'Twilight: Saga' cast kung fu fighting
Carter By Kelley Carter
Here's the good news: Near the end of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" -- the third installment of the book-to-silver screen series that your girlfriend, daughter or colleague can't stop talking about -- some butt is kicked.
There's a buildup throughout the film, which opens Wednesday, that's felt from the second it starts -- if you know nothing else about it, you know it's going to culminate with a big fight scene.
That's where John Stoneham Jr. comes in. The former martial arts athlete was the stunt coordinator for the film, and he was charged with getting much of the cast in shape and teaching them wing chun, a form of kung fu you'll see when you inevitably get dragged to go check the film out this weekend. (Or perhaps at a midnight showing?)
Whatever you do, don't go to sleep. The fight scene is incredible, and Stoneham, who's been training since the early '80s in martial arts, talked with us about how he turned a ragtag group of Hollywood actors into lean, mean vampire and werewolf fighting machines.
Question: Tell us how you crafted that big battle-fight scene.
Answer: It was the vampires against the wolves -- it just became a giant planning thing. We had to put everybody on wires and rigs to fling them around, and they added the wolves digitally later on. It was a real planning phase. It started off and just grew and grew and grew. It was more tackles and throws and such.
Q: Who took to the mixed martial arts fighting easiest?
A: Kellan Lutz is the bulldog. He's the big tough guy, so he just ran people over. He sent my stunt guys flying. There were times he had to run into them and he would usually hit them pretty hard, so they would fly pretty good themselves.
Q: Why is martial arts so hot on film right now? We're seeing it everywhere this summer.
A: It kind of goes in waves, I think. For a while everybody was on wires and floating around. Now it seems to be back to this organic thing, and it's as real as possible. Obviously, we have vampires, so it's a little bit of a stretch. Everything now is more physical and pounding. I don't know. Maybe it helps people's aggressions?
Q: So actors have to be athletes now? Not just pretty faces?
A: On that film, the cast hadn't done a lot of physical stuff in the other movies, so it was kind of challenging. We had to put them on a workout program as soon as we got them. Two to three weeks before filming, we got them and we put them through a little training regimen. They were running a lot; we had this giant treadmill that we built and put them on a harness. They did a lot of running and jogging for cardio, fight training for moves. They probably worked six or seven weeks' worth of training by the time they got to the battle sequence. The 20 vampires were my stunt people. We tried to put the cast in and have them do as much as they could and as much as they were comfortable with. Originally, when they first started, it was like, "I'm going to do what?" But they got into it, and they got pretty good at it.
Q: If I wanted to train to fight like a vampire, what should I do?
A: The vampires have super speed. So for them, your cardio has got to be top-notch. I couldn't have the actors huffing and puffing. They're not even supposed to be breathing. It's not going to look very good in their scene. So cardio is important. And stretching, because if you're running and you pull a hamstring, you're done for the day or done for the week. So it became a huge stretching/cardio thing for everyone involved. You need that for agility, running and jumping and speed. I would say a lot less weights -- you're not trying to build muscle. Just stamina.
Q: What other films have you choreographed that you've used MMA in?
A: I did "2012," we had a boxing thing in that. We had a lot of fighting in "The Incredible Hulk" -- but that was a lot of CGI. A lot of it now has been a blend. Like in "Hulk," we had to choreograph the fights, and then they would have my guy in a little green suit and put markers on them. We create the fight, then they put the Hulk scan on the guys. So lately it's been a lot of CG enhancement stuff for me. I've also been doing these end-of-the-world movies. We had a bunch of fighting in "Max Payne." But it seems like there's been a little less fighting and a little more violence.
Kelley L. Carter is a freelance entertainment reporter. She can be reached at
Kelley@thekelleylcarter.com.
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