Stunt doubles

because while the car is wrecked, it's not a crash that I believe would incapacitate those two guys for very long. I wanted to hit the car more broadside, but I also didn't want to kill the stuntman. Ryan with his finger off the trigger again, and now his finger on it. One thing that I read in a review which I'd never picked up on is the notion that we never see cops

21:38 · jump to transcript →

urged to please cut away sooner, and I thought, no, you gotta see the actors get out of the car. And the broken mirror on the car, by the way. But these two guys, Andres and Armando, the one on the right, the older guy, is a stuntman, and the younger guy has never acted in his life. This was his first film.

1:20:42 · jump to transcript →

Doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to guess that not a lot of this was actually Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee. That's the great thing with doing stunt fights with guys with long hair and beards is that you can disguise a stuntman relatively well. I think even the stuntman sustained some injuries from that scene, didn't he? Yeah, one of them cracked their head badly on the side of a trampoline when they were going to land on a trampoline and they fell short and they actually hit the metal part of the trampoline on the back of their head.

50:46 · jump to transcript →

and Elijah was just great. He ran another, what's this jump? Because this is a real jump, it's not a stuntman, it's actually Elijah and he does this huge jump, bang. It looks pretty, it's more dangerous than what it actually looks like because the boat was really floating and floating away and he had to make that huge leap. And what was funny about this night too was the Bucklebury Ferry started to sink and our producer Barry Osborne who has some yachting experience sort of stood on there about three o'clock in the morning trying to explain to the crew how bilge pumps work and we had these hand

56:58 · jump to transcript →

Barry Sonnenfeld

That was his stunt double flipping over. Once he landed... ...we tricked that guy out and Tommy Lee Jones into the shot seamlessly... ...SO it looks like Tommy did that flip.

1:06:14 · jump to transcript →

Barry Sonnenfeld

Will actually did that and went all the way up into the ceiling. Then we took him down... ...and his stunt double, Randy, was dropped into those tubes. But Will did almost all of his own stunts in this whole movie. All of this stuff, Will is on wire, holding on to green bags and stuff... ...being pulled around the room.

1:08:11 · jump to transcript →

The bodies under the water here, of course, are supposed to be fallen soldiers from the battle that was in the prologue of the Fellowship of the Ring, isn't it? It's that same period of history that they've been lying there for about 2,000 or 3,000 years. They're actually really creepy. Yeah, these were silicon dummies that Richard Taylor's team made at Weta. Was this guy real? Yeah, the guy that we're seeing now was a real person. Everybody else is a rubber dummy, but this guy's a stuntman that looked the most like an elf.

45:59 · jump to transcript →

Oh, that's a Peter Jackson moment, the old thing going through somebody. Yeah, well, that stuntman actually broke his leg on that. That was one of the few serious accidents that we had on set. In fact, it was just about the only accident we had shooting Helms Deep was the stuntman that got hit with the grappling hook. He had like a jerk wire that pulled him back against the wall and he just landed awkwardly against the wall and broke his leg very badly on that particular shot. Great shot.

3:04:59 · jump to transcript →

okay, now we'll see the stunt person create the character or continue the character as if it's some sort of station break. It is Charlize all the way through, and I think that's why you get this sense of connection to Eon Flex the way that you wouldn't if we had used a stunt double or had to use a stunt double. Not everyone is as flexible, as athletic, and...

18:44 · jump to transcript →

We also worked with a wonderful second unit director, Alexander Witt, who'd worked with Charlize before on The Italian Job. Yeah. And Charlize and Martin and Sophie worked with him in these sequences. So it isn't as if when Alexander was filming the action sequences, there were stunt doubles.

1:01:17 · jump to transcript →

Patrick Tatopoulos

It's nice when you have actors that can ride horses like that. You don't have to get stunt doubles. New Zealanders are like that. They're tough. That's the blood stuff. Bill loved it. He's so enjoying it. Bill is a very sloppy drinker. - Yeah. And fake blood doesn't taste very good.

57:09 · jump to transcript →

Patrick Tatopoulos

Remember, that was gonna be a much bigger scene too. That's not two stunt doubles. We did this again. That's another one we pulled. So you know that set you're looking at, the underworld of the castle? The underground part is actually the same wall... ...we used to make the canyon at the beginning for Sonja. Now, Patrick, explain this. Some people have asked me what Viktor is holding. I was tempted to cut that out. We built a doll as something he give to his daughter. The only time you see it before that is in the memory. It is there. I think it's just a wide shot. It's also there when he gives her the necklace. Yeah. - But you don't... We haven't been able... At one point, I was ready to lose that. I thought... But it is something he gives the daughter. I have a question here. What is in these barrels? I never quite figured that out. It's kind of like some very special oil... ... from mediaeval time. Like mediaeval napalm or something? What's in those barrels is me going that we have... ...No different kind of... You know, we can't do just swordplay after swordplay. It's some kind of explosion element, mediaeval version. Yeah, we need to have that. I think this scene works great. It's very successful. I love him screaming against the door, there's so much energy there. I tried to have him have a little dialogue moment here. Just didn't work. - No, it didn't work. It just felt totally awkward, so. There's something about them looking at each other... ... that they have a poignant... Now the rain. Pain in the ass, but I think it worked well. It worked very well. Everything that's a pain in the ass looks better. And conversely, everything that looks good is a pain in the ass. All the elements of snow and wind and fire and all that. Remember on the first Underworld... ... you were adamant about wanting... ...a lot of these scenes to happen in the rain. "No, dude, we can't do it. It's gonna be such a--" And you stuck to your guns. Thank God you did. It looked great. Do you remember how much I had to fight for that rain? Yes, I do. When you're on the same set for the entire movie... ... you'd better find ways to reinvent it. And the rain was one way for us to give it a different tone. I just think that something horribly... Just tragic happened... ...1n Richard's life with rain. Did you have the same problem on number one? But it does. It makes everything a kind of a nightmare to... The equipment... - But the result is... Hey, two words: Romania, winter. Imagine if we had had to shoot this in Romania in the winter. But the other thing that you get with the rain is you're able to do.... Have your stunt doubles replacing these primary actors... ... 1M a way so that you really don't even know the difference. I can't picture this in a dry... I mean, this gives such a different energy. Yes. And the lighting on top of that. Just flashes and... All right, next movie I won't argue about the rain, I promise. It's about time, Richard.

1:00:19 · jump to transcript →

Shit. This guy thinks he's gonna beat the crap out of these guys. Anyway, Daniel trained me, guys. I do my fighting in this movie, and I always wanted to do that. I won't say the name of the actor, but I told an actor once, who I like, that I'm gonna do an action movie and that I was training, and he laughed at me and he said, "Why are you training? "They have guys who do the fighting for you." And I was like... I didn't say it to him but I wanted to Say, "No, I want to do the action movie. I don't want to just be in one." You want to put in the work. I want to do what Jackie Chan does, my version of it, the best I could do. So I trained for two years with Daniel, and he took me from zero to wherever the hell I am here. But I do this fight that you're about to see, and I had fun doing it. I had so much fun doing the fight sequences. And there are no stunt doubles except for one shot in the entire sequence. Which is... It's one thing coming from me. It's another when... Our fantastic action choreographer, Greg Rementer, he said, "Ilya, enjoy it because you don't get this ever. "You don't get the dedication. "People just come in and they kind of, you know, Stretch a little bit "and then as soon as it gets a little bit uncomfortable "the doubles run in and do the hard work." It was fantastic that every shot, every action beat was done by you. And furthermore, the fact that, you know, we had to cut, and we wanted to make it a little more dynamic than just a steady camera single shot. But we could have done five, six connections in a row, no problem, without cutting away because you memorized the hell out of this whole thing and trained in this very bus. There were moments when you trained, right? Right before the production and prep? - Yeah, we trained in LA. We had a layout of this bus and we trained for this sequence. It changed over time. For different reasons, it changes. There's Daniel and me, head to head. There he is, the guy who trained me. And he's such a great fighter. He's such a great on-screen fighter, and he's such an amazing guy. An amazing, intelligent, upbeat, hardworking, just one of the best people I've ever worked with, known. And he got me here. What else can I say? I love him and I want to make more movies with him and... Then he gets thrown out of the bus. Our hero.

27:13 · jump to transcript →

Can we just talk for one second about our black Russian? Araya. Araya is a great actor, Araya Mengesha. Yep. And he has a great part in here, and he plays it so well. Now, is he a stuntman? - No. He is an actor from Toronto. Yeah. - A great guy. And I give him a lot of credit because he... When I talked to him, I said, "Look, I want him to be... "I want Pavel, the black Russian, to be speaking Russian "and to sound as Russian as possible." Yeah. - 'Cause he's based on... I don't know how to pronounce it. "Amalgamation"? Yeah. - Of a few Russian black guys that I know. 'Cause, obviously, we don't... You know, we're mostly predominantly a white nation. Right. But the story that Pavel, or Araya, the character talks about how he's the son of an Ethiopian Olympian from the Moscow Olympics. That's all... There's a certain group of people in Moscow or in Russia who were the result of the Olympics. Just people came over, had sex and left. And so these hyper-athletic kids from Olympian fathers or mothers, fathers, they grew up with a very different skin color in a country which... People were not used to that in the slightest. So they had a very, sort of, in a way, great experience 'cause they were getting the right kind of attention. But obviously, with the right kind of attention also comes, usually, the wrong kind of attention. So he is based on a real concept. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said, "Araya, it'd be great if you can, you know, spend some time "and I'll coach you a little bit and let's get the Russian right." And he did. Like, we spent, before recording, you know... Yeah. Twenty minutes a day just going over... - He's fantastic in this. Such a great guy. A joy to work with too. As were all these guys, but... This is a team of people, mostly Canadian stunt people, but overseen by Greg Rementer and Daniel Bernhardt, who did some of the fight choreography, all the fight choreography. Well... -[t was Daniel and Kirk together. Yep. - Well, together. I mean, Greg Rementer is this... What is his title here? -/ think he's both... He's the stunt choreographer and the second unit director. Yes. Anyway, it was a team effort.

48:18 · jump to transcript →

Nia DaCosta

Help! This, we had a really fun rig on Gordon... Wait! ...In this scene, who plays Jonno. And we have the best stunt performers in this scene. They were just, like, so game to throw themselves around, to get tugged around.

24:58 · jump to transcript →

Nia DaCosta

This was so fun to shoot. This... Our amazing stunt performer, who we lit on fire, I think, three times. And the crazy thing about this, which I didn't know, is basically he gets covered... His body... Like, underneath the costume, he gets covered in something that protects him from fire. And then he gets... puts on the costume, puts on a gel that was supposed to light up. And then he wears a mask over his face so that he doesn't, you know, his face doesn't burn off, obviously, and... But he has to hold his breath for the entire time that he's on fire, which I didn't think about. But obviously, you wouldn't want to be inhaling and burning your lungs to shit. So I was so impressed. And I always am with everyone I work with, but especially him being lit on fire three times, I think, on that night, and then three times on this night, to do the shot that's about to come.

48:04 · jump to transcript →

His stuntman was evidently summoned to provide some genuine contact, but sound effects carry Van Cleef's non-contact lows. Rassimov's performance was dubbed in English by Joyce Gordon, the wife of actor Bernard Grant, who has also dubbed various roles for this film. Joyce was also the voice of Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West. This scene was reduced to a single slap in the UK, and Stayed That Way took the film's 1999 video release.

30:34 · jump to transcript →

The stunt coordinator on the film is Buddy Van Horn, a name that will be familiar to Eastwoodites. Van Horn was Eastwood's longtime stunt double, and the men had one of those semi-symbiotic relationships that sometimes occur between leading men and their doubles, the sort of thing that's very much at the center of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Van Horn was the stunt coordinator on all of Eastwood's films from 1972 to 2011.

7:53 · jump to transcript →

Paul Davis

And Jim O'Rourke was Clint Eastwood's stuntman. And when they finished on the movie, they traveled around Spain together, working as stuntmen and English coaches for various spaghetti westerns around that kind of boom that was going on. They worked on Spanish movies, Italian movies, British movies.

0:53 · jump to transcript →

Guzmanic Cesare Reddy, who's a special photographer, still works with me. He's worked with me since Jericho Mile in 79. Kathy Swans does here. Billy McSimmons, a great prime master. You started Billy on this picture. John Latangio, world famous. H.P.Evitts, a stuntman, world champion rodeo cowboy. Robert Beatty, one of the best music editors around. Paul Huntsman, still work with Paul and Bob.

2:03:01 · jump to transcript →

falling uh patty who just pushed the man off the edge was a stuntman i think he was a retired stuntman he's probably the oldest stuntman in the business and he ended up doing so much work on this thing because it was his last chance i think i think that was partly what we were doing giving people a last chance to do something interesting the entire film was basically shot on this one

5:05 · jump to transcript →

Oh, first use of airbags in a film. That's right. Rick Barker was the stunt guy. Rick Barker, yeah. Yeah. Rick Barker, who then was Gary Oldman's stunt double on Sid and Nancy, who went to Nicaragua with him on Walker. Ed Pansulo driving the passenger in the CIA car. Ed Pansulo, this actor, was the roommate of Mark Lewis, the actual repo man with whom I drove around.

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Lea Thompson

Did Eric really do that or was that a stuntman? No, that was Eric. - That makes sense. We almost had a heart attack. - That makes sense.

2:11 · jump to transcript →

Larry, wake up. You're missing this. Larry's not missing a thing. Oh, no! That's not a real person. It's a stuntman. Okay, now this right here isn't going to bother him because he's insane, okay? Yes, nobody's ever bothered when you're insane when you cut your leg off.

54:04 · jump to transcript →

Poor Eddie. Which, again, was a gag that was spoiled in Fango, because it was that shot coming up. Let me just tell you, the stuntman who did this was a famous, very heroic, very athletic little person. Bobby Porter. Bobby Porter. He was the go-to guy. Unbelievable. He did everything. I think he did Annie climbing the bridge in the Annie movie. Planet of the Apes? The Sun? Right there. He was a fantastic stuntman. And...

1:11:25 · jump to transcript →

believable in both areas, like he was. So now we have to see how we do this now. His first, this first fight, because we know now he had to lure him away, and then we will have the first fight. And we were working with Harrison and our Doug Coleman, our stunt double. Yes, not stunt double. He was a stunt coordinator with the guy who choreographed.

42:50 · jump to transcript →

So acting like you can see something when you can't see something. That's great. Was it a practical? - Yeah. We built some wax aliens to blow up for that moment when they blow up. The explosion's practical and the bubbles are real. Everything was really here. Tom was in this underwater - in the suit as well - for a couple of shots. That's a beautiful shot. - How deep was it? 15 feet? In a closed set. You couldn't swim to the surface if you wanted to. The difficult thing about this was that the rehearsals you performed with a mask on and breathing from a breathing apparatus. They were all calm. You were marking what you were going to do in that particular shot. You were gonna swim from here to here. This was your action. When they were satisfied that everybody knew what it was they were supposed to do, there's a countdown from six where you're asked to take six deep pulls of the oxygen. When you get to two the mask comes off. Then you're blind. The mask comes off then so there's no bubbles in the shot. You hold your breath for as long as it takes for them to slate, then start the action. In postproduction we put some noises, some voices, and we recorded the voices in a swimming pool with pipes, like... ...to put the pressure, to feel the pressure. This thing - there was no escape from this. You swam up into that thing. The only way to get out was to swim back down and out. Waiting in the wings would be stunt doubles with hookah masks for us, once the shot was completed, to give you air. In rehearsal you could go longer. It was calm, you were swimming gently. Once you were acting and the energy was up you used more oxygen and there was less time to stay under. Virtually every shot in the sequence you're in jeopardy, so the stakes are high. You're operating on pure adrenaline, which is not the case in a calm rehearsal. And then you got Jean-Pierre on a microphone screaming: "I want to see bubbles because they are making it look like you are afraid." So the bubbles are created by you getting rid of your whole store of oxygen and you're only good for about half of what you were during rehearsal. Made it difficult. I don't know about you, Leland, but I for one ran out of air on five separate occasions. Yes. - And started for the surface. Unfortunately the surface was a ceiling because this is a kitchen set. So there was no escaping it unless you knew where the escape routes were, and since you're blinded and disoriented as to where you are at any given time... I was literally saved five separate times by stunt divers who saw me panic, saw me swim for the surface, saw I wasn't gonna make it, followed me and stuck this thing in my mouth. We each had one assigned to us. I just remember the one time that the guy who was assigned to me that day decided to take a bathroom break during one of the takes. I ran out of air and there was nobody there. Remember? It was your stunt double who gave me... I shared air with you guys. He was so used to saving my life that he was just on guard.

1:11:06 · jump to transcript →

Taylor Hackford

Now he realizes he's got no one. His own wife, who he needs to confide in right now, he finally is ready... ...to come home and talk, she's not there. She's vacant. She's gone. And at this point, the whole idea of this is to take Kevin inexorably towards... ...a decision. In this horrible moment here, of looking at her body... ...completely ripped open, you know, he's thinking she did this to herself... ...she is really crazy. And that was not an easy scene for Charlize to do, obviously... ...but I believed it was an important scene. I don't believe it's exploitative. I think it was important to kind of see that she has been ultimately raped by Milton... ...and finally by her husband. She's got nothing left. And now, in this terrific scene in the hallway at the hospital. She now has a moment of clarity. She's sedated, but somehow there's clarity that comes through. He's putting her into a psychiatric ward, and she's defining why... ...in a moment of lucidity, why this is happening. The fact that, "We both went after it." She's not saying, "You went after it. "We both went after it. Blood money. We drank it on down." That sense of a contract that was made, and a pragmatism, and a sense that... ..."We want success and what we give up for it doesn't matter. We want... "We have no social conscience. We have no moralistic conscience. "We have materialism as our God." I think in this instance, she's admitting it and Kevin still doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to hear it to the point where he's putting her in and... ...putting her in the ice box, as it were. You see the psychiatric ward there, he's gonna have her sedated. She is crazy, but ultimately, he doesn't opt to take her home and deal with her. Instead, he goes to Barzoon's funeral, which is filled with all the power players... ...and all the people from his law firm. Diana Barzoon... ...again, Judianna dressed her in this fabulous outfit, short skirt, hat. "Doesn't Diana look wonderful?" Jackie says. And, Alex Cullen comes with Alessandra, and, lo and behold, Alessandra is... ...no longer that little girl, that little, vulnerable thing. She's quite a dish. And Alex Cullen has been able to seduce the social worker... ...who before was very much against him. Now, Alessandra's sitting between them. And Kevin is looking at this shot. I think, Andrzej's lighting on Alessandra's back is fantastic... ...and there is a sense here that Kevin is starting to see for the first time... ...what was right in front of his eyes all along. Mary Ann, is just, she's beyond help, all right? Jackie's sitting there listening, and then... ...he's sandwiched in between these two... ...members of the law firm's female side. And, you know, I think that the words were particularly apropos here. Looking at the cleavage, looking at that look on Christabella's face... ...realizing this is the allure, this is what you get. You can have all the flesh you want. And he's in God's house. He's listening to this man eulogize Eddie Barzoon... ...and I think Tony wrote a fantastic eulogy here. If you listen to the words of the eulogy, it's very funny... ...because obviously this is a man that did not know Eddie Barzoon. And in the process of Kevin kind of being lulled into thinking... ...and looking at her back and seeing this unseemly hand of Cullen... ...on his stepdaughter's back, he comes up and, lo and behold, he sees Gettys. No special effects here. This is just cutting. You know, he has an apparition. Mary Ann's had all the apparitions 'til now. Now Kevin has one and he realizes, "Oh, my God, what's going on?" Again, is it psychological or is it meant to be happening? Milton's standing in the back of the church... ...and looking at all the iconography... ...around him of the angels. Of course, he's a fallen angel. And this scene, again, out in the street, on Park Avenue... ...is a scene that I particularly like, because when you have expository scenes... ...when you have to get a lot of information out... ...you try to shoot them in ways that are interesting and exciting... ...and not just have two people sitting there. In the scene with Milton and Kevin at the beginning of the film on the rooftop... ...it's of an expository scene, but it's done in such a way... ...you can't take your eyes off of the surroundings and the art direction. In this instance we're on the street and we start moving. Kevin wants to get away. He's panicked. He wants to run as fast as he can from that image of Gettys in the church. And meanwhile, you see Milton, he's in complete control. Vyto Ruginis, who's playing the federal attorney here, is a fabulous actor... ...again, from Yale, and, he was saddled with the horrible task of... ...having to give all this exposition in this scene. But the fact is, by intercutting it and intercutting it with Milton... ...you're getting these pieces of information about the law firm... ...and what Milton's really into, and then intercutting it with... ...Milton's delight at being in church with his former brethren, the angels... ...and playing with them, enjoying it. And in the process of Kevin discovering what's really going on... ...what Barzoon was trying to hide, why Barzoon was possibly killed... ...and inevitably not wanting to hear it, he's a lawyer. "What do you want from me?" He's just a lawyer. All this can be explained by the fact that he's just a lawyer. He's a businessman. He's doing his work. And then what happens in this instance is the federal attorney uses... ...a piece of information that he knows will stop Kevin. He's basically going to lower the hammer right now. He talks about Gettys, the fact that he got Gettys off... ...and now Gettys has killed a young girl. And he knows that will get to Kevin. Look at him. There's a little smile on his face. We're all capable of ego, and as he walks across the street... ...ready to lower the boom on Kevin, he doesn't look. Now how's that for a stunt? That's a real stunt. That isn't special effects. That's a real stuntman taking a hit. And it's one of the best I've ever seen, and I included it in the film without a cut. Basically at this point you can explain this death two ways. You can say that Milton stuck his finger in holy water and caused the accident... ...but I have a certain belief that Milton doesn't kill anyone... ...until they ask for it. Barzoon, if he'd given the watch up, maybe those guys wouldn't have killed him. In this instance, when Peter O'Guiness smiles and walks across, he's guilty of ego. We're all guilty of the ego of sin, the sin of vanity and ego. He has Kevin where he wants and he goes to reel him in... ...and he doesn't look left or right. Kevin goes to see his wife. He wants, again, to try to see Mary Ann, to connect... ...with the person that he can really care about, and what he finds is Judy Ivey. Judith Ivey, Alice Lomax, his mother, has come calling, trying to find him... ...finding out that Mary Ann's in the hospital. He's completely... She's thinking, "Why aren't you there? "Why aren't you at the hospital? What are you doing, Kevin? "This isn't the son I raised." And he comes and sees that his wife is so sedated on Prolixin. Prolixin is the kind of thing that they give to mental patients... ...to just completely knock them down. She's just incapable of communicating with him, or doesn't want to. You can see in Mary Ann's eyes that she really hates him for what he's done to her. And he's now gonna come into the hallway. And, again, these are moments that... ...we're trying, at the end of the film, to explain to you. You've watched the film almost for two hours now, and it's been... ...hopefully, intriguing, certainly mysterious. Now we have to come clear with what the film is really about... ...and who these characters really are. And the characters are not complete strangers to each other. They have had a past. Alice Lomax is explaining to her son that she isn't just the woman... ...that she is purported to be, that she has a past, that his father is not dead... ...that she didn't tell the truth about that. And, in fact, when she walked into that lobby of the apartment building... ...at the beginning and saw Al Pacino, she had an apparition. She saw the man that fathered her child, and she was looking right at him. I think Kevin's reaction here, I think Keanu's acting is wonderful. I think it's very real and I think you realize the pressure this guy's under... ...what he's been through, and everything that's now coming down on his head. I think he did a great job.

1:41:31 · jump to transcript →

I love this game. This is also your stunt. That was me. We had a stuntman do a version of that, but we wanted to use your stunt, which actually wasn't... You bounced. He rolled. I remember first production said, I couldn't do it. And then the compromise was, okay, we'll have the stuntman do one, then you do one, then the stuntman will do one, then you'll do... What was the point?

34:51 · jump to transcript →

Peter Hyams

Inconvenient place, frankly, just to try to milk it. This was a fairly dangerous stunt to have a guy dragging his legs like this. It was a wonderful stunt double for Arnold.

1:42:32 · jump to transcript →

E. Elias Merhige

The interesting thing here is that this is a real stunt. This is where off the side of the mountain we had a stuntman just fall about

54:07 · jump to transcript →

Ted Tally

That was not easy, by the way, because that's a real person on fire. That's not true. - No, it is! lt was a stuntman? - Yeah.

1:18:30 · jump to transcript →