David Leitch Quotes
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Great actors can transform, but sometimes there's just this person who speaks right to the role. When they walk in the room, you know they're that character. That is something you can't teach an actor; that's something that's luck and chance.
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Fight choreography has far more in common with dance choreography than it does with actual martial arts. You learn martial arts techniques, but those are just the movements for the choreography. You're working with a partner in choreography. You're working on timing.
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Sometimes, the action genre does get stale. Although I want to go back and see my favorite characters in their tentpoles - and will religiously do that - it's really fun to see breakout ideas and concepts. Let's make some new stories.
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Shooting a fight is like shooting any other scene. You have to tell a story using a very specific choreography.
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The thing that I like about action sequences is that if they're done well, you get to know more about the character in those few minutes than you do through 10 minutes of exposition.
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Film is a collaborative art form. I don't know why you wouldn't recognize the stunt performers.
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If you have John Goodman in your movie, you want to use him as much as possible.
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Friends who are directors like Jim Mangold or the Wachowskis or Zack Snyder - who, whether they know or not - have really left a mark on who I am as a director.
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There's a lot of directing within the stunt coordinator's job.
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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.'
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The DNA of 'Deadpool' shouldn't change.
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Even when you're being safe, eight hours of choreography makes you look like you've been through a war. It's hard. It's like playing hockey for eight hours.
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Part of the problem is that many directors treat female characters too often as precious. Or they want to live in a fantasy world where they just do spinning hook kicks and knock out guys who are six foot four, and that doesn't work either.
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A lot of people don't give their audiences credit. You can leave it a little mysterious. They can think about it.
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You can sometimes break rules in comics that you can't necessarily break in cinema. It's fun to find something cool in a comic and then try and find a way to break the same rule in another medium.
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All film, at the end of the day, has wish-fulfillment.
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I think, as a choreographer and an action designer, you're constantly giving your characters problems to overcome. That's what makes it fun for choreography. But it also makes it fun for the audience to see them solve those puzzles and how they are as a human being.
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Take up martial arts and get proficient. Take a sword-fighting class. Dive in and immerse yourself in it as you would any other acting class, so when the opportunity comes, that skill can be really utilized, and it's not half-baked.
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If you're trying to get to the underworld of Berlin, it's not suits and ties; it's rock and roll.
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I find fight scenes actually more interesting, in a way, than chase scenes because you're watching your character go through this problem-solving process and fight the antagonist mano-a-mano. It's more powerful, more emotional.
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There are a lot of big action movies that we've worked on where the attitude has been, 'Let's just get through this scene.' Then you get those jumpy, what-were-they-thinking action sequences.
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I think the biggest thing you take from the stunt world is your understanding of the filmmaking process. For years, you've worked with every other department closely. You know hair, makeup, wardrobe, special effects, and you know what everybody's needs are and their expectations. You also know how to collaborate with them.
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Every movie you attack has its challenges, and I was excited about the challenges presented by 'Deadpool.' I was a huge fan of the original, and I think, as a director, you have to put the script first.
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Stunt coordinating is a good training ground for directing because you have exposure to all the departments in film.