ATLANTA ROLLERGIRLS
Rollergirl in league championship picked for Drew Barrymore film
Toxic Shocks’ Damita Howard competes Sept. 20, goes for stuntwoman career
For the Journal-Constitution
Friday, September 19, 2008
When Damita Howard joined the Atlanta Rollergirls three years ago, she was enamored by the aggressive roller derby action and empowering female theatricality. Recently her gig as Sk8 Outta Compton for the Toxic Shocks lead her to a theatrical performance of a different kind.
In July scouts for roller derby movie “Whip It!” called looking for a body double for hip-hop artist Eve. The movie, slated for movie theaters next summer, is being directed by Drew Barrymore and stars Ellen Page of “Juno.”
Atlanta Rollergirls Roller Derby League
Pictured from L-R are hip-hop artist Eve, Nikki Hester (professional stuntwoman/one of Drew Barrymore’s doubles), and Damita Howard, who is also known as Sk8 Outta Compton of the Atlanta Rollergirls’ Toxic Shocks team.
rank Mullen / Matteblack
Damita Howard (right) (also known as Sk8 Outta Compton of the Atlanta Rollergirls’ Toxic Shocks team) during a match.
• Photos: Same action, new location for Rollergirls | Rollergirls rematch will decide who's champ
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“It was a random phone call and there fortunately are not a ton of black women that play roller derby,” recalls Howard, a self-employed Candler Park resident. “So the producers of the movie were scouring the nation looking for someone who fit Eve’s measurements and apparently I was the only one that fit the bill.”
Within hours, the single mom had found a babysitter, recruited a fellow Atlanta Rollergirl to oversee her business and planned for a month-long trip to Michigan where the movie was being filmed. And for most of August, Howard was hanging out with the likes of Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon and Barrymore, who is making her debut as a feature director with this movie.
“It’s a weird environment overall and was not as glamorous as anyone would like to imagine,” admits Howard. “We were in a dusty old steel mill that had been closed for God knows how many years. It was really dirty and gross and hot because there was no air conditioning. For people like me who are not real Hollywood people … we had something called ‘The Honey Pot,’ which was a tiny room with a bathroom and a place to sit or sleep. So it was pretty uncomfortable.
“And we would work 15-hour days … and they wouldn’t really want us to do anything until after midnight. Then they’d want us to play full-on roller derby at midnight after sitting there for ten hours.”
As Howard, one of the star skaters for the Shocks, competes in the sold-out Atlanta Rollergirls league championship Saturday, Sept. 20, she’ll be back in a more comfortable setting with little time for sitting and waiting. And while the filming process might not have been as exciting as expected, Howard still had plenty of adventures with her newfound celebrity friends away from the set.
“I actually did karaoke and I’ve never done karaoke before,” says Howard. “They put me in this blonde wig, but I was having a really hard time looking at myself with blonde hair. On the day that [training] was completed we were all going to go out and do karaoke and I decided I had to embrace my hair. So I put on this crazy outfit and went out as Tina Turner and Eve was actually my backup singer. So I had a lot of fun hanging out with them.”
Howard is now pursuing a career in the film industry.
“There’s apparently a market for someone like me in the stunt world, so I’m trying to jump on that train while it’s here. I guess I just happen to hang out where most black women don’t.”
