By Tim Rodrigue
LSUalumni.org
Not long ago, Annie Gagnon was turning heads in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Before long, she’ll be turning heads on the silver screen in the soon-to-be released motion picture Stick It.
A three-time NCAA All-American on D-D Breaux‘s LSU gymnastics squad, Gagnon capitalized on her athletic talents by winning the gold medal on the uneven bars at the 2005 National Collegiate Athletic Association North Central Region Championships. She also excelled in the classroom ranking as an Academic All-American in 2003 and 2004.
Aside from her athletic prowess and classroom savvy, Gagnon possesses movie star looks, a combination that has now proven successful in Hollywood for the Montreal native. In Stick It, Gagnon performs the dual roles of a gymnast coached by Jeff Bridges and a stunt double for newcomer Vanessa Lengies, one of the film’s lead actresses.
“Annie had huge skills on the uneven bars and was a gorgeous balance beam worker,” Stick It writer/director Jessica Bendinger said. “We were thrilled to secure such an accomplished athlete for the important dual role.”
The day after returning from a ninth-place finish at the 2005 NCAA Championships, Breaux received a call inquiring about Gagnon for a screen test. Members of the Stick It production team had attended the event and thought Gagnon was exactly what they were looking for. Breaux wasn’t too surprised by the call.
“Annie was attractive to them because she had already earned her degree and there was no question of eligibility being at risk,” Breaux said. “Annie was everything you would want a student-athlete to be. She came to LSU, she saw, she achieved, she grew up and she conquered. She was an absolute delight.”
Truthfully, one of the last things on Gagnon’s mind after being named to the first-team on the uneven bars at the NCAA Championships was gymnastics.
“I was somewhat glad the season was over, and I thought I wanted to take off a month or two from gymnastics,” Gagnon said. “But then this came up, and I talked to coach Breaux about it. I called my mother, and she said I should do it. I realized it was an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.”
Gagnon purchased her own plane ticket to California for the audition and two weeks later was notified she had gotten the part.
The plot of Stick It revolves around a rebellious teen forced to return to the world of elite gymnastics after a run-in with the law. Her outrageous behavior shakes things up at the academy of a legendary coach, and her fellow athletes are shocked and inspired by her unorthodox approach to gymnastics and authority.
Gagnon stunt-doubled for Lengies in all the big competition sequences and even managed to perform her two roles for the film’s climatic nationals meet.
“It was quite an experience, Gagnon said. “In the intra-squad sequences, I had to be myself and Vanessa. Then for the nationals sequence, I would start in one event, then go and change my hair and my leotard and come back as myself.”
Gagnon’s work ethic impressed Bendinger.
“She was like a superhero, switching back and forth and doing twice as much gymnastics as the other athletes,” Bendinger said. “Annie definitely should make the LSU Tigers proud. The realism of all the gymnastics sequences is in large part thanks to her contribution.”
A major change for Gagnon was the fact that a Hollywood gymnastics meet doesn’t follow the same schedule as a real competition.
“That was challenging,” Gagnon said. “When we got to the nationals sequence, I arrived there early in the morning and didn’t really do much of anything all day long. Then at 10:30 p.m. they came over to me and said they would be ready to shoot my vault sequence in 15 minutes. I got a little nervous because vault isn’t my specialty and I was going to have to do it without really warming up. Whenever you’re on the set, you always have to be ready to perform.”
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from LSU last May, Gagnon committed herself to the Devos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She has already begun the program, which provides hands-on experience in the business of sports management.
“I’m happy in Orlando,” Gagnon said. “I miss gymnastics and all the girls at LSU so much, but I follow them on the Internet every week, and I’m trying to keep working out.”
Gagnon said that if Hollywood comes calling for her to appear in Stick It 2, she’d be willing to go in front of the lens again. For now, she’s content with seeing herself on the big screen for the first time.
“It was very surprising to me that I had a chance to do something like that,” Gagnon said of her role. “It was just an incredible experience.”