She posed with soccer hunk David Beckham for Samsung and showed the world she could trampoline in her underwear on the roof of a 30-story building, but Hawaii’s Kiralee Hayashi displayed her best moves this year as a butt-kicking vampire in the blockbuster finale of the "Twilight" movie series.
The Punahou graduate and champion gymnast performed as Kristen Stewart’s stunt double in the two "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" films, with the final and best-reviewed installment still generating box-office heat after opening last month.
Hayashi, who returns home this week for a holiday vacation, spent five months in 2010 working in a converted warehouse in Baton Rouge, La., on stunts for the spectacular battle sequences. Look for her in any scene "where Kristen is remotely violent," she said by phone from Los Angeles, where she now lives. "And there’s so much stuff that didn’t end up in the film. … It will probably be in the DVD extras."
Much of the Louisiana filming was done against green screens amid a man-made landscape and fake snow to allow for computer-generated effects to be added later.
After sitting for makeup, wig and wardrobe sessions that transformed her into a likeness of Stewart’s character, the ferocious vampire mom Bella, Hayashi spent hours suspended from wires and swooping in attack mode against the murderous Volturi vampire coven.
"There were a lot of midair collisions," she said. "You’re being launched into the air."
Unlike the precise, balletic choreography used in martial arts films, the action in "Twilight" was done in a more savage, primal style befitting a blood feud involving vampires and werewolves.
"There’s a lot of hitting the ground. You’re always taking a hit and landing on your back. You want it to look violent," she said.
Bumps, bruises and broken bones are nothing new to the 5-foot-2 Hayashi, who experienced her share of injuries as a top-flight gymnast with the Kokokahi Gymnastics Team and the University of California at Los Angeles.
"Even on ‘Twilight’ someone landed on my thumb the wrong way, and it was dislocated. I popped it back in, had it wrapped and went back to work," she said.
"I can’t even count the number of bruises I’ve gotten when working on movies. Whether you’re hitting the ground or getting hit by a person, you’re getting hit. People are flying, things are flying."
Hayashi said she thought she was done when the "Twilight" film crew moved on to Vancouver, and was surprised to get a call "from Kristen’s team" asking her if she would continue as the star’s stunt double.
"Kristen put in a good word for me. She fought to keep me," Hayashi said.
The call meant almost two more months of shooting, this time outdoors in the Canadian wilds.
"It was really cold," she said.
In one scene, the stuntwoman recalled, "I was hanging in the middle of a forest in a tree on wires in this blue dress, and it started snowing. And it wasn’t supposed to be snowing, so the crew waited around. When they realized it wasn’t going to stop, I finally came down and I was shaking.
"But it was a great experience."
Hayashi returned to the "Twilight" set in Vancouver earlier this year to reshoot some scenes.
"It was amazing to be able to work on such a big franchise and to spend so much time working on it," she said.
GYMNASTICS, not Hollywood, was the focus of Hayashi’s life until just a few years ago. She started with the Kokokahi Gymnastics Team at age 3, and after graduating from Punahou School in 1995, she was highly recruited and landed at UCLA, where she became a multiple all-American and national champion before vaulting into the world of advertising and entertainment.
"We were in L.A., and a bunch of gymnast friends who were doing commercials took me under their wing, and some agents picked me up and I started off with print work and commercials for Nike, Puma, Target and Gatorade," she said.
"Then one day my agent called me for a stunt audition for ‘Daredevil’ as the little-boy version of Ben Affleck."
The main stunt involved "surfing" down a wire from one rooftop to another.
"I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ I was pretty clueless. The fear factor didn’t come into my mind."
(The stunt coordinator on the movie was responsible for hiring her for "Twilight: Breaking Dawn.")
Thanks to her athleticism and cosmopolitan beauty (Hayashi is of Japanese, Portuguese, English and Irish descent), she’s made a career of a mix of stunt, print ad and commercial work that has taken her to such far-flung locales as London, Japan and Argentina.
Hayashi became a viral video sensation in 2008 as "the Gatorade ballgirl" who leaps up a left-field wall (with the help of wires) to make a spectacular catch of a foul ball at Fresno’s Chukchansi Park. The video, produced to resemble footage from an actual pro baseball game, sparked a lively debate over whether it was real and was shown on "Good Morning America," ESPN, "Ellen" and other shows. It has been viewed several million times.
Earlier this year she shot a Samsung ad with Beckham for the London Olympics. ("He’s very personable," she said.)
Hayashi also was spotlighted in a major ad campaign to re-brand Fruit of the Loom apparel for a younger, more fit market. A commercial that premiered during televised coverage of the Olympics opening ceremony shows off her well-toned body as she does a slow-motion back flip with the Los Angeles skyline as a backdrop, and in another she’s seen with other athletes and dancers.
Hayashi said the spots are her favorite work so far.
"I thought they were just so beautiful. Everything, the song they chose, even the filming," she said. "We waited until the sun was going down; it was twilight when we were shooting. Everything turned out to be magical."
She also doubled for Mila Kunis in "The Book of Eli," starring Denzel Washington, and appeared in "Balls of Fury" with another Hawaii actress, Maggie Q, and in "The Green Hornet" with Seth Rogen.
More recently she had a role as a shooting victim on the CBS hit show "NCIS: Los Angeles."
Although Hayashi was happy for most of her career in her role as an anonymous stuntwoman — "As a stunt person you’re there to make (the stars) look good" — she is ready to emerge into the spotlight. She has been studying with noted acting teacher Larry Moss, who has worked with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Hilary Swank, and is hopeful something will develop for her as TV producers start casting for pilots early next year.
And how about a role on the isle-filmed "Hawaii Five-0"?
"That would be great if I could get on that show, since I’m actually from Hawaii," she said.
In the meantime, Hayashi will be enjoying time off this week at home in Kailua with her parents, Patrick and Lanette Hayashi. She plans to "eat a lot of good food, go to the beach and relax."
"I’ve got a great career going, but nothing beats going home to reground myself. The energy of Hawaii is something you can’t replace. It feeds my spirit to come home and feel that energy and fill that tank."
