Screen Actor's Guild's McCarthyism on a Stuntwoman
By Jerry Saravia
Leslie Hoffman and Ricardo Montalban in The Naked Gun
Women never get treated fairly in the workforce, a Federal Government known fact. Stuntwomen get treated even worse while the Federal Government, the Producers and the Screen Actors Guild turn a blind eye towards this situation. Still, nobody has been treated with as much malignance as stuntwoman Leslie Hoffman, who has been blacklisted by SAG through its past Members of the Board of Directors, including certain stuntmen who, as stunt coordinators, hire the stuntpeople and the Producers.
I've known Hoffman on the silver screen, as I am sure many Horror Fans do, from her brief cameo in "A Nightmare on Elm Street," the 1984 horror classic by director Wes Craven. She played a High School Guard, who is actually Freddy Krueger as she taunts Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) in a dream sequence with the words, "Hey Nancy, No running in the hallway." Actually, Leslie Hoffman has also had a long run in the movie business as a stuntwoman and stunt coordinator; performing stunts on T.V. series such as "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" & "Voyager," "M*A*S*H," "Emergency," "The Love Boat," "Remington Steele," and many others. Film credits include everything from 1976's "Two-Minute Warning" (her first union job that allowed her to join SAG) to "The Naked Gun" where she did a stunt doubling for Queen Elizabeth.
All these early credits enabled Leslie to become the first Stuntwoman to be elected to the Hollywood Board of Directors of SAG (1981-1985), as well as the first Stuntwoman elected to the AFTRA Local Board and AFTRA National Board. It was with the AFTRA National Board where she and Board Member Howard Caine convinced them to create the category of Stuntperson. These titles, unfortunately, came with more handicaps than perks. From the first day that Leslie was elected to the SAG Board of Directors position, she was vilified, lied to and made to seem as if she couldn't handle the job single-handedly. This was mainly due to her gender, thus she became BLACKLISTED. "Due to the stuntman who was finishing out his term, spreading vicious rumors about me, it seriously compromised my ability to work with the Board of Directors because many of them tainted me. A stuntman was brought in to 'complement me and to help me do my job', which is normally handled by one person," said Leslie during our phone interview. Edward Asner, an actor and liberal activist (best known for playing Lou Grant), was President of SAG from 1981-1985 and did little to help Leslie at all. In fact, "He sided with the stuntmen, conveniently stopping me from helping Stuntwomen and Stuntpeople of Color," said Leslie. "As well as making sure actors were kept safe.“
Leslie Hoffman did her job too well, or maybe a woman doing this job is not what SAG had in mind. What is troubling is that she was elected by the SAG Membership and the Nominating Committee had chosen her as well. What did the Nominating Committee have in mind when they nominated her? Perhaps, the fact that Leslie looked after and spoke out on stunts performed by everyone, not just stunt groups but also People of Color, children and independent stuntpeople, as well as actors. For example, shortly after the "Twilight Zone: The Movie" tragedy that resulted in the deaths of two Non-Union children working past certain designated hours and actor Vic Morrow, Leslie was sent to Sacramento to testify in changing the Child Labor Laws. The California State Attorney wanted a new "Twilight Zone" Law passed that would say “children cannot be near any rotors." Leslie pointed out that it should be specific to helicopters since rotors exist in cars, hair dryers, etc. Considering Leslie was the Chairwoman of the National Stunt and Safety Committee and the Co-Chair of the Young Performers Committee, her expertise in this area of stunts should not have come as a surprise. Yet when it came to Contract Negotiations, the Executive Board went outside the norm by not sending the SAG Director to New York - instead they sent a Caucasian Stuntman.
The truth is that a certain stunt group promoted by SAG did not want Leslie to speak out on anything but stunts. Since Leslie could not be a member of the male-only group, it was an easier to remove her. Rumors were spread among this group and other parts of the stunt community that Leslie had voted against everything this certain stunt group wanted. "If Leslie likes the things that have been going for her with work, she should keep on being Asner’s little girl. Maybe she’s not planning on being a stuntwoman anymore, maybe she’s going to be an actress and then Ed can get her jobs,” explains Leslie. A stuntman dictated these words to the SAG Board Member, who was standing next to Leslie from this stunt group. Asner was made aware of this assault towards Leslie in a letter written by this Board Member, and Asner sided with the stuntmen. This discrimination continued on to the end of Leslie Hoffman's career by certain Stunt Coordinators who never hired her again. This was not due to her lack of professionalism or knowledge in the area of stunts. Her crime was that she was a woman in a male-dominated field.
Such discrimination does not come as a shock to some (though it may to some readers), especially in Hollywood and in an organization like SAG. Consider these facts - SAG contracts for actors often eclipse actresses by more than half. For example, in 1997, SAG contracts for actresses exceeded by 472 million whereas for actors, it exceeded 928 million. This would mean discrimination is alive and well and the Producers and the SAG headquarters do little to stop it. An interesting fact is that since the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) of 1964 stipulated that any Company that received funds from the Federal Government is supposed to investigate any discriminatory acts and correct them. Therefore, the Producers are violating Federal Government rules. Also the Producers and SAG since (at least) 1977 have the following “so-called" affirmative action clause in their contract that stipulates, “When applicable and with due regards to safety, women can double for women and minorities can double for minorities.” This is clearly a statement that a Caucasian Stunt Coordinator must qualify Women and People of Color, but nowhere will one find, in the Codified Contract, that a Caucasian Stuntman must be qualified! This also makes it harder for a Stuntwomen or Stuntperson of Color to advance to the position of Stunt Coordinator.
After 35 years of performing stunts on Big Screen and on Television, Leslie Hoffman started to suffer aches in her neck and her back and some possible mild brain injuries or concussions, primarily from all the falls and fights she performed. First, she filed a Workman’s Comp claim based on Continuous Trauma, and then for Social Security. However, the straw that broke the camel's back came when in 2003, Leslie had the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, which include lack of sleep, aches, depression and a finally a nervous breakdown.
Leslie Hoffman was awarded a settlement in the Workman’s Comp and was considered permanently disabled by the Federal Government so she received SSI, which in turn led to SAG giving Leslie her SAG Pension that she was entitled to for her various years as a stuntwoman. Yet SAG denied her the Disability Health Plan, a well-hidden clause in the Producer-SAG Health Pamphlet that stipulates that SAG members who suffer a career-ending injury while working on the set are entitled to health benefits. SAG denied her health benefits and she has been forced to file a lawsuit against the Plan under the ERISA Act (Employee Retirement Security Act). She has been grossly overpaying on a Health Plan, RX Plan and Dental insurance from different Companies while waiting for the result of the ERISA Lawsuit.
According to Leslie, in July of 2010, an appeal board of no less than 75 people (some were in attendance via satellite uplink) were present to discuss Leslie's Health Plan and if she should receive it. "It was more like an Inquisition," said Leslie. Three of the SAG Trustees shared a past with Leslie. Six were ex-SAG Board Members, one being the Vice President for two of the four years that Leslie served and the other member was an Alternate to the Executive Board. Finally the third member was the stuntman from the 1980's whom the Executive Board sent instead of the Stunt Board Member, and there was a medical expert hired by the Producer-SAG Health Plan. When asked by the medical expert about the paper she had brought in, Leslie had stated that she had certain symptoms from Post-Concussion-Syndrome but that she was not a qualified doctor. This doctor's response to her and the room about Post Concussion Syndrome was a declarative "NO!" followed by a vile laugh (keep in mind, this doctor never examined Leslie). The stuntman, who is clearly not a practitioner of medicine, let out this doozy – “Knowing that you have Congenital Scoliosis, maybe you should have never been a Stunt Woman." Leslie did not have Congenital Scoliosis and had recent MRIs and a Bone Scan to prove it.
Suffice to say, Leslie Hoffman is clearly the victim of a Hate Crime and has been blacklisted by SAG (her last job was as stunt coordinator for a "Star Trek" fan film entitled "Starship Farragut"). Though she is a veteran stuntwoman and an Advocate for all, her own price to pay for her art is being female in an actively though not exclusively male profession, populated by several stuntwomen who never get enough of the credit they deserve. Leslie has tried to tell her story to the NAACP, NOW and ACLU, not to mention various magazines, radio shows and newspapers, and all of them showed no interest whatsoever. Leslie has recently fought for other stuntmen and a woman who were entitled to the SAG Disability Health Plan - she was able to obtain for them reimbursement and disability health plans they might otherwise have not received. Leslie was also featured in an article on another issue that SAG, the Producers and the Health Plan will not address, which is that FICA (Social Security and Medicare) should not be taken out of residuals (“Disabled Workers of the World Unite!” is the article that explains in detail about residuals at http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/2010/11/03/disabled-workers-of-the-world-unite/ ) The irony is that the stuntpeople whom she has helped received their Health plan or reimbursement without having to go through the Appeal Board, whereas Leslie had to. This is clearly retaliation for her Advocacy of more than 30 years. Ever the resilient fighter for justice, Leslie Hoffman is a voice that needs to be heard and reckoned with, for the good of all Members of the Screen Actors Guild. No deaf ears in her hallway, please.
