Taken from JRE #1995 w/Chad Stahelski:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DLu8ms9Nrjc7a8DRTyDFg?si=1225fc1a39874d05

Keanu brings, like, that's not just John.

He loves, like, that's why he's got Arch Motorcycles, right?

If you ever get a chance, you should check that shop out.

Yeah, but to build just to watch how he's got all the water cutters there.

It's very it's a very artistic Oh the bikes are incredible great,

but he brings that to every like he just he's very

He's fascinated by like, who makes this cup, Joe?

Like how do you, like everything he'd just fascinate over.

I guess, curious artistically, like how things are done, who people are.

He's just got a genuine curiosity and love for things

I've never met him, but it just every interview you see with him every movie He's a very unusual person.

I think anybody Really artistic or at least the really I think artistic people that I've met they maintain that little bit of and I mean this in the best of ways, a little bit of childness wonder.

Like, I could talk to you all day about, like, archery.

I could talk to you all day about martial arts.

I could talk to you all day about like archery I could talk to you all day about Mars I talked

to you all day about motorcycle I could talk to you all day about movies, and I think that's you got to have that you need that little Inspiration I think you need that little bit of Wonder wonder lust into into certain things And I think he still got that.

Like he will still, he'll see a sequence, we'll come in with the nunchucks and do something, and he'll start giggling.

And he just goes from totally serious guy to, okay, now how do I learn how

to do no he just everything you need to know about numchucks He wants to know about numchucks.

how much time did he have to train martial arts before John Wick 1?

So he hadn't been Like he wasn't in fight shape though.

So we gave him like I think 3 to 5 weeks with some of the trainers we found to get into shape to get into shape.

You know, cut weight, got himself back in, stretched, you know, kind of got back into where he was on the Matrix.

And then we stuck him with the fight teams and the stunt guys.

That was about 3 months to get him into that shape and teach him all the, you know, the Aikido stuff and the Aikijutsu.

But you need so, there's so much going on in those movies physically that you need to be proficient in yeah the gun stuff the throws Jiu-jitsu striking everything the

jiu-jitsu was the new thing for him probably not the most physically demanding But you know It is we used to use your hands and feet.

first time you transition jitsu It's like it

Yeah, it really is and only even recently for me I'm starting to

feel like oh I can move I it feels just as good to

be on my back as my butt It's really you know, But I think we took a lot of inspiration from dance.

Most of what we do is dance, they're based on dance drills.

We kick, punch, but we don't train the actors in Thai pads or focus mitts or heavy bag.

We'll do maybe a little of that for impact stuff, but it's mostly about memory.

he can't remember 5 moves, you're not much good to

And it's more martial arts is action, reaction, or causing the guy to be off balance.

All our guys are trained to keep him on balance, to make it look crazy, but they got to dance with him.

he hadn't been trained that way before is more like memorize I memorizing You know a few moves hitting some kind of sequence

every time you do punches and kicks, you see

Like they're on you, right, over my shoulder.

goes over your shoulder so I can sell the hit.

So if I do a big wide shot profile, you throw in a

I gotta cut somewhere to show the impact unless you're really kicking me, which not advisable most of the time.

So all, every time, the more punching and kicking, striking you do, or if Keanu's not doing the motion, I gotta cut more, and every time I cut, it's a setup, it's just time consuming.

Not that it's bad or good, it's just time consuming.

We knew we weren't gonna have that so we're like fuck.

Okay, we're just gonna grab We're just gonna make it all grappling and like is that gonna look you know, you remember it's all during the Bourne So everything's gonna look very slow You know compared To what it was, but we're just we're

I kiddo I get you 2 or jujitsu That's it.

That's all we're gonna do no punches No kicks no nothing, and we'll do it all in 1 take and we're all like yeah sounds good

was a complete disaster after the first 2 days of shooting the fight scenes.

We're like, this is gonna suck, we're fucked.

Like we did it out of necessity and we thought it was cool.

But like you'd see people, they were like, where's the, like, You know, sometimes people look at it and go, well, he's doing

I mean, Ipan Sayanagi looks the same, but for us, the different grips, the different throw, it all looks different to me.

Like, I'm a throw, you know, I love judo porn.

I could watch a million different throws.

They wanna see the cool jump, spin, hook, kick or something like that.

we put in the close quarter stuff and when you're seeing it, remember we don't have the muzzle flashes on,

you're just kinda seeing, it looks like they're dancing.

And then you put in the sound effects and you put it in the muzzle and then you put it in the fucking

So what do you, when he's shooting in the actual filming, is he just pulling the trigger and it's just going click?

Like, guns in the camera, you fire the blank.

Most firearms up until very recently fire blanks.

And for the people out there, a blank is a round without the actual bullet, the lead piece that hits.

But a blank still has a gunpowder charge in it.

Say maybe, you know, even if it's only 50 grams of black powder But at a range of 10 to 15 feet that'll still I can kill you yeah concussive force That's when you hear about all the accidents that have happened with blanks over the years like you can't put a blank under your head And pull the trigger it can't right So we wanted to do all this close quarter shooting.

We wanted to put the muzzle and do all this stuff, close quarter contact stuff.

So we went to our VFX guys, and the trick is not so much the muzzle flask, it's the lighting interaction, especially at night, and it's cycling the automatic, getting it in and having the casing ejection.

All it do, but it can add up with visual effects costs.

So we went and we found the armors, and through Taron and the other technologies that we found through the armors, we made a plug gun.

A plug gun is a gun that has almost a steel rod inside the barrel, and it kicks the gas a different way.

So we still have an ejection, but nothing.

No energy, no flash, no padding or wadding comes out the barrel.

Like, you know, you couldn't put a live round in it if you tried.

In us, it's a very, very small charge of black powder.

They're very, very limited in the drainage.

So all that stuff that you see, the blood splatter, that's all CGI?

There's 1 or 2 instances where it's not, but most of the

blood is, the blood's so good Nowadays digitally that

a Tarantino like in Django Tarantino still uses old-school blood packs Which I'm old school.

I fucking love that I think it's amazing But we're just the time and you know you like you see a John wick movie It's like you know the reset on 20 stunt guys taking hits of 1 day It'd be a three-hour reset to change the wardrobe right and head shots you'd have to put a special head pack on with a wig and all that stuff.

The muzzle flashes, we actually shoot against a green screen and we'll call them elements, and then we'll plug actual muzzle flashes back into the movie later on.

So they're not digital per se but they are comped in or in a composition and that's how we get the cool lighting effect and keep the cool muzzle flashes.

How long did it take you to film that red circle bar scene?

And Keanu, he had the flu, he had like a 103 degree fever, he was going down, it was a rough day.

It was freezing cold New York, he had the flu, super high temperature and we were just flying through it.

Like literally 2, 3 takes, move on, 2, 3 takes, move

actors have a fucking earache they'll call it

Look, if we, if there's another way, if we could have shut down and let them, we just, it was like 1 of those, we either gotta stop or we don't, but we only get 1 shot.

You couldn't afford, and Keanu's that guy too.


Speaker 0: The Jurogan experience.

Speaker 1: But that's Keanu. Keanu brings, like, that's not just John. That's Keanu. Keanu loves cars. He loves bikes.

He loves the discipline of it. He loves, like, that's why he's got Arch Motorcycles, right? If you ever get a chance, you should check that shop out. It's the most pristine.

Speaker 2: I'm sure. I can't fuck with motorcycles. I'm scared of them

Speaker 1: Yeah, but to build just to watch how he's got all the water cutters there. It's very it's a very artistic Oh the bikes are incredible great,

Speaker 0: but he brings that to every like he just he's very

Speaker 1: Not compulsive. He's very he loves the art

Speaker 0: of things.

Speaker 1: Yeah, he loves the art of it. He's fascinated by like, who makes this cup, Joe? Like how do you, like everything he'd just fascinate over. He wants a story on it.

Speaker 0: He's 1 of the most curious, most,

Speaker 1: I guess, curious artistically, like how things are done, who people are. He's just got a genuine curiosity and love for things

Speaker 2: He's a very unique guy. I think so. I've never met him, but it just every interview you see with him every movie He's a very unusual person.

Speaker 0: Yeah, and he's got you know what I think

Speaker 1: I think anybody Really artistic or at least the really I think artistic people that I've met they maintain that little bit of and I mean this in the best of ways, a little bit of childness wonder. They're still kids a little bit. Like, I could talk to you all day about, like, archery. I could talk to you all day about martial arts.

Speaker 0: I could talk to you all

Speaker 3: day about motorcycling. I could talk to you all day about like archery I could talk to you all day about Mars I talked

Speaker 1: to you all day about motorcycle I could talk to you all day about movies, and I think that's you got to have that you need that little Inspiration I think you need that little bit of Wonder wonder lust into into certain things And I think he still got that. Like he will still, he'll see a sequence, we'll come in with the nunchucks and do something, and he'll start giggling. He's like, you want

Speaker 0: me to do that? He's like, okay, that's pretty cool. And he just goes from totally serious guy to, okay, now how do I learn how

Speaker 1: to do no he just everything you need to know about numchucks He wants to know about numchucks.

Speaker 0: He just throws himself into it So

Speaker 2: how much time did he have to train martial arts before John Wick 1?

Speaker 1: 0 god, it wasn't that

Speaker 0: He was coming out of a couple films. So he hadn't been Like he wasn't in fight shape though. So, you know, you know, it's just

Speaker 1: like you can't just jump back in. So we gave him like I think 3 to 5 weeks with some of the trainers we found to get into shape to get into shape. You know, cut weight, got himself back in, stretched, you know, kind of got back into where he was on the Matrix. And then we stuck him with the fight teams and the stunt guys. I think we had him within 3 months.

That was probably the shortest 1 we did. That was about 3 months to get him into that shape and teach him all the, you know, the Aikido stuff and the Aikijutsu.

Speaker 2: But you need so, there's so much going on in those movies physically that you need to be proficient in yeah the gun stuff the throws Jiu-jitsu striking everything the

Speaker 0: jiu-jitsu was the new thing for him probably not the most physically demanding But you know It is we used to use your hands and feet. I mean, I'm sure you remember the

Speaker 1: first time you transition jitsu It's like it

Speaker 0: looks easy, but yeah Completely it's

Speaker 2: an eye-opener.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is and only even recently for me I'm starting to

Speaker 0: feel like oh I can move I it feels just as good to

Speaker 1: be on my back as my butt It's really you know, But I think we took a lot of inspiration from dance. Most of what we do is dance, they're based on dance drills. They're not based on martial art drills. They look like martial arts. We kick, punch, but we don't train the actors in Thai pads or focus mitts or heavy bag.

We'll do maybe a little of that for impact stuff, but it's mostly about memory. Because if a guy can punch

Speaker 0: and kick, that's great, but if

Speaker 1: he can't remember 5 moves, you're not much good to

Speaker 2: us.

Speaker 1: And it's more martial arts is action, reaction, or causing the guy to be off balance. All our guys are trained to keep him on balance, to make it look crazy, but they got to dance with him. So it's about that metronome Beat going

Speaker 0: so when we trained him

Speaker 1: he hadn't been trained that way before is more like memorize I memorizing You know a few moves hitting some kind of sequence

Speaker 0: But we realized we had no money and

Speaker 1: we had no time and

Speaker 0: every time you do punches and kicks, you see

Speaker 1: in most movies, right? Like they're on you, right, over my shoulder. Then, you

Speaker 0: know, you take the hit and it

Speaker 1: goes over your shoulder so I can sell the hit. So you're always doing these reverses.

Speaker 0: So if I do a big wide shot profile, you throw in a

Speaker 1: nice roundhouse kick. I gotta cut somewhere to show the impact unless you're really kicking me, which not advisable most of the time. So all, every time, the more punching and kicking, striking you do, or if Keanu's not doing the motion, I gotta cut more, and every time I cut, it's a setup, it's just time consuming. Not that it's bad or good, it's just time consuming. We knew we weren't gonna have that so we're like fuck.

What do we do? Okay, we're just gonna grab We're just gonna make it all grappling and like is that gonna look you know, you remember it's all during the Bourne So everything's gonna look very slow You know compared To what it was, but we're just we're

Speaker 0: gonna do all great. We're gonna do

Speaker 1: I kiddo I get you 2 or jujitsu That's it. That's all you get if you get a punch. It'll be a contact hit. That's all we're gonna do no punches No kicks no nothing, and we'll do it all in 1 take and we're all like yeah sounds good

Speaker 0: No No, yeah, we thought it

Speaker 1: was a complete disaster after the first 2 days of shooting the fight scenes. We're like, this is gonna suck, we're fucked.

Speaker 2: Why'd you think

Speaker 0: that though? I think it was everyone's mindset. Like we did it out of necessity and we thought it was cool. But like you'd see people, they were like, where's the, like, You know, sometimes people look at it and go, well, he's doing

Speaker 1: the same throw over it. I mean, Ipan Sayanagi looks the same, but for us, the different grips, the different throw, it all looks different to me. Like, I'm a throw, you know, I love judo porn. I could watch a million different throws. It's awesome.

For some people, it all looks the same. They wanna see the cool jump, spin, hook, kick or something like that. But then

Speaker 0: we put in the close quarter stuff and when you're seeing it, remember we don't have the muzzle flashes on,

Speaker 1: we don't have the blood splatters.

Speaker 2: So

Speaker 1: you're just kinda seeing, it looks like they're dancing.

Speaker 0: And then you put in the sound effects and you put it in the muzzle and then you put it in the fucking

Speaker 1: reload and like now it's making sense.

Speaker 2: So what do you, when he's shooting in the actual filming, is he just pulling the trigger and it's just going click?

Speaker 0: Well, see that's the thing.

Speaker 2: You have dummy rounds?

Speaker 0: When you, Most movies you always see

Speaker 1: A to B cutting, right? I'm on you, you're the guy. Like, guns in the camera, you fire the blank. Most firearms up until very recently fire blanks. And for the people out there, a blank is a round without the actual bullet, the lead piece that hits.

But a blank still has a gunpowder charge in it. Say maybe, you know, even if it's only 50 grams of black powder But at a range of 10 to 15 feet that'll still I can kill you yeah concussive force That's when you hear about all the accidents that have happened with blanks over the years like you can't put a blank under your head And pull the trigger it can't right So we wanted to do all this close quarter shooting. We wanted to put the muzzle and do all this stuff, close quarter contact stuff. So we went to our VFX guys, and the trick is not so much the muzzle flask, it's the lighting interaction, especially at night, and it's cycling the automatic, getting it in and having the casing ejection. All it do, but it can add up with visual effects costs.

So we went and we found the armors, and through Taron and the other technologies that we found through the armors, we made a plug gun. A plug gun is a gun that has almost a steel rod inside the barrel, and it kicks the gas a different way. So we still have an ejection, but nothing. No energy, no flash, no padding or wadding comes out the barrel. Like, you know, you couldn't put a live round in it if you tried.

Speaker 2: So is it a lower level?

Speaker 0: In England, they use some that

Speaker 1: are like almost air contained.

Speaker 2: They

Speaker 1: can do it. In us, it's a very, very small charge of black powder. So it's a very, very... We call them plug guns. They're very, very limited in the drainage.

Speaker 2: So it's just enough to cycle the round.

Speaker 1: Just enough to cycle it, yep. And eject it.

Speaker 0: With nothing, yeah, ejecting,

Speaker 1: but nothing comes out the barrel.

Speaker 2: So all that stuff that you see, the blood splatter, that's all CGI?

Speaker 0: The blood is all CG. There's 1 or 2 instances where it's not, but most of the

Speaker 1: blood is, the blood's so good Nowadays digitally that

Speaker 0: it saves so much time so

Speaker 1: we have to change the wardrobe we get it

Speaker 0: I mean like you know you seem like

Speaker 1: a Tarantino like in Django Tarantino still uses old-school blood packs Which I'm old school. I fucking love that I think it's amazing But we're just the time and you know you like you see a John wick movie It's like you know the reset on 20 stunt guys taking hits of 1 day It'd be a three-hour reset to change the wardrobe right and head shots you'd have to put a special head pack on with a wig and all that stuff. So we do the blood hits digitally. The muzzle flashes, we actually shoot against a green screen and we'll call them elements, and then we'll plug actual muzzle flashes back into the movie later on. So they're not digital per se but they are comped in or in a composition and that's how we get the cool lighting effect and keep the cool muzzle flashes.

Speaker 2: How long did it take you to film that red circle bar scene?

Speaker 1: I think less than 4 days. Really? Yeah, we went really fast. And Keanu, he had the flu, he had like a 103 degree fever, he was going down, it was a rough day. It was freezing cold New York, he had the flu, super high temperature and we were just flying through it.

Like literally 2, 3 takes, move on, 2, 3 takes, move

Speaker 0: on, 2, 3 takes.

Speaker 2: Filming it with the flu. Wow. Yeah, he's a trooper, man.

Speaker 0: He's hard

Speaker 1: to keep

Speaker 2: down. That's incredible.

Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a tough fucker. A lot of

Speaker 2: actors have a fucking earache they'll call it

Speaker 0: quits for the day

Speaker 2: yeah yeah no comment no comment

Speaker 0: But like most of the

Speaker 1: people we work with, they get it. And we try to be smart too. Look, if we, if there's another way, if we could have shut down and let them, we just, it was like 1 of those, we either gotta stop or we don't, but we only get 1 shot. You couldn't afford, and Keanu's that guy too. You can't make him go city trip.

Speaker 2: Where did you film that? It was all New York City. But the Red Circle, where was that? It was

Speaker 0: in this little, it was up in the

Speaker 1: theater district. I forget the name of it. It was a shut down little club that we just kind of opened back up and put our own lighting rig in there and just kind of lit it up. I mean, if you had seen it in the daytime, it was all like that shit brown leather. It looked like you were walking into a, like a, you know, Big Boys or something.

It looked really bad. That gives credit to John Sella, the cinematographer on the first 1. We went in, put our lighting grid up, flashed a lot of big screen neon lights, put the extras in funny colors. And we ran out of money, so we didn't know how to put the bad guys in something, so we're like, okay, what would Star Trek do? And Star Trek, we always called them the red shirts.

You know,

Speaker 0: the guys in Star Trek that were always getting killed, you have to do was when you're right there. Kirk was transporting down to the planet with the red shirt guy, and that guy was gone. So we put

Speaker 1: all our bad guys in the red shirts. They were just going to kill them all. I think we had a deal. There's a local, like 1 of the garment district things. I think we got all those red shirts for like 10 bucks.

Speaker 0: It was like a whole deal.

Speaker 2: So we just

Speaker 1: bought all the stunt guys red shirts.

Speaker 0: But yeah, we did it all in this shitty little club in

Speaker 1: like 4 days, maybe 4 and a half days. You

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How Keanu Reeves Trained for John Wick