Faces Behind the Fists
Martial Arts and Stunts in Hollywood
By Amanda Zhang
Lights, Camera, Action
The world’s most awarded movie of all time today is about martial arts. It is also about laundry, taxes, multiverses and hot dog fingers. But it profoundly shines a spotlight on Chinese wushu as a bridge between Western ideals and Eastern heritage. In the 2023 cinematic awards cycle, "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" won a historic seven Academy Awards, including three of the four acting Oscars and Best Picture.
It is a testament to what a contemporary action film can entail and a celebration of the stunt performers behind its mesmerizing fight sequences. With Hollywood’s rampant increase in thrilling blockbusters, including the likes of “Dune: Part Two”, “Fall Guy”, and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, the impact of stunt coordinators and martial artists on media and vice versa has reached revolutionary new heights.
“For me, it was “The Matrix”. I saw it and thought… I need to be doing that. “The Matrix” made me realize that I can be a part of this creative machine too,” said Kerry Wong, a stuntman with extensive experience performing and choreographing on films like “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “The Paper Tigers”.
Wong grew up in California’s Bay Area and began learning Chinese wushu through high school and university clubs. Andrew Chin, head stunt coordinator on The CW television show “Kung Fu” came up in a similar way, discovering his passion for wushu in community cultural organizations in Canada. Chin grew up leading his Chinese martial arts team through competitions and Chinese New Year performances to showcase and spread the art. Watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Steven Steagal films sparked Chin’s interest in entertainment. It led him to study motion capture work under his wushu coach before learning more about stuntwork.
What is a stunt coordinator?
A stunt coordinator’s responsibility is to always service the script, to decipher different ways that scenes require movement and to execute how a protagonist overcomes their adversary. They conduct direct communication with the director for their vision of a certain martial arts discipline or combat style.
Stunt professionals then provide physicality for actors and help them curate different emotions through body movement. They train actors to throw punches and kicks. Then, check if actors have theatrical reactions down. Stunt coordinators look at spacing, go through the “what ifs” and workshop the same script with different iterations of fight sequences.
They also help prepare actors with reactive movements, whatever their character would do in specific scenarios, to get themselves out of unplanned scenarios. They map movement as much as possible to see all the permutations that can happen within a take.
Kerry Wong supervises action choreography on the set of "The Paper Tigers" (2020). This was Wong's first feature film as head stunt coordinator. (Source: Kerry Wong)
Sheryl Lewis performs in an unreleased film. Lewis works as a stunt professional, actor, filmmaker and circus aerialist. (Source: Cheryl Lewis)
Stuntwoman and martial artist Cheryl Lewis understands the plethora of unique directions an action sequence can take from her background doubling on films and television shows, ranging from “Wonder Woman 1984” to “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Shameless”. She enjoys the mathematical experience of calculating action on set.
“Let’s say you have something like a fight across a kitchen island. And you have to roll and land on the other side of it,” Lewis said. “For me, it’s like, what was the height of that island? What’s the pivot point for me to get up on my hip? When I slide to the end, at what point do I start to make my turn to make my landing?”
“But also, let’s keep in mind where the camera is. How much framing does the camera see so it’ll look like the biggest, gnarliest wreck? You have to be mindful and be ready for changes when they come up,” said Lewis.
Training, especially in dance, sports and martial arts, helps her access priorities when it comes time for the camera to roll. Fight choreography can ironically transform into conflict resolution to push a film’s story forward.
Martial Arts Within Movies
“Martial arts discipline really helps with your fighting skills and training your body for impact, but it also comprises of the calmness and respect of working with another individual. It’s all conditioning,” said Eric Chen, founder of the National Wushu Training Center in Los Angeles.
Thanks to his studio’s proximity to Hollywood in the late 1980s, Chen started to teach wushu to actors. He gradually got hired onto film sets as a martial arts consultant, stunt man and stunt coordinator. Chen got the opportunity to train Chris Farley in “Beverly Hills Ninja”, stunt double for Chow Yun-Fat in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and teach Jason Statham fighting techniques for “Transformers”.
“Jason Statham had to use a very long stick for this role. So, I taught him how to use it almost like a Chinese spear. [Statham] was kind of not using the stick as a wushu weapon but as an improvisation weapon. He was very believable. I’m very proud of when actors can do wushu properly. But it doesn’t look like they’re performing martial arts, you know. It’s a part of their character,” said Chen.
If a stunt coordinator has a fight scene with another person, they must know the mechanics behind how to wield a prop. Dexterity from working with weapons in martial arts aids in manipulating objects for that.
“Through entertainment, we get to show the world what we’ve cultivated within ourselves. It’s a wonderful way to extend olive branches or make people connect,” said Matthew Osbourne, the current head coach of the National Wushu Training Center.
(Source: National Wushu Training Center)
The center’s coaching team, under the leadership of Eric Chen, helped Osbourne break into the world of stunts. There was always some production preparing at the studio that Osbourne could assist with and learn from. His first large-scale film experience was modeling forms for “Kung Fu Panda,” after Chen took on the film’s martial arts consultant role. Chen got the opportunity to design the animated characters' wushu movements based on their animal selves.
Movies moving martial arts
Action films help keep martial arts schools afloat. A wushu school, in particular, can be difficult to maintain outside of China without federal government funding. But Hollywood gives wushu a presence that transcends tradition. The industry both advertises the artform and proves that practitioners do not have to identity with a certain ethnicity in order to participate.
“It’s saying that everyone can do it, not just practitioners with Asian faces. It’s not an appropriation or gentrification of systems. The more, the merrier,” said Wong.
The spread of culture operates in a cyclical fashion through kung fu. Children or younger audiences consume awe-spiring media containing martial arts choreo. They begin learning movements seen on-screen at schools within their communities. Coaches, potentially in the stunt work profession, help guide their protegees through form training and eventual professional opportunities on sets.
When people learn wushu, capoeira, and other fighting styles alike, they acquire valuable cultural information. These students eventually develop into teachers and stunt-performing actors themselves and helm new films and television shows for the next generation. They all become a part of the creative machine, actively extending the life of martial arts.
“Wushu is Chinese philosophy expressed through movement. Even if you weren’t told Chinese idioms or little stories, you can work out these universal conditions that we as people have, no matter if you’re from Europe, Asia or Africa. Wushu tackles [humanity] in so many ways. I feel like it can transform a person,” said Osbourne.
One might find this pattern in many facets of consumerism. But media holds a fascinatingly direct responsibility for spreading wushu. Silver screens have given mass audiences the opportunity to prove how movie magic can live on through personal practice.
Stunt coordinators play a pivotal role in not only ensuring the safety of talent onset but in working as symbols of preservation for cultural artforms that too deserve the ability to thrive on-screen and beyond.
“It’s the most effective way you can get people, especially young people, to want to train. I got hooked on wushu because of how beautiful and dynamic [the sport] is. Film is the seed for the next generation,” said Chen. “The most important thing is helping shape a person’s psyche in a way that will help them tremendously in the rest of their life. These are elements that wu shu brought us that we may not even recognize. But they stay with us.”
The Future of Stuntwork
Mikayla Ashe
Andre Walker
Recognition of the importance of stunt coordination continues to grow. But true representation still needs a lot of work. Historically, stunt teams for film or TV projects have mostly comprised of men. There lies a residual effect from 20th century filmmaking in which men would don wigs to perform stunt gags as female characters.
“And there were still a lot of times where white people would represent other ethnicites. Because [decision makers] don’t know of a Black female stunt driver, they assume that they don’t exist. And that’s not the case. It will never be the case. But these are the obstacles that we face. And hopefully, it’s getting better, getting more awareness,” said Lewis.
Chin believes that the most impactful part of his work is aiding in that progress. “Kung Fu” features an Asian female lead who showcases her martial arts. It matters who is catalyzing incredible action on-screen, and action personnel play a part in propelling diverse narratives out to the public.
Stunt professionals put their own lives on the line for the sake of storytelling, especially as more movies rely on dynamic action scenes and set pieces. While there are community members starting to direct their own works for wide release, the stunt community still does not have a Academy Award category or industry-wide accolades like other cinematic departments. Representation is a constantly evolving conversation.
“Let’s keep that train going and see where it leads us, because we do have a new wave of performers and coordinators coming up,” said Chin. “We’re all relying on the new generation to keep it real and keep improving and encouraging action in film.”
Learn the five basic stances of kung fu!
