Film Fighting Quotes

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

Actors aren't fighters. They don't know how to throw a punch. So, there's a lot of hitting in the face. I'd much rather fight with a stuntman than another actor. I don't like fighting with other actors because somebody always ends up getting hurt.

We're under Rigan Machado, who I think is one of the best jiu jitsu instructors at least in Los Angeles, if not in the world. We have a lot of his instructors here, as well as Japanese jiu jitsu, Japanese judo, and sambo. That was Keanu's [Reeves] recipe [in John Wick 2].

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

Every film, every fight choreographer, wants to have a different flair, have a different fight technique. So any film I've done that involved weapons has always been fascinating because everyone is different.

It's all choreographed; it's a routine. So I told everyone I really wanted to try fighting in action films. I had no stunt experience, but I had the dance background, and I was very agile and coordinated. And the best thing about being a newcomer to acting is you can afford to try new things.

We did a lot of fight scenes in 'Hitman: Agent 47,' so you have to learn repetitious movements to music; otherwise, it's amazingly boring. Michael Jackson was our savior.

When the fights were over for the second and third 'Matrix,' I thought, 'Okay, I never have to do that again.' It's incredibly stressful.

I used to do fight sequences, and I started to get self-conscious about fight sequences, because invariably the other person would get hurt, and you never want anyone to be hurt on a film, let alone you being responsible. The great thing about working with guys who have spent their life choreographing fights for wrestling is that that's what they do. That's their specialty. Their specialty is selling taking hits. Their specialty is selling explosive hits without making a contact or doing too much damage.

The interesting thing about film fighting is that it's very different to the kind of fighting we do in pro wrestling.