Exclusive Expendables: Stunt Coordinator Stahelski on Stallone’s Voracious Appetite for Action and the Importance of How Jet Li Kicks a Submachine Gun

Share on Facebook posted 07-30-10 by Julina Tatlock

I’m a huge fan of Chad Stahelski’s work. His stunt choreography, and specifically his martial arts choreography, has a style and elegance of movement that I find beautiful to watch, no matter what movie or director. Chad and his partners at 87 Eleven take great pride not only in their close attention to the aesthetics of a fight, but in the way the physical conflict flows from a character’s motivation — and this thoughtful approach is clearly evident in the work.

Last year when I was speaking to Chad about his work on Ninja Assassin I couldn’t contain my curiosity about his work with Sylvester Stallone on Rambo and, most recently, The Expendables, Stallone’s newest action film. The Expendables has a cast of all-star action greats: Jet Li, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews and the king himself, Sly Stallone.

Stallone’s Bigger Than Life But Can He Lighten Up?

JULINA TATLOCK: Stallone has said The Expendables is almost a dark comedy, but many of Stallone’s movies are deadly serious, does the movie have a sense of humor about itself?

CHAD STAHELSKI: You gotta remember, Stallone is bigger than life. If I were to say a funny line it’s one thing, but if he says it, it’s twice as effective. You’ve got this kinda dark comedy going on, with a backdrop of a Rambo-esque action sequence. It doesn’t make any sense until you see it and you say, Oh I get it, it’s funny. You got all these big action guys, standing in a line giving corny one-liners, while the world is blowing up around ’em. You know what Sly is, he is incredibly good with actors; he brings performances out of actors; he really gets it; he takes his time. And then he relies on his crew and his stunt team to deliver the action. He was ten times more collaborative than we could have ever guessed or hoped. He trusted us, he trusted his stunt team, and no one appreciates it more than us. He’s a very fun man to work with. He never says tone it down or do less — if anything, he says blow up more stuff. He’ll look at it and say, “That’s all the guys you got? Get me more stunt men.” He takes great care of his stunt double, he takes great care of his stunt team — the men who are in charge of interacting solely with him, and he is very, very generous and very, very appreciative. We don’t get as much of that as you would think, and it makes him stand out as a director and as a lead performer. He really stands out. As intense as he is, you just love him. You just want to please him.

JT: What was it like working with the action giants in The Expendables?

CS: Stallone is very intense and knows what he wants. Rambo was our maiden voyage. He looked at us as though we were the young kids. You know, Stallone is awesome. We have enough trust and enough of a relationship that he pretty much lets us design the action. He says, “Chad, this is kinda what I want, this is the vibe for it.” Two weeks later, I’ll pitch him all the ideas, and we go back and forth. It’s collaborative. We choreograph all the stuff, bring in the different martial arts, let him choose — kinda like a Chinese menu — and you’d be surprised how really collaborative he is. He wanted fresh, young stunt men, young performers, what’s hip, what’s new, what’s going on now. And he went and learned it. I mean, he was doing quite the bit of MMA, he was doing flying arm bars, throwing kicks, took a lot of his own licks — pretty incredible for a 64-year-old.

JT: Had you worked with Jet Li before?

CS: We got to work with Jet Li’s choreographer, who was very easy to work with. It ended up being great. Very, very simple. Jet Li brings his own choreographer with him whenever he goes. They work in conjunction with our team, we choreograph for the people who he fights with, and he choreographs for Jet. Most choreographers have a very good understanding of each other and what their styles are and it all works together.

The Expendables was not a huge martial arts film, although it did have a bunch of fights in it, and you just try to work to keep it within it. You don’t want Jet Li to do a triple kick into the splits, but you do want him looking good. So you gotta find that balance, work with the other choreographers and make it work.

They May All Be Giants But They All Fight Differently

JT: That must be a big challenge with doing the stunts and fights for an ensemble film where your talent all have different strengths: You need Jet Li to be Jet Li, Randy Couture to be Randy, Jason Statham to be Jason, and Stallone to be Stallone, but they all need to work together in the same film.

CS: You just hit on a very big topic and a big problem for most choreographers. You have two people you need to choreograph for: You have the character Jet Li is playing and you have Jet Li. If you see Jet Li’s name on a poster, you are going to [the movie] to see Jet Li. You have an expectation of what you will see. But the story that you go see, for no fault except that’s how the story was written, may not have Jet Li being what you’d expect out of Jet Li. You have to choreograph for the character, but you also have to choreograph for the studio and the persona of Jet Li. The character may not be a martial arts guy, but you kinda make him a martial arts guy because you’re choreographing for Jet Li, and people want to see Jet Li do his thing.

In The Expendables you had certain soldiering forces that had a lot of technique and a lot of power—a certain level of professionalism—but you just don’t kick a submachine gun out of someone’s hand when you have your own machine gun. As choreographers, we take the creative leeway we need to make Jet Li look good, at the same time keeping true to his character as well.

JT: It’s so logical that you wouldn’t kick a submachine gun out of someone’s hand if you had your own.

CS: But if you see Jet Li [kick the machine gun], you buy it. If someone other than Jet Li, someone who does not have that [reputation] of being the world’s best martial art guy — just another cast member — you would choreograph for them totally differently, and you wouldn’t think twice about it. But you put Jet Li in that role, Jet Li just can’t just shoot somebody, he has got to do something cool. Same thing with Jason — what’s the first thing you think when you think Jason Statham? Jason can’t just shoot somebody; he’s got to shoot them and look cool. You gotta keep the character, he’s a professional soldier who needs to get down to business, but if he was just down to business he’d be boring. You gotta give it that little bit of flint. It sounds so simple, but it’s not. You gotta make him look cool without going overboard, and you can’t go overboard without making him look cool. It’s a little bit of a challenge but a fun challenge.

JT: On the face of it, it looks like there are a lot of similarities between The Expendables and Rambo. Can you talk about how the films are different from each other?

CS: You see the trailer for the last Rambo and you see explosions and guys dying, then you see the trailer for The Expendables and you see explosions and planes and guys dying and you may think, “Oh, same.” But if you watch the movies, the tonality is completely different. Rambo had a very serious documentary style and tone so when you saw a guy die, even though they were stunt men and they died like stunt men a little bit, it was meant to show what war was and the horror of war. The Expendables is a little more over the top, a little more stunty; it’s a little bit more lighthearted. There are violent moments, there is a lot of big action, and there are a lot of people dying, but at the same time because you’re Barney or Christmas or Bao they’ll kill 20 people violently and then make a joke. It is action not so much violence, and Rambo is more violence dressed by action, if that makes sense.