Donna Williams, who lives near Bury St Edmunds, is a former Millennium dome trapeze artist and TV Gladiator and now a stuntwoman and Masters champion cyclist
Donna Williams, who lives near Bury St Edmunds, is a former Millennium dome trapeze artist and TV Gladiator and now a stuntwoman and Masters champion cyclist
Why have you chosen these clothes for the photoshoot?I don’t often get the chance to dress up, so this was a nice reason to put my glad rags on. When I was filming Gladiators, I had a few press parties to attend, so I and two fellow ‘Glads’ had a girly shopping spree and bought several outfits. It was a real Pretty Woman scene, we spent several hours trying on the whole shop, which was great fun. This is one of my purchases. Are they typical of your day to day wear?Not at all, you’ll normally catch me in some kind of training attire or casual surfwear-style clothes to relax in. If money was no object what would you wear?I like being comfortable in what I’m wearing, it makes me feel more confident. So I’d probably buy the contents of Roxy, Quicksilver, Animal and other surf shops. Plus lots more training clothes like Nike and USA Pro. What’s the most outlandish thing in your wardrobe?Apart from my Gladiator outfit, I also have a large selection of very small costumes I used to wear to perform on a trapeze at Manummission in Ibiza. These are quite wild, not the sort of thing I’d wear to the in-laws for Sunday dinner. They range from tiny tutu skirts to full feathered costumes! What do you usually wear for your cycling/stunts?I wear proper padded cycling shorts and jerseys for my cycling. When I race on the track I get to wear a rather fetching all in one skinsuit and one of those pointy long helmets. As for stunts, it can be anything from a very uncomfortable corset and layers of big skirts, full body armour on the battlefields to modern day clothes depending on the film. The most interesting look I had was on a horror film where I was covered in mud and blood from head to toe. It took about a week to get clean. Where do you buy your underwear?I buy most of my underwear from Palmers in Bury St Edmunds. They do a really good selection from Triumph to La Perla and make sure it’s fitted properly which is really important. Do you judge people by their clothes?No, I don’t judge people by what they wear. I often dress down and look quite scruffy myself and I wouldn’t want people to judge me, so why should I judge others in that way. Do you have a style role model?I like the way Cameron Diaz dresses. She always looks amazing in the most casual outfits. I like it when women look good but in a really natural way, without looking as though they’ve made too much of an effort. Who cuts your hair?Michelle Cooke at Flair Salon in Bury St Edmunds. I’m terrible at remembering to get my hair cut. The salon is at the gym I train at, and I tell Michelle to keep an eye on me and book me in whenever it’s starting to look a bit worse for wear. I need to keep it fairly long for filmwork so I normally just get the ends snipped off. Do you have an exercise routine?I train twice every day, with a morning sprint session on my bike and a recovery ride later in the day for an hour or two. I also do a gym session involving a 30 minute abdominal workout and weight training for my upper body. For stunt work I keep my gymnastics up to scratch and fit in kickboxing and horse riding when I can. At the moment, cycling has taken over with full time training for the Elite Nationals Track Championships.
