Ever wondered what it takes to bring to life the daring stunts played out on screen?
From high-speed car chases and explosive shootouts to elegant swordplay and brutal fistfights, here’s the behind-the-scenes look at some of Netflix’s most-loved films and series where the stars themselves took on the challenge of performing most – if not all – the stunts.
1. Mary Elizabeth Winstead in ‘Kate’
Besides ‘Gemini Man’ and ‘Birds of Prey’, “Kate” marks the latest film where Mary Elizabeth Winstead takes on yet another series of increasingly complex stunts as a female assassin with less than 24 hours to live.
In order to do this, Winstead clocked in a year’s worth of physical training prior to filming, working on drills that incorporated Jiu-Jitsu and boxing.
To elevate her gunwork, she trained with Hollywood’s go-to weapons trainer Taran Butler and received hands-on training from former military snipers in Thailand.
LOOK OUT FOR: Winstead and Japanese actor Miyavi’s gripping kitchen fight scene, which they performed without stunt doubles and is one of the actress’ favourite and most challenging sequences to film. ‘Kate’ premiered on Sept 10.
2. Henry Cavill in ‘The Witcher’
Henry Cavill has mentioned that he has “always enjoyed doing the physical stuff”.
“I think [doing my own stunts is] an essential piece to the character,” he explained. “If an audience is watching Geralt on-screen, they must believe that it is me. If it’s not me, I feel like I’ve betrayed the character in some way, and so I try and do as much as a production will let me.”
It’s an endeavour that has definitely paid off for Cavill as the action sequences of his character Geralt are often lauded as some of the series’ highlights.
LOOK OUT FOR: The iconic Blaviken fight scene, and the return of Geralt of Rivia. Season 2 of The Witcher premieres on Dec 17.
3. ‘Weir’ Sukollawat Kanaros in ‘Bangkok Breaking’
In the upcoming Thai series, Weir plays Wanchai, a new arrival in the city who joins Bangkok’s road-rescue services.
He soon finds himself entangled in a web of dark secrets alongside a young, upstart journalist, attracting attention from powerful forces hell-bent on stopping them from unravelling the truth.
On top of undergoing rescue service training to prepare for the role, Weir’s real-life passion for motorcycles proved extremely handy on set when he had to perform a high-speed action scene.
LOOK OUT FOR: The scene in which Wanchai speeds away on a bike while dodging bullets with aplomb is amazing. Bangkok Breaking premieres on Sept 23.
4. Chris Hemsworth in ‘Extraction’
While he leaves the insane stunts to the experts, Hemsworth was very much involved in the movie’s key action sequence, ‘The Oner’, which involved 12 minutes of non-stop action filmed to appear as a seamless one-take scene.
As the epic sequence was the first thing they shot for the film, Hemsworth trained with the stunt team an hour a day prior to filming and continued to work with them even after production began to nail down and perfect the choreography.
LOOK OUT FOR: The Oner — a 12-minute-long action sequence in the film.
5. Ju Ji-hoon in Kingdom
When you’re an exiled crown prince trying to save your kingdom from a zombie apocalypse, you have to do a lot more than just outrun the undead.
The action-filled series required the cast – including Ju Ji-hoon, who plays Crown Prince Lee Chang – to perform no small number of stunts, which was challenging due to the number of actors and zombies involved in each scene.
Many of the actor’s fight scenes had to be filmed in long takes in order to capture his emotions.
In fact, he recalled the aftermath of filming a one-take rooftop fight scene in Season 2 where he suddenly lost strength in his legs, came tumbling down, and broke his finger.
LOOK OUT FOR: The crown prince and his army of living making their last stand against the undead on a frozen lake at the tail end of Season 2.
6. Charlize Theron in The Old Guard
As her character is one of the four undying warriors who have been secretly protecting humanity for millennia, Theron had to look like she had been using the axe-like labrys for thousands of years on top of familiarising herself with various different styles of combat.
To achieve this, the actress trained five days a week, doing a mixture of strength conditioning and combat training.
Her weekly schedule included striking motions, throws and weapon work, on top of martial arts training that spanned Iaido, Kendo, Silat, Kali, Hung Ga Kuen, as well as Wushu, Greco-Roman wrestling, Judo, and Jiu Jitsu.
LOOK OUT FOR: The knock-em-down fight sequence on the plane, which was also the very first scene to be shot for the film. Theron and co-star KiKi Layne trained separately, then came together about two weeks before filming to fine-tune the choreography.
This sure gives one a lot more appreciation for the hard work and coordination that goes into bringing stunt work to life. Catch these stars and their fellow stunt performers for some heart-racing action, only on Netflix.