Winnipeg’s Joel LaBelle’s wild ride: stunts, Muay Thai, and skydiving

It’s hard to imagine now, but Joel LaBelle was a scaredy-cat growing up in Winnipeg. 

A self-described “massive baby,” LaBelle tells The Flatlander he was so terrified of everything that he didn’t even like it when grass touched his feet through his sandals. It’s safe to say that LaBelle has since overcome most of his fears. 

Over the last decade, he’s been a stunt performer or driver in episodes of The Boys, Fubar, and See and in the movies The Man From Toronto, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and Shazam, to name just a few of his projects. LaBelle’s incredible journey also included working as a professional skydiver and base jumper, a stint as a mechanic, and competing as a semi-professional Muay Thai fighter. But LaBelle always had one eye on being an actor. 

With the film WhiteOut, LaBelle utilized many of the skills he’s accumulated over the years, and he was intent on using the action thriller to show off his acting chops. In WhiteOut, he plays Anthony, one of three men who escape a Russian labour camp and then have to overcome the treacherous wilderness and each other to get home. 

“I took this for the acting,” says LaBelle. “When I read the script, I was so impressed with what Derek [Barnes, writer and director] had done that I just wanted to help. I just really loved the story and the character. Anthony might be really tough and a hardened killer, but he still has these emotions. I liked that there was more to him than meets the eye.”

LaBelle knows a lot about defying expectations. After getting out of his panic-stricken phase, LaBelle says that he was a wild teenager. He would get into crazy shenanigans while excelling at various sports. At the same time, he was fascinated by theatre and performing, as he watched movies endlessly with his mother. “I did a lot of improv in school. But I also loved cars, so right out of high school, I became a mechanic.”

After working as a mechanic in Winnipeg for a few years, LaBelle realized he needed to scratch the acting itch. He studied theatre and film at the University Of Winnipeg, then moved to Toronto with his girlfriend, now wife, where he took “every freaking acting class in the city.” It was during this period that he built up his persistence. “Acting is so tough. You can be the most handsome man, with a baritone voice, and still be a waiter until 60.”

Alongside attending auditions, LaBelle started skydiving, became a full-time skydiving instructor, and then learned how to do BASE jumping. He was even taught by world champion Johnny Utah Winkelkotter. He then became a semi-professional Muay Thai fighter, being trained by another former world champion, Jerrick Hodge, in Winnipeg. LaBelle accepted an opportunity to become a stunt performer since he wasn’t getting the acting roles he wanted. 

After impressing in the television series Beauty and the Beast, Defiance, and Republic Of Doyle, he was soon recommended for bigger productions. “It just kind of snowballed. It grew and grew.” But while LaBelle started to get more and more screen time, he ultimately got bored of doing “stunt-acting,” as he was being cast to play characters with no lines solely for an action sequence. “Stunt-acting came very easy to me. But I had to stop doing it. I wanted to do more serious acting.”

That’s exactly what WhiteOut provided for him. It also gave LaBelle a newfound sense of optimism. With 2025 already chock full of acting and stunt work — including a Netflix series and the new season of The Boys — he’s got no time to waste, too. “I’ve started to get up really early in the morning now, just so I can work on stuff. There’s just so much s*** that I want to do.”