Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This series originally ran in 2019.
We are republishing it asThe Matrix Resurrectionshits theaters and HBO Max.
Nowadays, hes best known for directing theJohn Wickfilms, also starring Reeves.
ButThe Matrixshowed that a fight sequence could be graceful and surprising, as well as tell a story.
Now, Stahelski says, action movies want their big sequences designed around the fights.
At the time, martial arts werent that big in big-budget features.
It was considered more of a low-budget, chop-socky kind of thing.
It was a very different action-design fight era.
I was working on a TV show calledPretenderat the time.
And I had to do a car hit in the morning.
I was still bleeding when I got there.
They spoke some Chinese, and then they pointed to this guy Chen Hu.
They said, Just do what this guy does; copy him.
It was the first time Id ever met Keanu.
We took a couple of photos together and I split.
A month goes by, nothing.
Almost two months go by, and I get another phone call.
Hey, would you mind coming back in?
A week or two later they offered me the gig.
They said, Hey, how would you like to go to Australia and double Keanu?
I was like, Aw, thats awesome.
But, uh, sorry.
I was still on a TV show.
Now can you make it?
And I got on a plane in January to go out to start filming in Australia.
Training with Keanu, with the Hong Kong guys, everybody had to memorize everything.
They demanded a lot.
And the Wachowskis were meticulous, to say the least.
The storyboards were hundreds and hundreds of pages.
I still have my copy of them.
And I shit you not, they are almost the exact movie.
Their work ethic puts even the hardest-working people to shame.
He eats, sleeps, hangs out with the crew.
Hes the guy thatll take the camera guy out.
He loves that world; he loves being part of it.
When you started, did they give you a script?I didnt get a script until I landed.
I read it and didnt understand a fucking word of it.
Because the effects hadnt been put in yet.
Then I was fortunate enough to get invited to the premiere in Westwood.
When I sawthat, it was mind-blowing.
AfterThe Matrix just look at the martial-arts genre.
It had never breached the mainstream before.
You wouldnt see a $100 million or even a $50 million movie with martial arts.
Our action heroes didnt do it.
Americans worshiped one big power punch.
Today, action movies want their big sequences designed around the fights.
Now, what does every great Marvel movie have?
We had rehearsed it a million times.
We had squibs that had to go off.
I had barely met anybody on set at this point.
Basically,dont miss.
And he gave me that little stare.
Hes a very intense person.
And I was like,Okay.
I just threw myself in there and magically found the gun and grabbed it.
I was only 25 and I was like,Dont miss gun.
This is real stuff.
