Extraction’s Sam Hargrave is the latest stuntman making the leap to directing.
Sam Hargrave is used to being in the thick of a war zone.
In fact, he tends to orchestrate them.
Joe Lederer/Twentieth Century Fox
Hargrave didn’t do all this just for the spectacle of it all.
He wanted to serve the story.
“You’re right there [in the scene].
Jasin Boland/Netflix
You’re part of it.”
Perhaps uncoincidentally, they also got their start in stunts.
They also helped impart their stunt philosophy onto Hargrave.
“Action scenes that I remember are all rooted in character,” Leitch says.
“It’s no longer about the physical, it’s about the storytelling,” Stahelski emphasizes.
Even as Hollywood halted in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, studios are after this kind of approach.
Now, Hargrave gets his chance to make a mark on the action genre.
“I loved Jackie Chan movies and martial arts,” Hargrave says.
“They were always inspirational in the approach to action and to movies.
I gravitated towards that,” Hargrave says.
“We shared a lot of similarities in martial arts, in movies.
They have been instrumental in my success and as mentors.”
It feels like its own movie-making academy.
It’s what he and Stahelski learned from working with Yuen Woo-Ping, the kung fu choreographer onThe Matrix.
But, at the time, he declined their offer.
“I was very young and brash back then,” he adds through a chuckle.
Hargrave became more involved in the filmmaking process through stunt coordinating.
To his surprise, Hargrave recognized the script.
He read it years earlier under a different name,Ciudad.
In my mind, it wasn’t wide, sweeping, smooth crane moves.
I wanted to get in there, put the camera on my shoulder, and get gritty.
Engross the viewer in this world.
Really smell it, taste it, feel the world."
He did it with a slight nod toAtomic Blonde.
So, you have to break it up."
It’s probably why he was so hands on for his first time heading an entire production.
“It drives you to say, ‘I want to be in charge of these stories.'”
For better or worse, Stahelski thinks people might assume stuntmen are able to execute action better than most.
“I don’t necessarily agree with that.
That’s a case-by-case basis,” he says.
“In the case of Sam or Dave, absolutely.”
“I’m not some frustrated dramatic thriller guy who can only blow s— up.
“Action is such a part of who I am,” Leitch says.
This, he says, is a stunt done in a different way.
“It’s a simple, graphic, static shot.
They didn’t need a fight scene.
There’s just boots on the ground, scuffing the floor, leaving all these marks.
It’s this graphic top shot of this guy struggling and then his boots stop.
That’s great, compelling action.”
It’s also something the industry could use more of.
