Chad Stahelski Quotes

In Hong Kong, particularly, we craft this art for decades. The action choreographer actually is the action director. He takes over and he choreographs with - by himself or with his team, and place the camera where he feels cinematic effect to bring out that choreography.

Sword fighting in film is not about how good the fighter is, but how good the actor receiving the blows is.

I don't know if I necessarily fit in the action-thriller genre, but I'd love to do something where I could actually kick some butt and then tell a few jokes. That would be awesome! That would be my dream job.

An action choreographer is kind of like a dance choreographer. You choreograph the moves and you let the director, cinematographer take into positioning their cameras.

One thing I am really dying to do, while I'm still young and in shape, is an action movie. I would love to do a Lara Croft type of thing that's really physical and tough. I want to have a gun and do martial arts. I would love to get paid to get into the best shape of my life.

The fight scenes in 'The World's End' have a certain balletic quality to them.

Everyone who shoots dance sequences does it in a different way. Everyone who shoots fight sequences does it in a different way.

A good choreographer is one that's going to collaborate, teach, guide - everything. The wonderful thing on 'Brotherhood of the Wolf' was that we had Philip Kwok - he choreographed John Woo's 'Hard Boiled,' and in the '70s, he was a martial arts actor, stunt man, fighter, choreographer in Hong Kong.

I personally think a fight scene is the most cinematic thing you can witness because all the elements of filmmaking come together, you know, with the camera speed changes, editing, make up effects and general smoke and mirrors of trying to make it look like you are hitting someone when you're not. It's filmmaking in it's purest form, I think.

It takes years of building that experience as a filmmaker, as well as physically. You have to have a high level understanding of martial arts.

Since I do seven different styles of martial arts, I don't foresee myself fighting the same in any two movies. I think every fighting style should fit the character that's doing the fighting.

I am dying to do an action movie. I can do my own stunts; I can do this.

Nobody's ever going to hire me to choreograph fights.

Boxing is limited fighting with a specific rule set. Fighting is true, where you can do anything.

When you do an action movie, you've got to come prepared to do an action movie.

Anytime you get action legends together, it has to be a classic.

On 'Black Lightning' I have a stunt double who's a lot younger than me. The fighting style on the show is heavily martial arts-based, and I know boxing; I don't know martial arts. I also have a really bad knee, and he's been doing martial arts since he was 6 years old, so I'm not thinking, 'No, I can do that! I can make that look cool!'

Shooting a fight is like shooting any other scene. You have to tell a story using a very specific choreography.

Stunts have to be meticulously arranged. Choreographed. You could take a fight scene and set it to music.

In 'The Matrix,' you see the fight between Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne. It's an amazing fight. But I know that they've rehearsed it for months beforehand. Because in some of the moves you can see them anticipating blocks before they actually happen.

Definitely it is difficult to maintain the Hollywood stylized action that we had in 'Kick.'

My jiu-jitsu style is not a beautiful style. I have very simple submissions. It works, but it's not like Demian Maia or Nick Diaz's very exciting style.

When you're doing an action set piece, it's very similar to choreography in a way because it's shot that way. It's meticulous how it's rehearsed. I mean, you have no idea.

Mads [Mikkelsen] and I have a really epic brawl - a week shoot, lots of rehearsal - and he was just delightful. He's a dancer and a gymnast so he knows how to plant the moves. He was always saying, "Are you okay?" When you've got that level of mutual consideration you form a family very quickly.

My Jiu Jitsu is with the gi. It's the real style of Jiu Jitsu, it's with the gi and I fight MMA.