As you know by now, Amy Purdy vaulted to stardom on Dancing With the Stars, making the finals in Season 18. That opportunity came hard on the heels of her medal-winning performance at the 2014 Winter Paralympics, which took place just weeks before Dancing went into production.
You might also know that Purdy nearly missed out on both of those big breaks because of a third opportunity—the chance to play Gazelle in Kingsman: The Secret Service. She’d passed the auditions, won the part, and spent weeks preparing for the role with acting coaches and stunt coordinators. But when conflicts arose between the shooting schedule and Purdy’s Paralympic training, the studio gave her an ultimatum: You can either play Gazelle or go to the Games.
She chose the Games and never regretted it. But there’s a lot about that story that she’s never told, most notably the fact that the role of Gazelle was originally written for another bilateral amputee who gained renown in the Paralympics. Only after that very high-profile person became unavailable did the casting team reach out to Purdy.
Frequent Amplitude contributor Diana Theobald got the whole story in a conversation with Purdy, which you can find at Amplitude’s YouTube channel. And in case you haven’t heard, Purdy’s got a new book coming out in April, Bounce Forward. You can preorder a copy at bookshop.org.
