Jessie Graff: From Husker Pole Vaulter To Hollywood Stunt Double To Celebrity Titan

Jessie Graff sat in her doctor's office late last fall, preparing for stem cell injections that would repair the bulging discs in her neck, the five tears in her right shoulder, the one tear in her left shoulder and the tendinitis and chronic sprains in both elbows.
 
Such wear and tear can understandably result from 13 years of jumping from bridges into moving trains, diving out of exploding buildings and catapulting through crashing windows as a professional stuntwoman in Hollywood.
 
Oh, and that's after Graff spent three years pole vaulting on the Nebraska track and field team.
 
"They were about to drill holes in my hip bones to get bone marrow," Graff said, "when I got the call about 'The Titan Games.' "
 
A producer from the reality television series wanted Graff, who'd already become a star on "American Ninja Warrior," to serve as a celebrity competitor on a similar, obstacle-filled, physically challenging television show, also on NBC.
 
When she received the call, filming for "The Titan Games" would begin in 10 weeks, in early February, but Graff would need at least eight weeks to recover from all of those stem cell injections.
 
"It was this incredible 20-minute conversation with the doctor and the producer of the show, trying to figure out what we were going to do," Graff said, "because I'm very vulnerable with all of these injuries going into a totally new sport."
 
The revised plan: Graff would receive injections in her neck only, which meant she could begin major lower-body strength training in about a week, and at four weeks could do full upper-body strength training. The more lower-body training, the better, because "The Titan Games" would challenge Graff more in that area, whereas she'd already built upper-body strength.
 
Graff hired new trainers and started rebuilding her body to focus more on endurance – she had never done any sport that required full effort for more than 2 minutes – and she met her goal of appearing on "The Titan Games."
 
Season two, with host Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock," will premier May 25.
 
"I've always loved challenging myself in different things," Graff said, "but this was a really big opportunity for my career, and to work with 'The Rock' and with these producers, it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down."
 
Graff most recently worked as a stuntwoman on "Wonder Woman 1984," a movie that will come out in August, and has previously worked in movies including "G.I. Joe," "Transformers," "Die Hard," and "The Dark Knight," as well as being a recurring double on television series such as "Supergirl," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," "Leverage," "Hawaii Five-O" and others. She has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a black sash in Kung Fu.
 
Graff made national headlines in 2016 when she became the first woman to clear stage 1 and stage 2 of "American Ninja Warrior." She is the only woman in the world to have achieved that same feat in Japan in both 2017 and 2019. She is best known for competing and ranking among the top six MEN in all of her last five regional finals competitions.  


 
Although she jokes the strength level and challenges in "The Titan Games" made her feel like an amateur, Graff's resume certainly qualifies her to serve as one of six celebrity Titans, a new feature for season two of the series.
 
The first season featured only amateur athletes from the professional world, which revealed how they matched up with their peers. But it didn't gauge their success against the pros.
 
"You see these professional athletes," Graff said, "and you know how high of a level these athletes are."

Graff didn't know when she began filming the series that two of the amateur athletes in the series would also be former student-athletes from Nebraska. Former softball player Jaime (Borg) Seeman and former track and field athlete Chantae McMillan made the final cut as competitors from the everyday professional world.
 
"Isn't that crazy?" Graff said. "We were all very surprised."
 
The celebrity Titans and other competitors had no contact except for on the actual course, so not until the midway point of the weeklong filming did Graff make the connection with Seeman and McMillan.
 
Celebrity or amateur, Graff found the obstacles quite challenging.
 
"The competitors on this show and the types of challenges that we face require very heavy lifting," Graff said. "I think most of the women on the show can squat double what I can. So it was like this big challenge. How can you build as much strength as possible in 10 weeks, also knowing the first 2 weeks that you have to be super careful of your neck?
 
"The thing that is so incredible is that by training in such a different way, I'm able to stabilize my shoulders and decrease a lot of the pain that I've been having. A lot of the pain was coming from overtraining the pulling muscles and not building enough pushing muscles. It puts my shoulders out of alignment, which makes them more vulnerable to injury."
 
Of course, for a person in Graff's profession, such a concept isn't new.
 
"I take advantage of every injury to improve some other skill," Graff said. "The whole reason I got into 'American Ninja Warrior' was because of that knee injury where I needed to train upper body. Because I was staying off my legs, I picked an upper body challenge, and it changed my life."
 
Graff is referring to an ACL injury in which she was able to return to stuntwoman action sooner than later. When offered a stunt job, Graff explained she couldn't do anything with her legs.
 
"They were like, 'Oh, that's OK, all you have to do is a handstand and fall flat on your back.' I was like, 'You don't even need me to walk?' And they were like, 'Nope.' "
 
So she went back to work at six months post-ACL surgery.
 
"It's just a matter of finding out what you can still do without re-injuring," Graff said. "I am very careful. I'm protecting what's injured. I'm not taking stupid risks."
 
For example, after doing "The Titan Games," Graff completed the rest of her stem cell implants -- eight injections in her neck, eight in her right shoulder, four in her left shoulder and one in each elbow – and is currently recovering.
 
Yet, depending on the requirements of the job, Graff could potentially return to work immediately. She can't do back handsprings or heavy boxing or throwing, but kicks and flips would be OK.
 
"I shot a video with a whole bunch of back flips," she said, "because I'm kind of an expert in how to continue performing around an injury without aggravating that injury."
 
Graff, who grew up in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, described herself as a "shy" kid when she came to Nebraska. She had earned straight A's in high school, and the first B's she ever received, in theater, initially rattled her, given, in part, that was her major.
 
"They said it was because I was too stoic and controlled," Graff said. "It was like I didn't know how to be vulnerable and expressive. It challenged me to learn how to get more in touch with my feelings and to be able to cry and be open and just expressive."
 
That, Graff said, turned out to be a very important learning tool in her career.
 
"It's allowed me to get actual acting parts that involve stunts," she said. "If I hadn't majored in theater and gone through that experience, that wouldn't have been an option for me."
 
After those B's, Graff went back to earning straight A's, while also competing in pole vault and making multiple trips to Los Angeles to learn about gyms where stunt persons train. She made a binder of contacts she had met.
 
"The day I finished my last final, my car was parked right outside so that I could drive straight to L.A.," Graff said, "and I started my job at a gymnastics club the next day, and I was already signed up for all the gyms where the stunt people trained."
 
She worked out 5-8 hours a day, going from one gym to another, learning stunt skills from various areas so that she could network and also learn skills she would need until landing her first job.
 
"It's all I've ever hoped for," Graff said.
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.