Tom Arnold and I, we have a huge firefight scene on top of a German tank. I get to shoot 50 caliber rounds. We shoot a helicopter out of the sky. That's the only fight I'm in.
Well, for me, the real excitement of doing physical things in films, whether you're talking about a fight scene or a stunt sequence or even a love scene, for that matter, is by necessity it has to be choreographed very much like a dance. That being said, you have to rehearse it over and over again and find a mathematical precision.
I'm such a private person, and sexuality is such a private thing. A sex scene is much harder than a fight scene. It's one thing to say, 'Kick higher,' but 'Kiss harder' - that's just crazy.
You can have the most emotional moment as an actor, ever, and many people would be like, 'Okay, cool. What's next?' You land one punch in a fight scene, and everyone is like, 'Yeah!'
What was Bruce Lee like? How did you meet? What was it like to choreograph the fight scene in Rome with him? Did you spend much time together off-screen? Those are a small sampling of the inquiries I'm asked often, wherever I go around the world.
I had written in another draft a completely different kind of fight, but they said they couldn't afford to shoot it. They needed a fight scene, though, so I was told to put a fight scene in, but not the one I had written.
A fight scene with a crazy can be quite physical. You don't feel it while you're acting, but each day you go, that hurts.
The vehicle-stunt world is so specialized. But when you spend so long in it as a stunt coordinator, you're exposed to all the disciplines, so it's always fun to combine the two ideas - a car chase and a fight scene - and make something more dynamic.
Choreographing a fight scene is telling a little story. You learn a lot about the characters involved.
You always start a fight scene or an action scene with, 'What are we learning about this character at the moment, and how are we gonna arc him or her in the next three minutes,' and it's no different with 'Deadpool' or 'Atomic Blonde' or 'John Wick.'
