Local Stunt Artist JD Guignard making a splash on the big screen
For 11 years, Windsor’s JD Guignard has been chasing a dream. As a stunt artist, Guignard’s life is one of excitement, but also precision. Risk that is tempered by training and experience. It’s a calling that he lives and breathes and is fueled by his passion to succeed.
Like many people from Windsor, he was raised in a family whose lives revolved around the auto industry—something that he says informed his appreciation for the automobile. Foretelling his story, as a student at Holy Names Catholic High School, Guignard excelled in drama, physical education, media, and auto shop. In hindsight, these disciplines were the building blocks of his coming career choice.
Years later, taking bumps for big time actors, in big time productions, meeting heroes of the TV and film industry like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adam Sandler, and Nick Offerman, Guignard had a mountain to climb.
How did he get from Point A to Point B? Where did he find the drive to do it? “Living a life that aligns with my passions,” he explains. “I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate what I was good at and passionate about to make a living.”
It took a series of steps to learn his trade and break into the industry. Guignard picked up a co-op gig with Cogeco Windsor, working as a studio cameraman, growing his interest in media production, television, and film. In his final semester of high school, he recorded and submitted his first audition tape for the freeride mountain bike adventure/lifestyle series Drop In, filmed in British Columbia. Although he didn’t make the show, his audition tape, filmed at the Forest Glade Skatepark and around Windsor, was widely shared on the internet and led to sponsorship opportunities for him from a company in California. That brand supplied him bicycles, parts, and paid travel to events in New York, California, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Toronto.
“At this point, I knew I was onto something, but I was unsure of how to apply my skills,” he explains. “In the meantime, I worked for the City of Windsor as a swimming instructor, drove a forklift at the Chrysler minivan plant, and fixed bicycles.”
On the precipice of something great, something palpable, Guignard was at the door of the industry, but wasn’t quite sure how to get in.
“I didn’t know where to start, but I started,” he says. He proceeded to create his own short films with his buddies, recording any special skill he thought would be useful on set. “Once I had a reel together, I flew to British Columbia to Stunts Canada’s office and got through security to insist the secretary watch my video. Needless to say, I did not land a stunt gig that day. While in Vancouver, I tracked down a couple film sets and handed out my headshot and contact info out to anyone who would take it.”
After years of keeping his nose to the grindstone, his persistence paid off. After getting his first union acting credit through an Apple commercial, he was granted apprentice membership status with the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). In time, he was hired by stunt coordinator Randy Butcher and handed his first official gig—performing a bicycle stunt in a European Coca-Cola commercial.
“I don’t think I could have been more nervous walking onto set that day,” admits Guignard. “There was a lot going on. The scene opened with a traffic jam caused by a truck flipped on its side, people honking, and it was my job to ride a bicycle between two tight rows of cars when one of the drivers opened their car door in my path.”
His first four credits were for commercials, his fourth seeing him dressed like Super Dave Osborne, sliding a 1967 Triumph Bonneville sideways up a red carpet for an OLG commercial. His next gig earned him his validation with ACTRA, making him a “professional performer” and increasing his visibility in the industry. Shot over four days at the Kingston Penitentiary, Guignard played an inmate in a riot scene on the TV show Mayor of Kingstown starring Jeremy Renner. Many of his early gigs were nondescript characters, but eventually he worked his way into doubling recurring and main characters in various shows and movies.
“It’s usually pretty exciting because you rarely know who you are working with until the night before when you receive the Call Sheet,” he explains. One shoot, he might be doing high falls or driving a fun car, next shoot, he’s getting shot in the head by Nick Offerman and bouncing off the hood of a car in The Umbrella Academy. Guignard is taking it all in, while he adapts and develops his trade. “The set was underground in a parking garage, so the green room was in the corner of the garage,” he says. “I had the chance to converse with Nick and talk about woodworking and just being a human. He is a real one.”
Guignard is continually working on his craft and preparing for his next scene. “Creating a previsualization during rehearsal is like putting together a moving puzzle,” he says.
“Some days you jump off a roof, get into a riot, get shot, take a hit, other days you slide a vehicle or crash a bike into a river; it’s always interesting.”
Guignard is keeping busy and meeting some big names in the industry—being on set with Adam Sandler and Arnold Schwarzenegger, working on an episode of Jared Keeso’s Canadian hockey-comedy Shoresy, and doubling a character for a Netflix show that will likely see light in 2026.
“It’s been 11 years since I started this journey and just over six years that I’ve been doing it professionally; it seems like it’s just getting started,” states Guignard. “There is always room to progress and hone in on different skill sets; that’s what keeps me motivated. Trusting this process has taught me a lot about patience, accepting rejection, and staying the course.”
