It’s not a lot of a stretch to say that legendary stunt performer and motion director J.J. Perry helped form many of the vital motion films and franchises which have come out this century. He’s labored within the largest trendy film universes possible — Marvel, DC, Avatar, Quick and Livid, John Wick. He designed the motion on smaller beloved style tasks like Warrior and Undisputed II: Final Man Standing, and even supplied sturdy motion beats in comedies like Spy and Homicide Thriller 2.
Perry lastly obtained his probability at directing a function in 2022: the breezy throwback vampire action-comedy Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx. Two years later, he’s again together with his sophomore effort: the pleasant motion rom-com The Killer’s Sport, starring Dave Bautista and a legion of Perry’s pals and collaborators from the motion world.
The film follows Joe Flood (Bautista), a extremely succesful hitman with a giant crush on ballet dancer Maize (Sofia Boutella). Whereas their relationship remains to be budding, Joe learns he has a terminal sickness, and places out successful on himself to finish his struggling rapidly and hopefully get an insurance coverage payout for his new love. However shock! His physician gave him the unsuitable prognosis, and he’s really completely wholesome. With a brand new resolve to dwell, Joe has to struggle off a swarm of lethal assassins and maintain onto his imaginative and prescient of his future.
Becoming a member of Bautista and Boutella are Ben Kingsley as Bautista’s handler Zvi, Pom Klementieff as a rival handler, and Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Lee Hoon, Shaina West, Lucy Cork, and WWE wrestler Drew McIntyre as among the assassins. For motion followers, that record is a who’s who of people that kick ass. Mix that with Perry’s distinctive eye for motion design, and you’ve got some of the fulfilling films of the autumn.
The narrative setup permits for many room for expression from Perry, each within the characters and the motion design. Zaror’s character, Botas, is a specific standout, a flamenco dancer who fights with spurs on his boots and headphones in his ears. So are Adkins and McIntyre, who play a pair of practically unintelligible Scottish brothers (subtitles and all). There are bike fights, barroom brawls, tactical shootouts, intense martial arts motion, and all the pieces in between. At its greatest, The Killer’s Sport looks like an motion anthology sequence, following the protagonist as he fights his approach via the style, with Joe and Maize’s romance offering a coronary heart on the heart of all of it.
Polygon spoke with Perry about his strategy to the film’s distinctive premise, why wrestlers (and Bautista specifically) make such nice film stars, his inspirations for the wacky forged of characters, and his love for matching old-school aesthetics with new-school know-how.
This interview has been edited for concision and readability.
Polygon: The place did this challenge begin for you?
J.J. Perry: Like 12 years in the past, I obtained a script known as The Killer’s Sport, and so they had been on the lookout for a stunt coordinator. Someway that went away. After which three years in the past, I obtained the script once more, and so they had been on the lookout for a second unit director. I used to be ending up my first film, Day Shift, and I invited [producer] Andrew Lazar to see my director’s minimize whereas we had been within the enhancing room. He was like, “Dude, I need you to direct [The Killer’s Game].” And that’s the way it all form of got here to me.
Photograph: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
Getting the film was a giant win, however getting Dave Bautista to star in it was like successful the lottery for me. All of it simply form of fell collectively after that.
I think about a few of it’s his star energy and what he brings to the display screen, but in addition, having somebody like him connected to the challenge has to assist in giving it extra visibility.
I met Dave within the parking zone of 87eleven [Action Design] after I was prepping John Wick 2 and we had been coaching Keanu [Reeves]. He got here to satisfy Chad [Stahelski], and I chased him out within the parking zone and was like, “Dude, I’m a giant fan.”
I’ve labored with a variety of professional wrestlers over time. As a stuntman, I labored with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, only a host of them. However I all the time felt Dave was particular. He has one thing else. When he got here aboard, we had a chat, and I believe I gained him over by telling him that I’m not getting down to make an motion film. I’m getting down to make a love story.
For me, coming from the motion world, I wasn’t that involved with the motion. I can shut my eyes and throw the ball and hit it with motion. It’s my neighborhood. I do know the place I’m going. I must get the love story and the characters proper on this film, and the comedy. I must hit that. Everybody’s going to anticipate the motion to be good. I’m not likely nervous about that half, as a result of I do know it just like the again of my hand, and I’ve obtained a tremendous motion staff, and all we do is produce stunt biz continuously.
However getting the story proper is, I believe, what obtained Dave, and Dave introduced Sofia [Boutella]. I used to be scared shitless of the Maize character. I used to be like OK, who am I gonna get, a badass actress that may dance, that has chemistry with Dave? And he stated, “Oh, I obtained this good friend that I did Resort Artemis with.”
In case you ask an actress in Hollywood if they will dance, they’ll all say, “Yeah, I can dance.” However I don’t imply faucet dance within the fourth grade. I’m speaking about actually being about to bop. Sofia, earlier than she grew to become an actress, she was a dancer, and she or he’s a tremendous actress. Dave additionally introduced with him Terry Crews, which was tremendous cool. We had a tough time casting the Lovedahl position. I’d labored with Terry on Expendables 3. I really like him, however Dave, he’s expensive pals with him. He known as him, and growth, Terry Crews is on a airplane.
I obtained on the telephone and known as all my pals — Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucy Cork, Shaina West. In case you’re going someplace to get right into a rattling avenue struggle, what do you do? You name your homeboys and your homegirls to return assist you. If you stack your deck stuffed with aces, all you’re holding is aces.
What’s it about working with wrestlers in motion roles that you just like, and the way has Dave Bautista distinguished himself there to you?
If you recognize the film enterprise, extra film stars have come from WWE than anyplace else. Greater than soccer, greater than MMA. There’s a motive. They’re live-show performers. They’re appearing to the fellows within the nosebleeds. So it needs to be huge, and so they have to have the ability to retain the choreography. It’s a breeding floor for motion stars.
I believe that Dave, on the appearing degree, has actually surpassed any and all expectations for me. I do know him, and it’s unfair, as a result of he’s an awesome actor, he’s tremendous proficient, he’s tremendous clever, he’s tremendous form, he’s beneficiant. I need to be him so dangerous it makes my rattling enamel harm. For me, it was a profession excessive to get to do that with him. I simply completed one other one with him too, [a sci-fi comedy] known as Afterburn. We’re reducing it proper now.
You talked about Day Shift earlier, which has a really totally different strategy to motion than this one. It’s vampire-centric, you’ve obtained the contortionist gymnastics stuff occurring. The Killer’s Sport is a special playground. What was most fun to you about that as an motion director?
As a result of I direct a lot motion as a second unit director, it’s in regards to the characters. How do I make the characters totally different, and create issues for my protagonist, and present how he solves them? And it’s additionally the set-pieces. Like, the bike struggle. We had been supposed to do this in a building web site. Are you aware why we shot it inside? As a result of while you movie in Budapest in July, you solely have 4 dead nights. So I didn’t have the time I wanted to shoot for 10 hours straight.
We shot all of that bike enterprise in two days. I didn’t have a variety of time, so I wanted to deal with my strengths. However that venue created a variety of alternatives for the bikes to do stuff that you just won’t have seen earlier than. That’s your job, too, is to not regurgitate belongings you’ve seen. So after I’m directing motion films, I don’t watch motion films. I watch comedies and horror films.
One of many issues I loved most about The Killer’s Sport is how the premise permits you to use a variety of totally different motion instruments. You get to cycle via motion subgenres all through the film. If you learn the script, did that stand out to you, or did that come naturally within the course of?
The film that I learn 10 or 12 years in the past and the one I learn three years in the past are fairly a bit totally different. After we determined I’m directing the film, I went out and obtained [screenwriter] James Coyne, who’s a good friend of mine, and we rewrote. We put within the Goyang character, we put within the Botas character, we put within the occasion women, we put within the unintelligible Scottish guys.
We took some characters out, as a result of that script had been round so lengthy, you’d see individuals had taken their characters and put them in different films. So I put my very own DNA in it. We wrote these issues with Scott Adkins in thoughts, with Marko Zaror in thoughts, with Lucy Cork and Shaina West in thoughts.
With Botas — after I was a younger man, I used to be competing in taekwondo rather a lot. There was a man in my gymnasium that, when he placed on his Walkman, for those who had been sparring with him, he would beat the pants off of you, as a result of he was so into the heavy steel. However when he had the Walkman off, you can stroll throughout him. I used to be like, I would like to do this. Marko, he’s a particular character. We virtually misplaced that character, too. We didn’t have some huge cash.
[With the Mackenzie brothers], I labored in Scotland on F9. We locked up Edinburgh, and I couldn’t perceive a phrase of what my crew had been saying, however it was enjoyable, and so they laughed after I talked. We had a good time. Each different phrase was the C phrase. I used to be like. Whoa, you guys can simply say that? After which the occasion women… I spent most of my youth researching these women.
With the Mackenzie brothers, there’s a little bit of a commonality between Day Shift and this film. Is there all the time going to be room in your films for Scott Adkins to play half of a brother duo with a brand new accent?
I really like Scott. I’m going to forged him in all the pieces. I’ll forged Marko and Daniel in all the pieces. If you’re going to go someplace and do one thing laborious, you’re going to carry your pals. All of them might be their very own film stars. They’re all action-movie stars, however they might be film stars. I’ll all the time provide that to Scott, however hopefully I can provide him one thing larger subsequent time.
The film has a really comedian book-y narrative, although the supply materials isn’t a comic book e book. You might have cut up panels, wipes, match cuts — there’s a variety of playfulness within the film. How did you strategy marrying the model to the narrative?
After Day Shift, I wished one thing that seemed a bit totally different, and I watched the previous Thomas Crown Affair, and I watched some Man Ritchie. So among the cut up screens and among the transitions from scene to scene [were inspired by those]. I simply wished it to really feel totally different. We didn’t have a variety of time. It wasn’t a giant funds. We shot it in 42 days. It was what it was, however we made a meal of it.
I didn’t need it to look like a normal motion film. There’s some dolly zooms, 360 dolly pictures, a variety of Trinity pictures the place we’re wrapping round. I wished to take a variety of liberties with the digital camera, however I additionally wished to take a variety of liberties with the edit and the pacing. I did Day Shift, and I’m tremendous happy with that film. But it surely was very scene to scene to scene. I wished to do one thing that was just a little extra stylized.
After we talked about Day Shift approach again, we talked about how among the film harkens again to an ’80s or ’90s model of motion film. You want to combine older aesthetics with new-school tech. What appeals to you about that?
I realized how to do that job after I obtained out of the Military within the ’90s, after I grew to become a stuntman. And again then, you couldn’t say “Let’s simply repair it in publish.” Any person had to determine find out how to do it — you couldn’t simply lean on visible results. There wasn’t CGI, there was no YouTube for a tutorial, there was none of that. So that you needed to be a intelligent filmmaker. And I set to work with these guys and actually concentrate as a stunt coordinator and second unit director.
These stuntmen and ladies are next-level. Parkour champion, world drifting champion, UFC fighter, simply next-level. However they’re all younger women and men that I don’t fucking perceive a phrase of what they’re saying. And I really like them, and so they love me, and I’ve realized a lot from them, however I believe they study from me, too. That blend for me has all the time been tremendous fascinating.
Photograph: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
I’m caught in the course of Gen X, and I nonetheless take heed to Mötley Crüe, however on the identical time, I work with all these tech-savvy younger bucks and younger girls which can be wonderful. You noticed it in Day Shift with Dave [Franco] and Jamie [Foxx]’s characters, and it’s right here in The Killer’s Sport. That’s one thing that I actually love. It’s part of my life that I actually love and snigger at, and it’s one thing that I wished to carry throughout to the viewers.
I used to be pondering that’s one thing that the protagonists of The Killer’s Sport and Day Shift have in frequent: They’re every hyper-proficient at a violent job, however they’re additionally form of clueless of their life outdoors of the job. Is {that a} character trait you’re drawn to in tales?
[Points at self.] It’s form of my story. I’m 57, however I’m a 15-year-old trapped in a 57-year-old’s physique. I’ve been in a enterprise the place we crash automobiles and struggle and shoot issues and fall off a constructing. We don’t actually must develop up. You simply must watch out. You’re doing a bunch of youngsters’ stuff. And I urge individuals: Don’t develop up. It’s approach overrated. Don’t do it. You’re not going to dig it. You’re going to need to return. My spouse and I, we’ve obtained a 12-year-old, and she or he’s going to develop up approach ahead of I’ll.
The Killer’s Sport is in theaters now.
