The Fall Guy was the stunt team’s explosive dream come true
At once a stunt-filled action comedy and a return to big-budget romantic comedies, led by two irrepressibly charming actors (Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt), this week’s film. The autumn man is the kind of date-movie summer blockbuster that felt much more common a decade or two ago. The film follows a stuntman (Gosling) who is brought out of retirement to work on the directorial debut of his ex-girlfriend (Blunt), and then becomes involved in a conspiracy that threatens to shut down the film.
A large part of the film’s success comes from the authenticity of the team behind it and their passion for the subject. Directed by former Brad Pitt stunt double David Leitch and co-produced by John Wick production company 87North Productions, the film is an unapologetic love letter to the art of stunt work and the difficult, often thankless job that stunt performers have in Hollywood – as the film points out points out that there is still no Oscar for stunt work. The autumn man incorporates the craftsmanship of stunts into the story, the visual approach (longer takes and bigger falls) and the set pieces (including a fight that directly involves stunt equipment), all to great effect.
Leitch’s background instilled confidence in the stunt crew, as members of the team shared with Polygon. Having someone in charge, who knows the ins and outs of the business, has changed The autumn man‘s production into a unique environment for the stunt team, especially during shooting.
“I’ve never been in a situation where I could go up to the director and ask him for advice on how to get hit by a car,” says Ben Jenkin, one of two stunt doubles for Ryan Gosling in the film. “He gave me good advice. It’s so nice to work with a director who knows action. It’s so seamless and easy. The direction we’re going is very specific, but it’s all we need to know.”
Often, directors with practical action experience will avoid hiring a second unit director to shoot action scenes, preferring to do it themselves. But Leitch trusted his old friend Chris O’Hara with his vision for the film and gave him responsibility for a second unit. Those responsibilities grew over the course of the project. O’Hara estimated that second unit started with five to eight days planned for shooting, and would ultimately last 28 or 29 days. He described the experience of being able to make a film about stunts with one of the people he came up with in the industry as “pretty magical.”
“Working with one of your best friends is the way I hope to end my career,” he says. “He’s been in the trenches of my position, so he understands the things I’m asking. Some directors have a vision, you know, This is what i want! I do not mind! But David understands what it takes to do those kinds of things. He knows what I go through every day.”
The stunt artists feel that too. “He knows what it takes, he gives you the time you need, he knows how to capture it,” stunt driver Logan Holladay told Polygon. “There are times when directors are new to action, they don’t quite understand how to capture it, or what kind of time it takes, or what things hurt or don’t. He gets all that stuff. We do really big, hard things, but in a way that is easy, because we can all think on the same page, get the job done and do it the right way.”
Having a strong second unit and a director willing to trust that team is one thing, but post-production can be a whole different issue. A director or editor with other priorities may be drawn to a shot that the stunt team is less than happy with, or cut a thrilling stunt to the point where the audience can’t easily see the work that went into it. Maybe the lighting wasn’t set properly for the shot where the stunt performer did a good job. Maybe something in the background got in the way of the perfect shot. There were no concerns with any of these The autumn mansays the stunt crew, because Leitch made sure of that.
“When you do stunts and do something for four or five takes, there’s at least one or two in there that you know are the best,” says Holladay. “Every time I ever did anything on this movie, and I knew that shot was the best shot, that shot was always used when I watched the movie. Because Dave knows, he understands. He gets it. And so if anything else needed to be adjusted, he just adjusted it and made it work.
“It usually doesn’t work that way. You get the other one, the one you hoped they wouldn’t show. And so it made it really fun to watch the movie because you knew that all your hard work was going in and being seen.
The pipeline of stunt performers becoming directors is having a moment, but it is by no means new. While Leitch, Chad Stahelski (Johannes Wick), and JJ Perry (Day shift) have all found success by focusing their stunt careers on directing, that path was paved by greats like Hal Needham (Smokey and the bandit) and Jackie Chan. Both Jenkin and O’Hara cited Chan’s work as a major influence on their decision to perform stunts, and O’Hara – a former college gymnast – cited Needham’s films as one of the reasons he considered stunts as a viable option. path for him after school. .
O’Hara says that while stunt work in Hollywood gained more attention due to Gosling and Pitt’s portrayals of stuntmen in Driving force And Once upon a time in Hollywoodrespectively The autumn man is “something special” as a film dedicated to the craft of stunt work. Part of that is due to the way Gosling has supported the team in the media, regularly calling out members of the stunt crew by name during the matches. Fall guy press tour. The film’s media blitz has also emphasized this element Holladay’s Guiness World Record Breaking Cannon Throw.
“It is a topic that is close to our hearts,” says O’Hara. “We wanted to do justice to the subject matter, but also do justice to the stunt community, really bringing them to attention and championing what we do. There is nothing that can top this one.”
The autumn man is in cinemas from May 3.