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
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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.
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.
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