There are two kinds of network procedural watchers: the ones who watch for the plot and the ones who come for the adrenaline-fueled stunts. And Declan Mulvey and Nitasha Bhambree just spent a few seasons on FBI: Most Wanted giving the latter group everything they could hope for.
Unlike the CGI-and-green-screen playgrounds of blockbuster filmmaking, FBI: Most Wanted shot in New York City proper. Which meant staging gunfire at the Queens Museum. Which meant coordinating a three-car pileup in Manhattan on a Saturday — something that sounds less like planning a stunt and more like planning a coup.
That last stunt was a particularly powerful one. “Our last episode, we had a big, three-bone crash. It’s normally two cars,” Bhambree says. To raise the stakes even further, the script specified Manhattan. “We weren’t sure that it was gonna happen, but we got to do it. And everything looked amazing because of that location. It just worked out so well.”
When asked what they like seeing in a script, the answer is immediate: bigger is better. The only dread comes when something cool appears on the page but ends up in scheduling limbo while negotiations drag. “ The tricky ones were where we get something on the page that we’d be excited about, but then it’d be on again, off again,” Mulvey says. “Then with four days left, they’d be like, ‘It’s a go!’ And then us and effects and locations and the art department, we’d all have to scramble and start getting ready to shoot it.
A post shared by Universal Television on Instagram: “🔥 High stakes. Heart-pounding action. The stunts of #FBI: Most Wanted push the limits with every chase, fight, and explosive moment—bringing relentless intensity to the screen. #FYC for Outstanding Stunt Coordination and Performance. #FYCNBCU“
One of the biggest swings was a full-body fire burn involving a mail truck. A character is engulfed in flames and emerges burning, waving her arms for help. “We hadn’t done a fire burn on the show yet,” Bhambree says. “We were excited.” The resulting sequence earned the show an Emmy nomination for stunt performance.
But the defining moment of their run came earlier, when an ambulance chase was initially scripted to end with an implied crash. “We were new,” Mulvey says. “And I leaned to the producer, Terry Miller, and said, ‘We could flip the ambulance for real.’” The producer paused, asked if he was sure, then said, “OK.” “From there, everybody was like, ‘Oh, we can do this stuff on this show.’ And the next three seasons we were doing ‘em for real,” Mulvey says.
“We paid for it for sure,” Bhambree adds with a laugh. “Every now and then, I’d say to him, ‘This is all your fault!’”
The cast was game to do it for real. Dylan McDermott approached action scenes like a man personally offended by the concept of stunt doubles. “ It would be on us to make sure we pull him back and save him and be conservative with him, because he’s like an action star,” Mulvey says.
“They were all very talented physically, and some of them could drive really well,” Bhambree says. “We got lucky with how much they were able to pull off.”
“ Edwin Hodge, I used to joke if the acting thing doesn’t work out, you could be a stunt man,” Mulvey adds. “He was just awesome to watch.”
The two originally met as NYU students—she studied acting and martial arts, he studied film production—and eventually moved to L.A. to try to break into action filmmaking. After the DVD market collapsed, they returned to New York and found the stunt world opening up just as diversity in casting widened. “Honestly, I didn’t know that I could get into it because, being a woman minority, I just didn’t know that there was much opportunity for me,” Bhambree says. “We were really fortunate that there were some coordinators out in New York who were very diversity-minded, and the industry was changing, casting more diverse characters that I could double.”
Now, after several seasons on FBI: Most Wanted, they’re moving back toward directing with their short film Dual, currently on the festival circuit (most recently FilmQuest in Utah).
In other words: After proving they could pull off the impossible, week after week, Mulvey and Bhambree are ready to flip an ambulance or two for themselves.
Declan Mulvey and Nitasha Bhambree are Emmy-nominated stunt coordinators and SAG Award-nominated stunt performers whose credits include everything from If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and The Penguin to Past Lives and The Blacklist. Their craft services go-to? “Hard-boiled eggs,” Mulvey says. “The perfect food.” And if they needed a little cheat, Bhambree says they turned to peanut butter-filled pretzels. (Also a perfect food, in my opinion.)
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