialty?
VP: What I did the most as a performer was wirework. I wouldn't say that I'm an expert in wires, though. As a stunt coordinator now, I feel like I need to have a foot in every discipline. I came up through an acrobatic background, so I do feel like wires and gymnastics and diving, and that kind of movement is where I feel the most comfortable. When I was a performer, that was definitely my expertise. Since getting into the business and working, I've dealt extensively with fire. I've done a bunch of burns, driving, taking cars off of ramps, and fighting. I didn't grow up as a martial artist, but I've learned a lot about fight choreography in my time as a stuntman. On our show on FBI, I feel like fighting is something we do a lot of. Fight choreography is something that is at the front of my brain.

BS: FBI, which is what you’re nominated for. How different is the approach to stunt work on a television series compared to a feature film?
VP: Generally, when you're on a movie, you just have your sequence, your fight or whatever you're preparing for. It could be weeks or even months out, and you can rehearse, put people into the spot, and tweak and massage things until they’re just perfect. On our TV show, not on all TV shows, but on a network TV show, you don't even know what your stunt is going to be until nine days out. 

You’ll be like, "Yeah, we're doing a fight in a kitchen, and we want to smash a guy through an armoire. Then in the foyer, then he goes into the dining room, and we go over a table,” and you're like, "Okay, great." Then they're like, "Yeah, and this is next week on Tuesday." Then you’re like, "Okay, let's pick some furniture out." So you do that, and that's just the way it is.

If you're coming from the movie world, it may feel a little weird because you're not used to that type of turnaround. You may not be used to that, but that's just the way we go about things. Then you start calling up stunt guys. I'm thinking about this thing that's actually happening next week. The director was like, "Yeah, we want to do this fight in this living room where we smash your armoire, and it goes in the dining room, and we go over a table." I'm like, "Great. Hopefully we cast the actors soon so I know what they look like, so I can find some doubles." We don't know who the actors are. Then they get cast a couple of days out, and I'm looking for stunt doubles for them. So everything is very, very tight. That used to stress me out, but now it's just like, I don't know, you just have to flow with it.

BS: For people who may not know what that job entails, what does a stunt coordinator actually do?
VP: My job is to take my interpretation of the script and the director's interpretation of the script and execute the best possible action for that scene or the story. That means it starts off with discussing what we both envision something to be. Because when you read a script, in your mind's eye, you have a version of what a fight or an argument or a gunfight or a car chase might look like. So we both discuss what we think that thing could be. We scout locations and decide on the best one based on availability and the sequence we want to follow. Then I would choreograph and hire all of the performers. I have to find the performers that fit the sequence. I have my own little world of performers that I hire, direct, and choreograph their action to make the story happen for that one specific stunt sequence or action sequence.