Stuck in Asia, Dreaming of Hollywood  

MAGGIE Q looks calm, or as calm as one can look while clutching the side of a Ford Explorer that is dangling by a tangle of cables inside an elevator shaft. Dressed in black down to her high-heeled Steve Madden boots, Ms. Q, 27, is waiting for the S.U.V. to drop. When it does, the jolt shakes the Ford and Ms. Q with it; dust and bits of gravel drizzle down on her head.

“Do we have more debris?” the second-unit director yells. “We’d like a bit more debris.” On the next take the Explorer drops with a bigger thud, and considerably more debris.

Ms. Q is on Stage 12 of the Universal Studios lot, filming her final scenes of “Live Free or Die Hard,” the fourth installment of the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” series. It looks brutal — the midair stuff, the cranberry-red gash painted above her right eyebrow — but it’s not really. If anything gets too hairy, Ming Qiu, Ms. Q’s wiry stunt double, is ready to step in.