The stunt woman worked as a mermaid at Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs tourist attraction and had done work with many wild animals, such as a tiger and a bear.
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Backlinie was going after her first movie because she knew Spielberg would be interested in something no other actress could offer.
“If you hire me, you might get close-ups of the stunt itself.” He told the director, “If you hire an actress, she’ll have to cover her face.”
“I went to stunts to find the perfect stuntwoman, and Susan was up to the task,” Spielberg wrote in Laurent Bouzerau’s book Spielberg: The First Ten Years.
