I think what we want to do is - when we choreograph, when we design choreography, we try to take it from a character standpoint first. Obviously you write a script and it's like, a Jason Bourne or a John Wick or something like that, you don't start choreographing double twisting wire moves and backflips, or doing the splits. You try to keep it so it fits the character, or the tone of the film.
Chad StahelskiI have a very strong belief in what I like, or a very strong opinion in genre films that I like to watch.
Chad StahelskiKeanu and I were in New York, I was prepping John Wick 2. And when Keanu [Reeves], [writer] Derek Kolstad, and myself sat down and wrote the character, it was completely, one hundred percent based on Laurence Fishburne. Like, in my head I saw this guy.
Chad StahelskiWe'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].
Chad StahelskiLaurence [Fishburn] helped redo some of the dialogue [in John Wick 2], he and Keanu [Reeves] workshopped it. And he couldn't have been more respectful couldn't have been more brilliant on set. I said, "look, I'm gonna have to work you a little bit here cause I only get you for three days." He never left set, was always engaging, always working on his lines, it was awesome.
Chad StahelskiI think what we want to do is - when we choreograph, when we design choreography, we try to take it from a character standpoint first. Obviously you write a script and it's like, a Jason Bourne or a John Wick or something like that, you don't start choreographing double twisting wire moves and backflips, or doing the splits. You try to keep it so it fits the character, or the tone of the film.
Chad Stahelski