It’s not a lot of a stretch to say that legendary stunt performer and motion director J.J. Perry helped form a lot of the important motion motion pictures and franchises which have come out this century. He’s labored within the greatest fashionable film universes possible — Marvel, DC, Avatar, Quick and Livid, John Wick. He designed the motion on smaller beloved style initiatives like Warrior and Undisputed II: Final Man Standing, and even offered sturdy motion beats in comedies like Spy and Homicide Thriller 2.
Perry lastly received 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 along with his sophomore effort: the pleasant motion rom-com The Killer’s Sport, starring Dave Bautista and a legion of Perry’s associates and collaborators from the motion world.
The film follows Joe Flood (Bautista), a extremely succesful hitman with an enormous crush on ballet dancer Maize (Sofia Boutella). Whereas their relationship continues to be budding, Joe learns he has a terminal sickness, and places out successful on himself to finish his struggling shortly and hopefully get an insurance coverage payout for his new love. However shock! His physician gave him the flawed analysis, and he’s really completely wholesome. With a brand new resolve to stay, Joe has to battle 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 a few of the assassins. For motion followers, that checklist is a who’s who of people that kick ass. Mix that with Perry’s distinctive eye for motion design, and you’ve got one of the crucial pleasant motion pictures 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 almost unintelligible Scottish brothers (subtitles and all). There are bike fights, barroom brawls, tactical shootouts, intense martial arts motion, and the whole lot in between. At its greatest, The Killer’s Sport appears like an motion anthology sequence, following the protagonist as he fights his method 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 solid 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 received a script referred to as The Killer’s Sport, and so they have been searching for a stunt coordinator. In some way that went away. After which three years in the past, I received the script once more, and so they have been searching 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 have been within the modifying room. He was like, “Dude, I need you to direct [The Killer’s Game].” And that’s the way it all type of got here to me.
Picture: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
Getting the film was an enormous win, however getting Dave Bautista to star in it was like successful the lottery for me. All of it simply type 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 additionally, having somebody like him connected to the challenge has to assist in giving it extra visibility.
I met Dave within the car parking zone of 87eleven [Action Design] once I was prepping John Wick 2 and we have been coaching Keanu [Reeves]. He got here to fulfill Chad [Stahelski], and I chased him out within the car parking zone and was like, “Dude, I’m an enormous fan.”
I’ve labored with a variety of professional wrestlers through the years. As a stuntman, I labored with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, only a host of them. However I at all times felt Dave was particular. He has one thing else. When he got here aboard, we had a chat, and I feel I received 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 have to get the love story and the characters proper on this film, and the comedy. I have to hit that. Everybody’s going to count on the motion to be good. I’m probably not nervous about that half, as a result of I do know it just like the again of my hand, and I’ve received an incredible motion workforce, and all we do is produce stunt biz continually.
However getting the story proper is, I feel, what received 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 received this good friend that I did Resort Artemis with.”
When you ask an actress in Hollywood if they’ll 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 turned an actress, she was a dancer, and he or she’s an incredible 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 like him, however Dave, he’s expensive associates with him. He referred to as him, and growth, Terry Crews is on a aircraft.
I received on the cellphone and referred to as all my associates — Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucy Cork, Shaina West. When you’re going someplace to get right into a rattling road battle, what do you do? You name your homeboys and your homegirls to come back assist you. Whenever you stack your deck filled 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 already know the film enterprise, extra film stars have come from WWE than wherever else. Greater than soccer, greater than MMA. There’s a motive. They’re live-show performers. They’re performing to the blokes within the nosebleeds. So it must be huge, and so they have to have the ability to retain the choreography. It’s a breeding floor for motion stars.
I feel that Dave, on the performing 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 ideal actor, he’s tremendous proficient, he’s tremendous clever, he’s tremendous type, he’s beneficiant. I wish to be him so dangerous it makes my rattling tooth damage. 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] referred to as Afterburn. We’re reducing it proper now.
You talked about Day Shift earlier, which has a really completely different strategy to motion than this one. It’s vampire-centric, you’ve received the contortionist gymnastics stuff happening. The Killer’s Sport is a unique playground. What was most enjoyable to you about that as an motion director?
As a result of I direct a lot motion as a second unit director, it’s concerning the characters. How do I make the characters completely different, and create issues for my protagonist, and present how he solves them? And it’s additionally the set-pieces. Like, the bike battle. We have been supposed to do this in a development web site. Are you aware why we shot it inside? As a result of whenever you movie in Budapest in July, you solely have 4 nighttimes. 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 concentrate on 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 once I’m directing motion motion pictures, I don’t watch motion motion pictures. I watch comedies and horror motion pictures.
One of many issues I loved most about The Killer’s Sport is how the premise means that you can use a variety of completely different motion instruments. You get to cycle via motion subgenres all through the film. Whenever 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 completely different. Once we determined I’m directing the film, I went out and received [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 motion pictures. 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 — once I was a younger man, I used to be competing in taekwondo so much. There was a man in my fitness center that, when he placed on his Walkman, when you have been sparring with him, he would beat the pants off of you, as a result of he was so into the heavy metallic. However when he had the Walkman off, you might 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 have been saying, nevertheless it was enjoyable, and so they laughed once 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 at all times going to be room in your motion pictures for Scott Adkins to play half of a brother duo with a brand new accent?
I like Scott. I’m going to solid him in the whole lot. I’ll solid Marko and Daniel in the whole lot. Whenever you’re going to go someplace and do one thing arduous, you’re going to carry your mates. All of them might be their very own film stars. They’re all action-movie stars, however they might be film stars. I’ll at all times supply that to Scott, however hopefully I can supply him one thing greater subsequent time.
The film has a really comedian book-y narrative, though the supply materials isn’t a comic book e-book. You could have break 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 needed one thing that regarded a bit completely different, and I watched the outdated Thomas Crown Affair, and I watched some Man Ritchie. So a few of the break up screens and a few of the transitions from scene to scene [were inspired by those]. I simply needed it to really feel completely different. We didn’t have a variety of time. It wasn’t an enormous 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 appear like a normal motion film. There’s some dolly zooms, 360 dolly photographs, a variety of Trinity photographs the place we’re wrapping round. I needed to take a variety of liberties with the digicam, however I additionally needed to take a variety of liberties with the edit and the pacing. I did Day Shift, and I’m tremendous pleased with that film. Nevertheless it was very scene to scene to scene. I needed to do one thing that was just a little extra stylized.
Once we talked about Day Shift method again, we talked about how a few of 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 once I received out of the Military within the ’90s, once I turned a stuntman. And again then, you couldn’t say “Let’s simply repair it in put up.” Someone had to determine the way 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 girls 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 like them, and so they love me, and I’ve realized a lot from them, however I feel they study from me, too. That blend for me has at all times been tremendous attention-grabbing.
Picture: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
I’m caught in the midst 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 ladies which are 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 snort at, and it’s one thing that I needed 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 type of clueless of their life exterior of the job. Is {that a} character trait you’re interested in in tales?
[Points at self.] It’s type 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 vehicles and battle and shoot issues and fall off a constructing. We don’t actually need to develop up. You simply need to watch out. You’re doing a bunch of children’ stuff. And I urge individuals: Don’t develop up. It’s method overrated. Don’t do it. You’re not going to dig it. You’re going to wish to return. My spouse and I, we’ve received a 12-year-old, and he or she’s going to develop up method earlier than I’ll.
The Killer’s Sport is in theaters now.