She stood at the top of the mountain in a red ski suit and pink goggles, pushed off, and seconds later disappeared midair, screaming.
That opening crash from the 1988 film “Working Girl,” a comedy-drama about a Staten Island secretary clawing her way up Manhattan’s corporate ladder, helped set the movie’s plot in motion. But the skier tumbling out of view wasn’t Sigourney Weaver. It was Natasha Shuster of Windham.
“They cut the best parts,” Shuster said, laughing.
A former member of the U.S. Ski Team, Shuster served as Weaver’s stunt double for the film’s opening ski sequence. More than three decades later, her connection to Hollywood is less about that brief moment on screen and more about a place she and her husband, Drew, have run for generations: the Catskill Mountain Country Store and Restaurant, which opened in 1994.
What began as a beloved local institution has also become a familiar stop for film and television crews, and a small but visible part of the region’s growing production economy.
In recent years, the store has hosted film and television shoots tied to Netflix’s “Daredevil,” Bravo’s reality series “Next Gen NYC,” and an upcoming Amazon MGM Studios movie, “Clashing Through the Snow,” which is set to begin filming in late February. According to Deadline, the film will star Michelle Randolph, known for “Landman” and “1923,” opposite Christopher Briney of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” “Daredevil” was filmed at the store in 2018. “Next Gen NYC” was filmed in December. And filming for “Clashing Through the Snow” is set for the end of February.
Asked whether the attention still feels exciting, Shuster demurred.
“No,” she said. “It’s a fun thing. But I think what we offer our customers is so important.”
The steady presence of film crews reflects a broader shift across the Hudson Valley and Catskills, which have increasingly drawn productions with major stars and sizable budgets. Film and television projects generated roughly $90 million in regional economic impact in 2025, according to the Hudson Valley Film Commission. That impact extends beyond sets, supporting local jobs, lodging, catering, and small businesses.
Recent productions filmed in the region have ranged from Apple TV+’s “Severance,” starring Adam Scott and Christopher Walken, to “Disclosure Day,” directed and co-written by Steven Spielberg and starring Emily Blunt, and Sunny, featuring Angelina Jolie.
For the Shusters, the arrangement is straightforward. Asked whether allowing productions into their shop makes financial sense, Natasha Shuster, 63, shrugged.
“It’s good enough,” she said.
‘We offer a throwback to days gone by,’ said Drew Shuster, 68. ‘Something that brings you back 30, 40, 50 years.’
But far as film crews drawn to that are concerned, he continued, “We didn’t do it with movies in mind. It was our vision to serve the community.”
Alongside running the store, the couple is devoted to skiing and were back on the slopes this week. Their relationship with the mountains predates both streaming television and Hollywood shoots.
They met at the bar at nearby Hunter Mountain. And Shuster’s path to working as Weaver’s stunt double came through producers who traveled to the Catskills to ski and knew of her background with the U.S. Ski Team.
The rest, as Shuster put it, is history, filmed, edited, and sometimes left on the cutting-room floor.
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.