Filmmaker and stunt coordinator David Leitch says it's easier to do stunts himself than direct his stunt performer friends. "You are responsible for their safety," he explains. "Your heart goes through your chest." His film The Fall Guy is about the unknown performers who put their lives on the line. He spoke with Terry Gross about barrel rolling cars, being lit on fire, and doing another take when everything hurts. Also, Justin Chang reviews the new Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is David Leitch and what is his background?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Our guest today, David Leitch, is a successful Hollywood director who got into the business in an unusual way, as a stuntman, performing daring feats as stunt doubles for actors including Matt Damon and Keanu Reeves.
His breakthrough was on Fight Club, as a stunt double for Brad Pitt, who he worked with on several subsequent films, including Troy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Ocean's Eleven. He became an action coordinator and stunt coordinator and eventually a director of big-budget films.
He directed Bullet Train, Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and was an uncredited co-director of the first John Wick movie. Today we're going to listen to the interview Terry recorded last year with David Leitch when his film The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, was released.
Inspired by the 1980s TV series The Fall Guy, it's about a stuntman who ends up having to execute spectacular stunts in his real life to save the film he's working on and regain the love of the woman who's directing it. Terry's interview begins with the opening scene of The Fall Guy.
Chapter 2: What is the plot of The Fall Guy?
It's a series of action sequences in which the stunts include tumbling down a rocky cliff, riding a motorcycle over the roofs of several cars, getting thrown through a bus window, and running through a battlefield surrounded by explosions and getting blown off the ground. The sequence is narrated by Ryan Gosling's character over plenty of gunfire, explosions, and shattering glass.
David Leitch, welcome to Fresh Air. I really enjoyed the new film. And your working career is pretty amazing. Do stunt doubles have a code, kind of like magicians do, not to reveal certain trade secrets? And did that limit what you could reveal in the film?
Can I just start by saying thank you for having me? Like, I'm a huge fan, and I'm very excited to be here. Well, back at you.
I'm a fan, so...
But yeah, it is a little bit like magic. You know, I think we're always reinterpreting the classic gags and the classic tricks. And so, you know, that's what we did with Fall Guy. We sort of reimagined the big car jump. We reimagined the high fall from the helicopter. And there is a little secrecy.
I think, you know, part of it for years, because it was such a business where it was passed down, it's apprenticeships, it's passed down from family, usually to kids, and it's hard to crack in and
And find someone to teach you because they didn't want to share the knowledge so much, you know, because it didn't, again, like it can be a really fun and lucrative business and you want to share it with the people you want to share it with. I think in Fall Guy, we tried to pull the veil back just enough. and not give too much away. You know, you see those fire stunts.
We didn't really give the science behind that away. And there is a, you know, that's, what's really amazing about stunts. I think people think it's a bunch of daredevils and, and there's a little bit of that sensibility in stunt performers, but really there's a lot of physics and math and legacy tricks that, you know, get you through the day.
The first stunt that Ryan Gosling does on the film is jumping from a ledge 12 stories high, and we see him wearing a harness, as stuntmen do in scenes like that, and the harness will eventually be erased in post-production. When you do a stunt like that, and I'm sure you've done lots of those high falls, do you say a prayer or meditate in the moments right before you jump?
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