Meet Colleen Pace, Soap Maker and Stunt Double for Movie Stars
HALIFAX — Not a lot of people know about the incredible career of Colleen Pace. She doesn’t brag about her unique stories or the famous people she’s worked with. On top of that, she lives completely off-grid, in a 200-year-old, 100-acre property outside of Halifax.
The owner of Soap in Your Mouth defines herself as a bit of a recluse, so she doesn’t get many chances to reminisce.
But it wasn’t that long ago that Pace was getting stabbed in a bathroom by Pierce Brosnan, using toy cars to coordinate a chase with Robert Forster, and routinely getting into brawls with the likes of Kristen Bell and Kirsten Dunst.
For nearly 15 years, Pace was a stunt double and stunt driver for movies filmed in Nova Scotia. Her IMDB page list 20 titles between 2001-2014. But the online resource rarely tells the whole story of someone’s career, and Pace says she was in even more movies than what is listed online.
Pace was barely 20 years old when she first entered the stunt industry. She had a fascination with stunts for years, ever since she saw the modern classic Terminator 2. She was able to break into the industry after meeting someone who owned a movie stunt company.
“First of all, I was obsessed with anything to do with stunts,” recalled Pace. “I loved that dangerous stuff. I met Randy Boliver and he was looking for somebody who was really small to be able to do stunts for small women or children, mostly boys.”
By incredible happenstance, Pace’s first job was a Disney movie called Bailey’s Mistake, starring Linda Hamilton — the reason why Pace became so obsessed with movies and stunts.
“I was obsessed with her when I was a kid, because of Terminator 2. She was the first woman I’d ever seen in film doing pull ups,” said Pace. “And now, I’m here doing lines with Linda Hamilton. And I’m up on a chimney pretending to be a boy that’s pretending to fly and run away. I’m still getting residuals for that. But it wasn’t a great movie at all.”
But, as is typical in the movie industry, Hamilton didn’t have the same personality as Pace had imagined.
“It was really different because it’s not like we’re going to have long conversations. I’m in work mode; she’s in work mode. She was different than what I thought she was going to be, which most actors are,” Pace recalled.
Bailey’s Mistake was a trial by fire for Pace. She quickly learned that, if she was going to be a stunt double, she couldn’t get to attached to her hairstyle. Since she was stunt-doubling for a boy, her long, brunette hair had to be chopped off.
She also learned that stunting puts you at risk of injury — sometimes for the silliest reasons. On the set of Bailey’s Mistake, she was given the boy’s shoes to wear, which were two sizes too small. When she asked for size 7 shoes, Pace was told the size 5s were all they had on set. Being new to the industry, Pace chose not to complain and just put up with it. This would lead to a broken toe requiring surgery.
“Now, anybody who has experience in the industry would say ‘No, you’re going to have to get me proper shoes,’ but I didn’t want to lose my job. I just thought I had to do it. I was so young, like 20 years old. So, I curled my toes. I broke a bone in my big toe on the side of it. I had surgery and it’s really never been the same since.”
Dangerous situations are, of course, the norm for stunt doubles and stunt drivers. That’s why they are hired- so the big movie stars are not put at risk of injury. And Pace faced her fair share of these scenes. She described her days on set as “six hours of boredom, two minutes of terror.’” She recalled doing a pivotal scene for the series Haven, which was famously filmed in Nova Scotia.
“I did the opening scene for Haven. I drove off a cliff, so that was a very dangerous stunt. First, I’m just barreling down the road. I hit a guardrail and then the car flies up and crashes. But when this happened, all the fluids flew out of the car. And at that time, people were smoking on set. So, they’re screaming.”
And anyone who spends enough time as a stunt person will, eventually, be set on fire. This was something Pace did not enjoy doing.
“I was in a movie called Finding John Christmas and I was a boy in a burning building,” recalled Pace. “My whole body was covered in this Zel gel, which is fireproof. And you must be cold. All your fireproof clothes must be ice cold. So here I am freezing in a burning building. And then when the firefighter stunt guy picked me up and carried me out, my arm was dangling and it smacked against the doorframe and it took the gel off my hand, so I got burned.”
“I’ve been through fire a few times, but yeah, it’s not fun. I don’t like that.”
One of Pace’s favourite memories came on the set of a Mariah Carey movie called WiseGirls, where she was the stunt double for Melora Walters. The actress was so impressed by Pace’s work that she gave her a gift at the end of the shoot.
“I mimicked her voice so good… She had such a weird voice. It was so squeaky. Afterwards she gave me a huge basket of flowers and soaps and stuff. So that’s the first time an actress actually gave me gratitude for helping them out.”
She also found out that Mariah Carey is a big fan of her own music.
“She used to have this little ghetto blaster. It was pink and she played her own music, walking around on set,” Pace remembered.
But perhaps the best thing to come out of her career is that it introduced her to Kyle McNeil, who is now her life partner. Pace was invited to a stunt party. McNeil was there because he was doing stunts for the criminally underrated horror show The Mist. The two met there and the rest is history.
The couple are also business partners. McNeil is a boxer who also founded the boxing events company, Real Deal Promotions. Pace is the vice president for the company, taking on the heavy responsibility of marketing.
She is also a talented musician, especially when it comes to being a pianist and singer. Over the years she has recorded and published original songs.
But her main business, Soap in Your Mouth, was started ten years ago. Being a soap maker may not seem like a natural transition from stunting in movies. But Pace is a person of many passions and interests.
“It just so happened that I was just looking for something that I could control. I just started becoming really passionate about it. I want to make soaps and bath bombs. Mostly bath bombs that smell insanely good, but it’s also healthy for your body and it’s just not loaded with a bunch of chemicals. So, I just researched my brains out and then just went for it.
“I had a brick-and-mortar store down on Argyle Street. But then when they closed the street to do this whole one-way traffic thing, it just it shut me down because people couldn’t access my store. So, everything that I do now is just all online.”
Despite being busy with her various projects and ventures, pace says she is still open to doing stunts in more movies if the opportunity arises.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].
