As the streaming wars continue, each service attempts to differentiate itself from the competition with exclusive content. While they may not have as much original content as their competitors, Amazon Prime is no slouch when it comes to investing heavily in its original content. Their latest series CITADEL is one of the most expensive TV series ever produced at a budget of $300 million, and it happens to have lots of martial arts fight scenes.
I interviewed stunt coordinator James Young (JY), who is most famous for his works with the Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony), particularly their Marvel Studios works. At the time of the interview, only the first four episodes were released so we focused only on those. Despite this, each episode is filled with lots of creative fight scenes and intrigue, so we had plenty to discuss.
JY: How's it going Brian?
BC: Hello there James. I'm doing fine, how about yourself?
JY: Doing good, mate, doing good.
BC: A pleasure to meet you. I must say CITADEL has definitely been quite a ride, especially from the first episode where – no spoilers because the first 10 minutes are on YouTube – it starts off on a train with a big bang. I know your history working with the Russo brothers and I just want to know how did you get involved with this project and how much of your experience working with the Russo brothers in the past may have influenced or affected your work on this project?
JY: I mean it's all Russo brothers. I've known Joe and Anthony since 2011-2012 on (CAPTAIN AMERICA): WINTER SOLDIER. I've done, if not all, a lot of their action for all their movies so once we were finishing a movie, Joe mentioned to me CITADEL, and that they had some action they needed to be shot and would the team be coming in to do it and I said I'd love to. The scripts were fantastic. I love working with them.
BC: I could definitely tell from your extensive history with them. One of the things I've noticed in episode two where the word (AVENGERS): ENDGAME was thrown out there amongst DUMB & DUMBER and other movies, even JASON BOURNE. I just want to know, was that intentional to mention ENDGAME?
JY: I'm pretty sure. The other little easter egg in Episode 2 is the cabin where we shot Priyanka's (Chopra Jonas) sequence with the hunter. That's the same cabin from ENDGAME that Tony Stark had as his house. That's where they held the funeral for Tony as well. Joe loves to do stuff like this, so it was always intentional.
BC: One thing that also caught my attention was how there are all kinds of really cool, neat gadgets. For example, the first episode featured one of the guys having a pair of glasses that retracted blades. Then we see Richard Madden’s character, Mason, skiing down the snow with his boots that have ski blades come out. I just want to know who was behind that. Did you have any input as to what kind of gadgets there could be and how did you go about with it?
JY: It's usually Joe. Joe is always the one to come up with something fun to use in a sequence. The one for the glasses was a combination. Joe was looking for a knife or some kind of blade to be used. After exploring a few options, Joe then wanted to do glasses and have the glasses create some blades. It is set in a moderate amount of time in the future, so tech could exist to do stuff like that, like with the skis as well. I think that's just fun to just give it a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of that future that I think is 10 years ahead of our own time.
BC: Speaking about gadgets, and also Jason Bourne references, were there any specific influences from any specific media?
JY: The biggest one that influenced this project is actually A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. When the script was written for these sequences in the series, David, Will and Joe really wanted that HISTORY OF VIOLENCE feel that is just kind of more gritty, more R-rated, more struggle, more tense, more thrill, less actiony. I think we still have our moments, but A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN were the kind of vibe we were going for, with a little bit of that gritty realism that you can spice up with a ski chase and meet up with a train sequence. But yeah, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE was a big one.
BC: Speaking of violence, there are lots of great action scenes. Priyanka definitely took me by surprise as I noticed that she was doing some wrist moves similar to Aikido. Were there any specific martial arts styles you wanted to incorporate into CITADEL?
JY: Usually we do. We usually are very specific with the martial arts that we will develop for a character. The hard part for CITADEL is when you've got Priyanka's character who isn't an expert at all. She literally was raised in the Citadel spy academy. From birth, she's been trained. For her, it was kind of just everything. If it is close quarters, elbows are going to be more destructive. Wrist locks are going to be able to manipulate a stronger, bigger person. We're absolutely always trying to throw that in with Priyanka’s character. Richard is more of a street fighter, a dog with just determination, grit, and just more cheap shots. He will do everything he can, but that's his character. He's an absolute street dog. We're always looking to put martial arts and specific techniques in places, but we were never really going to have characters use specific styles. For Priyanka's Nadia, what does the situation call for? Is it a little bit defensive? We just allowed her to be more free flowing in combat and it helps serve her character. The benefit is that Priyanka is extremely good with action. She can pick up everything very quickly, and she's just an excellent performer in it.
BC: It definitely shows. I love seeing Richard and Priyanka perform all the action scenes. Were there any times where they gave any inputs as to how they wanted to do their action scenes?
JY: Always. Whenever we come to design for characters, we always ask Priyanka and Richard, “What would Mason do? What would Nadia do?” Every action sequence should serve the story and character. You should come out of an action sequence knowing more about both. The decision and action sequences are just a quick stream of rapid fire decisions at a physical level. You put Mason in a corner and say, “Hey, Richard, here are 6-7 options of how these martial arts can work out in the corner. What would Mason do?” Richard will look at it and go, “Well, he's going to grab the guy and just smash his head.” They always have the input. Same with Priyanka. They always have the inputs because they're the ones doing the action. We want them to feel the most comfortable, but also with the characters and the decisions they make.
BC: Right now [as we do this interview], CITADEL is up to episode four on Amazon Prime for everybody to see. What would you say is the most difficult action sequence up to episode four?
JY: I think a few of them were difficult for just different reasons. The bathroom fight was so fun. It was a very tight space, but the set was built brilliantly so we could manipulate it and work with it. The challenge was just the cameras and the physical performance in that space. The train sequence was such a big gun fight. It was hard to track everything and what moments could be seen. The hardest part was probably the hunter cabin fight that Priyanka had to do with Ivo Nandi. We shot that in 2-3 days. It's an eight-minute sequence of the acting scene and the fight itself. Priyanka is so incredible at performing that she not only performed as an injured Nadia, but had to literally play two characters in the sequence when she wakes up again. All of that adds to really long days. At the same time, that cabin was next to a lake in Georgia, and it was about 110 degrees inside. That was probably the most challenging sequence, and it was just very hot in there. We had such a brilliant team and Priyanka is such a trooper and so good at what she does. We had an absolute blast doing it and I think it shows on the screen.
BC: Absolutely. From your martial arts background, was there anything specifically that you were able to incorporate into CITADEL?
JY: Always. I'm a Jeet Kune Do teacher. I used to teach way back before I got in stunts. Jeet Kune Do has always been my bread and butter, always my go-to. With Nadia, I always incorporate a little bit of that, like using the closest weapon near the target and always going forward and flowing. I always try to instill the little pieces in there, but we really go for what works best with the actors. With Richard, there are a little bit of cheap shots, street fighting, and some elbows. We're always trying to sprinkle a little bit in, but it all works for the characters. I think the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do works well for Nadia. Like mixed martial arts, it’s always thinking forward, economy in motion, and never really going backwards to go forward. It's just flowing, being like water; essentially, the ultimate fighter.
BC: Right, right. When the first ten minutes of the first episode start off in the train, were there any influences for that specific segment? Lately there have been a lot of media, especially action movies, that take place on a train.
JY: The biggest influence was A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. It was always about trying to keep the violence tense and thrilling. We did take a look at the train sequences on SPECTRE, to some of the train fights that have been in Hong Kong cinema and Korean cinema. We took a look at everything, but it really was just what was going to serve the story that Joe and David were trying to tell. I think what I like about the sequence is that it's a few things in one. It's an ambush. It's a set up. It's a whole world getting twisted on its head. That was kind of the fun thing to do with the sequence. You're in this tense conversation, and all of a sudden Richard comes through the door icing people left, right, and center. I think it's just the tension from the beginning that was very interesting about that sequence. We took a look at it a lot, but we left for Joe and Davey to really craft what story they wanted to tell on the train.
BC: Right. CITADEL is one of the most expensive TV series to be produced and it definitely shows. Seeing your background in a lot of movies and how you've done a little bit of TV work, what would you say was probably the biggest difference between having worked on movies such as the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies versus working on this Amazon Prime streaming series?
JY: Time and scheduling. If you work on a Marvel movie, it’s two hours of entertainment, right? So you're shooting for two hours, whereas if you're working on a series, whether it’s CITADEL, GAME OF THRONES or anything else, you're looking at multiple hours. CITADEL, essentially, is a six-and-a-half-hour movie if you put all of the season together. That's a lot of shooting done in a time frame. I think that's the challenge in that it's just very quick and nonstop. But with a great crew, you have fun doing it. But then again, we're kind of conditioned for that. When we did AVENGERS: INFINITY WARS and ENDGAME back-to-back, that was three years of our lives, just non-stop shooting action. I think that's really it. It's just time. There's so much story to be told. So much story to be told across six episodes and continuity. Sometimes if you're lucky enough, you're shooting everything in order with fights. Sometimes, we've done two opening fights and now we're gonna go do the finale and we haven't shot any of the action in the middle. Those are the usual things you run into. For us, we were lucky enough that it was all chronological. But time is usually the the challenge when you're working on TV. A lot of story to be told in little time.
BC: I understand that there's going to be a CITADEL: INDIA spin-off. And we still got two more episodes for the public to watch. Is there anything that audiences and fans of this exciting series can expect?
JY: One of the things that I really liked when we were signed on to do the series was the whole scope of what this is. It essentially is not just one season, one series; it's different countries. You've got Amazon in different countries with different teams making this world. I think what's really going to come through is that it's just one big long-form storytelling of this really unique spy universe that I think is very interesting. I've seen some very cool things and I'm excited for everyone to witness it too.
BC: Right, thank you so much.
JY: Awesome, thank you Brian.
