Original subtitles

Monday or Tuesday, I felt pretty bad.

And then I guess we're all positive.

So, we just pretty much wiped out the stunt team.

So, what are we gonna do?

It's kind of... It's...

We're kind of in trouble right now, I'm not gonna lie.

The stunt team all tested positive this week for Covid.

This is a pretty brutal blow to the production right now.

So, is there any way

that we can get some training going for him?

I mean, Wednesday

was supposed to be the start of the action stuff.

Maybe... Dave could probably do some stuff.

Yeah, I can walk him through the fights.

I don't mind doing that.

Jojo's been a part of my team forever,

and I've done countless movies with him

and he's never gone down.

So, it's a big blow.

But let's just get them healthy and we'll pinch hit.

So, the plan will be

I'll walk him through the fights.

We got your back. You've been doing great work.

So just rest and get better and we'll figure it out

and we'll be back on the rails hopefully in a week.

- Five days. - Yeah.

We need to start choreographing.

So, we should walk these guys through it

so I have some bodies to fight.

I wish we could just call and say,

"Bring in another five stunt guys."

But it's not that plug and play.

Choreographers are unique and specific

and especially for 87North, we curate the people

that understand our style and sensibility.

It's our brand. The buck stops here.

Producer's gotta step in

and choreograph and train the actors.

We'll just start with the basics.

Left, right, right. Goes to here. Comes up.

Boom, boom. He's a righty.

Down, up, down.

Should be, like, punch him once, punch another one in.

Then he grabs the arm.

My particular producer skill is this.

And action.

Understanding physical production,

but also for action movies.

Bam, bam. Duck, smash him in the face.

And now he's really pissed.

I mean, actually, it's fun for me.

Throws the bag at him.

He reaches in, grabs the golf club.

- "Oh, great!" - OK.

"Merry Christmas to me."

You know, he's a big time... He's a producer-director,

but he's going back in stuntman mode.

So, you know... If he wasn't there, we'd be screwed.

One more time, and then we'll walk through the whole thing.

Let's give him a hammer.

So, you're gonna hit once, and then pull through.

Hit once and then pull through.

Great, David, great.

Ready? And action.

Boom! Hey. Tink.

Upper cut on this guy.

Boom. Baseball.

I need to practice this.

Boom! Bang!

It's one of those things where he was forced to step in,

but as much as his body may not want to do it anymore...

he just loves doing that stuff.

Turn, star.

"Holy shit. He stabbed him with the star."

Guy falls down. Santa's like, "Oh, my God."

That's really what he's built to do.

So, yeah, he had I think as much fun as I did.

So, one, two, one, two.

-One, two, one, two. -Two.

Boom, stop. Now on twist.

So, you just have the same thing. You just hold the...

You did your footwork. But swing through.

Two.

-Right? -Yep.

The fact that David came in and took over and helped us,

training the actors,

and preparing action, was...

I mean, he rescued the project. It was essential.

Action.

There it is. That was it.

He could have said, "No, I'm the producer.

I'm not stepping down and helping."

No, he said, "I'm here to help the project.

It's my project, it's my baby

and I'm going to help you guys." And he did.

Boom!

That's it!

I've been staying in here for pretty much 11 days,

but the last three or four days,

I've kind of started feeling normal again.

And yesterday, tested negative.

And I'm clear to go back to work today,

which is awesome cos I'm getting stir crazy in this place.

OK.

Jojo is obviously feeling the pressure,

and he's gonna feel it through the rest of the shoot.

You know, I think the key

to doing these smaller-budget movies

and having success is all in the prep.

It's now all stacked on his shoulders

and he's gonna have to be doing it

while shooting the movie.

So, good luck.

Hello. We're back.

♪ Oh, happy day! Oh, happy day!

Where's my hug?

-Contagious. Contagious. -It's OK, baby.

-Oh, my gosh. -Don't be shy.

Oh, look! Yeah, I missed you, too.

-Good to see you. -Good to be back.

All right. Good to have you guys.

-Long time no see. -Good to see you guys.

-Yes. Welcome back. -Good to see you guys.

Thank you. Let's get to work!

Let me look at this calendar.

There's been changes to certain things I kind of heard about.

So now I have to catch up

because I have to adjust to those changes.

There's so many moving parts in a production.

Once that train's going,

it's not stopping until it gets to its destination.

So, if stunts is behind, then we're gonna work extra time

to kind of catch up as best we can.

-Guys. -Yes.

Three, two, one, action.

Three, two, one, action.

Straight into the camera, directly. Yeah. Ba-ba-ba-ba!

Boom! Boom!

Time is everything. Time is everything.

And we were compromised

because we all had to stay at home for two weeks.

We weren't able to sit with Jojo and talk about the choreo.

No, no, no. You gotta see the stomps.

You know what I'm saying? You gotta make it violent.

Thank God the producers, again,

because they're aware of what action means

for such a movie, it is essential.

Dave and Kelly were like, "No, we wanna make it work."

And they made it work. They pushed the schedule around

and they found a solution for us.

Cut. We're good.

You know, I've had other roles,

but I've never had an acting role this big.

They put this together.

It's in pieces right now, but it's gonna look great.

That's awesome. I haven't even seen this part yet.

So that's the idea.

For this role, they had me cut my hair

and dye it super-blonde.

I remember, like, my first job ever,

I was a main double and I didn't even have stunt pads,

I didn't have a harness.

I had nobody around me to even explain what's gonna happen,

and what I need to become a successful stunt performer.

And that's the look.

-OK, let's photograph it. -OK, let's do it.

Um... Mm.

I feel like I have

a really great opportunity with this movie.

All right, soft rubber gun.

-Yep. He told me. -There you go.

You know, I really don't see myself

doing anything other than stunts,

but I'll tell you, this role is huge for me.

Just hold this tension right now.

And she gets dropped into that bridge.

Yeah, I just... It was good. We'll do it again.

This is my Home Alone sequence where Trudy's gone to the attic

and she's set up all these booby traps and whatnot.

She's gonna try and take me out.

Look at this little idiot.

You know, booby traps don't work unless you hide them.

You little moron.

Jesus! Shit!

You'll be fine. Sit tight. I'll be back.

We're gonna have to kill this little piece of .

All right. Cut.

Cut. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

OK, one more of those. That was great.

-Beautiful. Whoo! -Nice.

Nice.

Doing stunts is my career.

That's what I love doing.

But I never get to do action for myself.

I'm always doing it for everyone else.

I get to make everyone else look badass but myself.

So you're gonna look down like they just fell down

and then you hear a sound.

- OK, more time. - Yeah.

And action. Get it.

Back.

-And cut. -Cut. Cut.

When it's acting for me, it's different.

It's not like physically straining or anything.

It's a lot of fun and I get to play around.

Let's go to her end mark. Lower tension, lower her down.

So let her down more. That's her mark.

With stunts, there's absolutely a timeline.

You don't wanna be hitting the ground at 50 years old.

Go.

Go.

Go. Go.

This is, like, something I've been praying for,

to be in a position like this.

That was great.

And especially for my family

cos I feel like the kids

will get to finally see my face in something,

whereas usually, they're like,

"That's you for a second and then you're gone.

Why can't we see your face?"

And, you know, I feel like with this,

they can be like, "OK, that's my mom."

Not just, "Hey, that's my mom's back

as she's getting hit by a car."

Or something.

Sometimes people forget,

especially when they don't have kids,

they're like, "Raising kids is easy."

You're dealing with two irrational, emotional beings

whose worlds are actually really tough,

and they navigate through their own world differently.

They're not navigating through life the same way I am.

Come over here, buddy. Let's sit down.

Let's start doing our thing.

Honestly, homeschooling and working full time,

it's really hard, but...

Where are you gonna sit? Over here? Harper, come on.

...it's nice cos I have moments

I can connect with them through the learning.

What does the first word say?

Nice.

Education is not just being in a classroom all day, every day.

Education is going to a new country,

learning about a new culture, learning a new language.

There's so much to learn traveling.

So, I'm happy I get to share this with them

cos growing up, I didn't have that.

- You want some eggs, Harriet? - Yes.

Yeah?

When I was younger, I really...

Like, there was so much that I wanted all the time,

but I couldn't get it.

We moved to Toronto when I was a year old.

The transition was really, really hard.

My parents, I remember,

they were always struggling, always working.

There was always a lot of fighting and lots of tears.

My dad had a drinking problem, so he'd take it out on my mom.

Every night was, like, chaos.

OK, ready, go.

And my saving grace, I would say,

is me finding that courage and saying,

"I've had enough. I'm done." And I left.

Oh, boy, this is gonna be great.

I remember I walked and I walked and I walked.

It was a summer day and I just walked as far as I could walk.

I wasn't a victim. It was a choice.

I chose to leave my family home.

I had to run away to save my life.

That made me who I am today.

Being a mom and a stuntwoman is, uh... interesting.

I love what I do. I wouldn't change it for the world.

And I love having the kids close by. They know I do stunts.

They got to play around with the guys

with fight choreography before,

so they know we're working with like fake weapons.

The guys have been really awesome

when the kids are around.

They always try to include them and make them feel welcome.

They're very encouraging.

I appreciate them a lot,

but they're also dads, so they get it.

Are you ignoring me?

What are you playing?

What are you playing? Show me.

As a stunt performer,

the sacrifice we make, it's not easy.

Because the movie industry is not always on the same place.

You're traveling so much around

and you're not staying there just for a couple days.

Every time I am leaving,

I'm leaving my wife and my kid behind me.

I miss out of a lot of things, yeah.

And it's, like, you wanna be there with them,

but you gotta make sure that you have financial safeties, so...

Yeah.

Hand out.

Hmm.

But I feel really guilty about that topic,

that I left them behind me.

Ooh!

Your kids, they don't get it. That's the tricky part.

They only get, he's gone. But for how long?

For them, it feels like a lifetime.

Oh, no money? No?

That's why I'm trying to call them every day, every night.

Every time, it's heartbreaking

just to see my daughter through FaceTime.

But I promised myself I have to do

whatever I'm capable of doing

just to keep the bonding to my daughter

cos I don't want to lose that.

One day, my mother-in-law, she got cancer.

She was stage five.

By that time, Jojo was like,

"Are you willing to come to L.A. to be on my show, Star Wars?"

It felt to me like a life... like a crossroad.

I had a talk with my wife and she was disappointed.

For her side was, "I need you here right now."

I decided actually to go for the project.

We booked the flight.

One day after that, my mother-in-law passed away.

That hit me pretty hard.

I feel guilty.

My wife lost the trust to me.

Still to this day, I'm still trying to win that trust again.

If your wife was here right now,

what would you tell her?

Sorry.

I think I would tell her that I'm very proud of...

just the way how she supported me.

Looking after our daughter.

Going through the time on her own.

It's not easy to be apart, like, away from them.

That's part of the game.

(SIGHS0

Stunts are so interesting.

It's hard work.

It's more than just physical work. It's mental. It's health.

Other departments aren't in danger as much as stunt guys.

If you're in the lighting department,

yes, the lighting might fall on you,

but if you're doing your job right, that won't be the case.

But our job always includes risks and danger. Always.

Right now in the script, there's a scene in the movie

where I'm getting stabbed into my eye,

and then he's using the plugs, electric cords to burn me.

So, I'm starting to burn.

But, yeah, of course,

- it won't be me. -Nice.

Again, a plastic version of myself.

Everything is going to be safe.

OK, I'll do my side.

So, it's an example.

The action is part of the story

and the story is part of the action,

or the action helps to highlight a certain aspect of the story.

Maybe it's already off on that side.

Can I get this off?

-Got it? -Yeah.

-Perfect. You all right? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You wanna see your face?

You want some tuna, Jojo?

So yummy.

What flavors of cat food did you bring today?

This is tuna with oil,

and this is tuna with, uh... citrus.

I have some healthy fats like avocado, almonds,

so I combine them.

I'm not eating for the taste.

I'm more eating for the function.

With this schedule, you have to look good

without having the time to rest and eat well.

They told me I have to get bigger

and I need a lot of protein.

You need to be healthy. Come here.

No. Mask.

It's not ideal, but I have to make

the best out of it, so, yeah.

You know, the projects expect you

to be the best version of yourself

in order to get them the best quality.

So therefore, we have to make sure

that your body's able to do what it's supposed to do.

And we're on set for 12 hours, sometimes 14 hours.

It's my responsibility to make the best happen

and be ready on the day.

I grew up and lived in Germany,

and, yeah, it was a tough neighborhood. It was very tough.

It was like mid-'80s.

It was all about muscles, toughness,

being macho, being strong.

Escapism was very, very essential

and important for me.

That's how I started watching movies

and writing stories, poems.

I educated myself in Germany, but it's also important for me

to be aware of my own culture and where I am from.

I'm Circassian.

Our country used to be in West Russia,

and 1864, we got basically kicked out of our country.

Therefore, the Circassians are spread all around the world,

living in diaspora, in the US and Israel and Turkey,

in Jordan, in Asia.

We're adapting ourselves and learning the language.

That's definitely not easy.

My wife is also Circassian. We met in Germany.

It was a coincidence, to be honest. We didn't know.

I was like, oh my God, you know,

she's a beautiful, intelligent woman.

I would love to know more about her.

Then later on, she's like, "Yeah, I'm Circassian.

I'm sure you don't know about it." I'm like, "What?

I know what it is. I'm Circassian. Right?"

So that's how everything started, yeah.

My wife is an eye doctor. She works full time.

It's not easy working full time and having kids.

I love my family but I also love what I do and it's my passion.

And if my wife wouldn't be the way she is,

if she wouldn't support me,

I mean, you know, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing.

This is the second big fight in the movie.

This fight is more about theme stuff.

We're gonna start incorporating more of the gimmicks

in terms of Christmas stuff.

Three, two, one. Action.

There you go.

Before we design the action, we look at the environment.

Where are we? What are we doing? Why are we there?

And we look like,

OK, is there anything around us that we could use in a fight?

Turn. Boom.

For instance, in my fight, we used a dartboard, pool balls,

and I'm using the golf club.

So, we used everything where we could in our environment,

build it into the fights and the action.

All right. This is a conundrum.

There's no rubber one of that, so, you can't flick like...

That's gonna someone up.

Can, like, you guys are here. I was recovering.

Yes, sir.

You guys knew that you had to change that.

You gotta tell props that you need a rubber one of those.

Do you understand? Now, he has no time to make that.

Do you understand?

Now you can't get what Dave wants.

Yeah, yeah.

Because of the short schedule and trying to get things done,

I'm a little bit more temperamental

and less empathetic than I normally am.

That's a big... You have to rebuild that.

You can't just buy that rubber.

As a fight coordinator, you're in charge of that stuff

and it's your fight.

So, anything that's affecting your fight,

you guys have to figure out the problem parts.

The problem with the dartboard

was it's way too heavy to throw it,

and it could damage somebody.

It could damage me or the actor. Then yeah, that was bad.

That was bad for our department.

And our department, because it's an action movie, again,

affected all the other departments.

Cos the props has to know what they build

and everybody, it's just a chain reaction.

Sorry to yell at you guys, but every fight scene,

like, if you guys are coordinating the fights,

you should know every prop, make sure every prop is ready,

or they have enough time to make one.

-Right, OK. -You know?

In the grand scheme of things,

the director, it's his story, his movie.

But I've learned ultimately, at some point,

fingers get pointed at you.

And I wanna be able to go, "I did my best.

I did as best I could with the circumstances given to me

and I can walk away from it."

Today, we're shooting Frosty Fight.

See what the shot is first.

This scene might seem simple, but there's certain intricacies

that we have to accomplish

or we have to nail for it to look good.

You wanna make sure every fight is different.

This one is more of a conventional fight.

So, what makes a conventional fight more interesting

are the gags in the moments.

You don't really get bloody till after the darts.

In order to accomplish that, we have to have more setups,

more physicality, more coverage and more props.

Lock it up in here.

-And roll camera. -And action.

Can.

Hi. I love you.

And action.

In the choreo, he has a golf club.

It got out of my hand.

Good? Ready? Action.

And action.

All right, again.

Ready, and action.

No, no, don't worry.

I won't mention it right now, but that happened.

It might be broken.

I'm not Rocky, but I'm going to finish the fight.

-All right, ready? - Let's do this.

And three, two, one, go.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I don't want to kill you.

He has to get hit with the pool balls, right.

We have softies in this sock,

but a couple of those are pretty hard.

So, he was getting whacked a lot.

You try to minimize that as best we can,

but that's why it's called a stunt.

It's implying a risk.

-I thought they were soft. -Yeah.

-Are you OK? -It's OK. No, it's good.

What people don't understand, sometimes even if it's soft,

if you swing, you know, the momentum,

the physics, it gets harder.

Like, it's hard. You feel it.

We're gonna throw Can on the pinball machine.

Watch your backs please.

We had, like, four sugar glasses for it.

Glass coming in.

How many of these do we have?

One broke during the transport,

so we only had three tries.

These are all, yeah, challenges on set.

-You guys set? -Set.

Ready? And action!

You have to go through pain

when you have to jump through glass.

I just told Ryan,

"Ryan, you have to slam me in," and he did it.

Action.

Some of the props are very sensitive,

crashing very quick and easy.

Good for us as stunt performers.

As soon as you hit it, it should explode

and nothing's gonna happen and you're not getting cut by it.

On Can's spots, it didn't break properly.

The first time, the top started bleeding.

Now the sides are. Yeah.

You see anything in there?

Yeah. He's got a cut right there.

It's part of our profession.

Sometimes, we're just the guys that take the beatings.

We try our best to minimize it, but it happens.

That's what the term "stuntman", "fall guy" comes from.

-Are you all right? - Yeah, I'm good.

You look like you had your wisdom teeth out!

All that's really left for today

is a couple of shots of breaking ornaments on his head.

It was in the last scene of Can.

He was on top of Santa with a knife, threatening to kill him,

and Santa was reaching out to some ornaments.

Usually, they should break easily.

But they didn't.

You see Can's face, he's pissed.

Then he's like, "Just go, go!"

So, he basically just ran the next five of just smashing it,

smashing it, smashing it until they broke.

But he, again, got cut on his head.

You know you're getting injured.

You know for a fact, "I'm going to get injured,"

but you have to do it.

Get me the medic.

That's rule number one.

Like, if you're not willing to get hurt,

you shouldn't be in the stunt industry.

OK.

- Whew! - And cut.

Moving on. Yikes.

-Thank you, Can. -No problem.

That was good.

Ready? And three, two, one, action.

The wheels are turning here in Winnipeg,

and Jojo seems to have things back on track.

Between him and Tommy,

I know they're gonna deliver something great.

Back in L.A., 87North has a lot of stuff to do.

Our next big project is the one I'm directing,

and it's a big action movie that's really close to my heart.

It's a cool day throughout the Los Angeles area.

The current temperature in Hollywood

is 65 degrees and expected high of 68.

It's OK, it's OK. That dog's OK.

Have you been face to face with Ryan?

- Yeah. - Hours on the Zooms and phone,

but I've never had him in person, so, I don't know.

Right now, we're in pre-production on Fall Guy.

It's starring Ryan Gosling.

We want a motorcycle bit.

We want a truck bit. We want a boat bit.

We need all the stunt disciplines

sort of in the movie, right?

We are 21 weeks out,

so it's a little early to call that pre-production.

But for me, and the scope of things that we're trying to do,

especially in the action side,

I think we need to find people that can do the job.

By any chance, did you get in touch with Justin Eaton?

Yes, sir. I had messaged him.

He's looking forward to meeting you and Dave.

OK. And then did you talk to Mark,

that other guy from Gray Man that you said was the assistant?

- I haven't talked to him yet. - OK.

And then, we still have that Logan is coming, so...

Logan's coming and focusing on our car work.

Yeah. He'll be kind of like the car-motorcycle guy

that can go off and be totally self-sufficient.

OK.

You know, it's early,

but the goal is to do something that's really provocative,

that's practical, that's in-camera,

that's challenging us as stunt performers, and you know...

So that's my challenge as a filmmaker,

and I think we're starting to think about how to do that.

All right, let's do it, guys. Walk it again.

OK, set. And action.

The fight sequence that I have coming up

is basically me taking out a few of the staff.

Yes. That's it.

They actually think, like, I'm part of their staff,

but I'm actually not.

They're running towards me

like, "What the hell's going on?"

I'm just like, "Lights out, buddy."

I think when you do the draw, just make it like...

- So I have something to cut to. - Copy.

Just be very like...

Yeah. Whatever. Very dynamic.

So, I'm not gonna pull 'em out?

No, just go...

And that's it. Cos I'm gonna cut to that.

This is a second-unit scene,

which means as a second-unit director, it's on me.

There's no Tommy. There's no Dave.

So, this is my scene to direct

and it allows me to show what I can do.

All right, guys. Pick this up.

Here we go. Lock it up.

Although there's fight action and choreography,

it's a chance for me to kind of step away from the stunt world

and show that I can direct actors in the performance.

Lock it up one more time. Roll sound.

What I'm looking for in this shot

is when she goes and she's in that corner, she's coming out.

We could cut to whatever.

-On your mark. -Set.

OK.

And action.

Mitra.

Ah. All right. Cut. Cut, cut, cut.

Reset. I saw her standing there.

-Reset? -Yes.

Just have her go back farther.

We'll go again right away.

I don't wanna waste our time.

He'll never use that. All right.

-Visual 35, take two. -And action.

Mitra.

There you go. Back up. Back up. Back up.

The hell is going on out there?

Christmas clearance.

-Cut. -Cut.

OK. Yeah, it could be better. It's not there yet.

But I think play it more

like you're pondering to use the gun or not.

- Hm-hmm. - That's all. It's not that bad.

- In cuts, it will be fine. - Yeah. OK.

They're asking after we get this one faster, as well.

Yes. That's what I was telling her.

What slows us down is her putting the gun down.

-Yeah. -That kills us.

That should happen quicker.

Yes. Just make that quicker. Just everything quicker.

Because I'm second unit, I am a bit anxious,

because I only have a certain amount of time to shoot,

an hour and a half, to be exact.

This scene has multiple setups, so we have to be fast.

Visual 35, take three.

And action.

Mitra.

-Ah. -It's so slow.

Move faster.

-Cut. -Cut.

This is killing us.

I always want to be the best I can be.

It's like, if I had to end today and this was my last job,

is it something I'd be proud of, or did I push?

So that pressure's made internally by myself.

Visual 35, take five.

Visual 35, take seven.

Visual 35, take eight.

And action.

- The hell is going on out there? - Christmas clearance.

Cut. Cut.

And pow.

Mitra, when you say your line, are you looking at two...

Looking at all of 'em.

Look straight at the head waiter.

You know what I mean? Cos it's like you're counting.

So, keep your eye just on him. See what that looks like.

In rehearsal,

we got through all those things, like, fast.

We're able to shoot a pre-viz

and be done and edit within a few hours.

Whereas here, with all the different elements,

it's a little trickier.

-Set. -And action.

No, no, no!

OK. Cut. Cut.

That wasn't a good one. Meaner.

- Reset. -Resetting.

- Like, she has to be aggressive. - Yes.

And action.

Go in there. There you go.

Cut.

-Her energy. Talk to her. -Yeah, yeah.

Mitra, give me one that's a little bigger.

- Bigger, which one? - I'm saying when you grab it,

it looks like you're trying to be nice to it.

If you're gonna grab it, it's, like, grab it...

You can do action better than a normal person.

So, when it doesn't look special,

that's when I get upset.

I can direct Mitra a little differently

than an actor I've just met.

I've trained her. I've known her a long time.

Right now, it's really important

that we get this done really fast,

so I don't really have time to mince words.

OK. One more.

And action.

Good. Good!

OK.

I take responsibility if a performer doesn't do well.

That's my fault, too. That reflects on me.

You're enjoying this.

You finally get a chance to kill that guy.

What would you do? What are you gonna do?

You're gonna stand there and go...

Or are you gonna go boom? Like, you have intensity.

You gotta find within yourself how to turn that on.

- Hmm. - You have to feel it.

You have to feel it coming down here.

OK, yep.

I'm the person responsible.

It's my responsibility to make this work.

So as frustrating as it is,

it's just as much on me as it is on her

that we're not nailing this scene.

I tend to be a lot harder on members of my team

because I know what they're capable of.

I know Mitra can do this and I don't want her to fail.

Twenty takes is unacceptable.

He's right.

You always wanna do a good job.

So, when you feel like

you're not doing a good job, that's like...

You gotta snap out it.

There's no time for self-pity. Just do better.

Perform better.

And action.

Cut. Cut, cut.

Cut. Cut.

Cut, cut.

Forget it. Right.

-Cutting. - Cut, cut.

- Reset. -Resetting.

-Still rolling. - Cut. No, no. Cut. Cut.

Let's do it again. Shoot again.

Iyuno