The Big Picture

Stunt coordinator Larnell Stovall discusses his career progression and love for fight choreography in this interview about the Peacock series The Continental. Stovall credits the success of the John Wick franchise to the passion and dedication of its creators, who expanded the world of the films, allowing the audience to fall in love with the characters and story. Despite the challenges of a TV budget and schedule, Stovall and his team were able to create high-quality action sequences that maintain the style and feel of the John Wick universe while telling their own story within it.

The Peacock three-part event series The Continental: From the World of John Wick delves into the origin behind the famous hotel for assassins in 1970s New York City. In search of his brother Frankie (Ben Robson), a young Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) finds himself entangled with a dangerous underworld where he must overcome his past, in order to become the man familiar to the John Wick universe.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, stunt coordinator/action director Larnell Stovall, who’s part of the 87eleven Action Design team, talked about the evolution of his career from stunt performer to action director, why he thinks the John Wick franchise works so well, pulling off this level of action on a TV budget and with a TV schedule, one of the toughest fight scenes to pull off, preparing the actors for the action sequences, and how action is really just another form of storytelling.

Collider: You’ve gone from doing stunts to coordinating stunts to directing stunts. Much like how not all dancers become choreographers, I’m guessing that not everyone that does stunts becomes a stunt coordinator and an action director. Had you always wanted to progress in that way? Was this the career goal, or are you surprised about this path that you’ve taken?

LARNELL STOVALL: Wow, that’s an interesting question. For me, when I first got into doing stunts, I knew there was more to it, but I felt like I wanted to learn the groundwork. I wanted to become a journeyman, so to speak. Then, the evolution was fight choreography because I love creating fight scenes. I grew up in the eighties, with Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man, Thundercats, and all that stuff. I remember those days of just choreographing toys, posing them and doing different things. Now, I’ve got live-action toys, so to speak. But it was definitely a journey, moving from stunt coordinator to action director to something like this. There’s lots of pressure, coming from the John Wick world, but it was fun.

Image via Peacock

What do you think it is about John Wick that not only led to the establishment of a franchise, but now a whole universe. Why does it work for you?

STOVALL: I’ve gotta give props to my mentors, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. I remember when they were conceptualizing this and I saw the boards at the offices at 87eleven with the hospital, the dogs and the possible cars, when they were creating it. Looking at the passion and the time they put into it, you see the result. They kept the journey simple in the beginning, but then expanded his world. The audience fell in love with John Wick. They fell in love with the guy who was trying to lead a simple life and had to come back for vengeance. Once you touched that puppy, everything was on after that. I love how they drew you in, but then how things expanded. It went from something intimate to something global. Here we are, we went international, all over the world, with John Wick, but the central focus was The Continental. The audience wanted to see more about The Continental, how it started and who’s behind it. I’m happy that we had a chance to go backwards and show you some of our prior events.

What is the key to creating something within the world of John Wick, that feels like it’s part of the same universe while also being its own thing? Is there something that you always have to keep in mind?

STOVALL: I would say Albert Hughes, our director, and Kirk Ward, our showrunner who was one of the writers on it as well, established these great stories and these characters where, by the time we came in, the action team’s job was to make sure we had that same flavor. The camera angles were wide, you don’t use too many cuts, you made sure you were able to see the actors, and of course, you had to make sure the action was interesting. You have to tell a great story with a good payoff. We kept that formula throughout each of the sequences, whether it was a small one or a big one. That way, the audience, at the end of the day, doesn’t have a favorite. They simply want to watch them all again. That’s the goal. If you watch it again, we did our job.

What was it like to pull off the action for something like this on a TV show budget? Were there ever things that you wanted to do that you were able to do because it was a TV show, or is it more about figuring out how to do it with the resources you have?

STOVALL: It’s a bit of both. I’d have weekly meetings with Albert and Kirk. They would bring me in and we would talk about the action design of a sequence coming up. I’ll find out how long they want to sequence to be. They’ll say, “Okay, we want this great fight scene to be a minute thirty, including the acting beats.” From there, we go off and start designing it, and we go through different versions until it’s time to shoot it. We kept that game plan up, the entire time.

Image via Peacock

What do you think would surprise people to learn about the making of this series, that they wouldn’t necessarily get just from watching it?

STOVALL: I would say our schedule. We’re considered, and I’m using this term loosely, feature TV. It has a feature film quality, but on a TV schedule. For example, that stairwell fight scene in episode one, on a feature film, might get four days, and we shot that fight scene in one day. We kept that formula going for all the sequences. With things that would take days on a feature, we sometimes had hours. That was just the schedule. We design within that time frame, so there are no surprises.

When you have something like that, where you know what you have to pull off, but you’re worried about getting it all done in the time frame you have, do you just hold your breath until it’s over and then breathe a sigh of relief?

STOVALL: Yes, there’s a little bit of that. We do have constant rehearsals, making sure the actors are ready, the camera crew is ready, and the crew behind the scenes is ready. We can do all of that, but then you still get on set and there’s that feeling of constantly looking at your watch and checking the time to make sure you make your day. We shot the final piece of the stairwell fight scene within the last two minutes that I had. It was the very last two minutes, and we finally pulled the rest of it off. That was a heartstopper.

Which stunt or sequence was the toughest to pull off?

STOVALL: Each one presents its own challenges. When you involve different elements, things can be a little challenging. The El Camino fight in episode two was definitely a very challenging one. That was our first big fight scene with Jessica [Allain], who plays Lou, and she was nervous, but with her training and constant reassurance, she came in and killed it. I just saw a different side of her that day, when it was time to shoot it. That’s one I would definitely say had a few challenges.

Image via Peacock

There are a lot of fight scenes in this, and I love how they take place in a variety of locations. Some are in wide open spaces where you can use a lot of your surroundings, and some are in much more confined spaces, like the phone booth, which you can’t even really fit two people in. What do you enjoy about coordinating stunts in bigger spaces where you can really use the room you have versus doing them in a tight confined space where you have to be really selective about every movement?

STOVALL: The big spaces allow me to make the room and the atmosphere an additional character in the fight scene. When you’re in a big space, you’re gonna bump into things, you’re gonna use items, and you’re gonna throw people into things. The open space allow you to express yourself with damaging things more versus just doing the fight, which makes it more interesting. Now, when you get to a confined space, there’s a lot more storytelling involved because you’ve gotta be very selective on what you do and what makes sense within the small space you have. With that phone booth, we had to be very, very selective on how we moved, when we turned, what moves we were doing, and what the purpose was. To me, she’s trying to survive. She’s trying to get a point across. It couldn’t be gratuitous. It couldn’t be too over the top. He’s just responding to the situation. It was like a bunch of bees hitting him in that phone booth. That was a fun one to do, and very challenging.

How nervous were you to show Chad Stahelski the action in the series? Did he give you any feedback?

STOVALL: Chad is very interesting in his perspective on how he views fight scenes, and I respect that. He’s seen a lot and he’s done a lot, so it’s hard to impress a guy like that. If he hasn’t called you, you probably did a good job. And he hasn’t called me, so I guess he enjoyed it. They set the bar so high. The only thing we can do is try to keep up, and then find our own voice in that world, which I think we did.

How much prep time did you have with the actors? Is there anyone that surprised you with what they ended up being able to do, that you didn’t know they could do?

STOVALL: The surprise for me was the twins. Those twins were so badass. I believe those two are gonna be cosplayed for years to come at Comic-Con, once people really see what they can do. They were already great physically, but the presence they brought with the characters was something else. The training for them was more about bringing their best out within those characters. Because they don’t say anything, you want their movements to be refined and scary and straight to the point. I had a lot of fun with them, finding what made them so unique, even though they’re twins now. Schedule wise, continuous training happened throughout the shoot. We would have a fight coming up, attack it heavily, and then move on to the next one.

Image via Peacock

You’ve worked on a lot of movies and TV shows. Is there a stunt or a sequence in your past resume that was the most challenging to pull off?

STOVALL: Not so much a challenge, but the payoff was very rewarding, for an independent film I did by the name of Undisputed 3. That was one of my early films, as an action director. It shot in Bulgaria on a very, very small budget. For the finale, it said, “They fight.” Our director, Isaac Florentine, who’s amazing and I love him, was like, “Larnell, let’s have some fun. Go do your thing.” So, “They fight,” turned into a seven-minute finale and we didn’t cut anything. That was Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror, who’s also in John Wick 4. Scott Adkins played a killer, and I believe Marko was one of the main henchmen. That was a good one.

With something like The Continental, who is fighting each other is also really interesting. Whether it’s two men fighting, two women fighting, a man and a woman fighting, a man and a woman fighting together against someone else, or even just noticeably different heights, I would imagine all of that affects what the fight scene or sequence ultimately becomes. Is that something that you really have to think about, when you’re figuring out what a stunt or a fight will be?

STOVALL: Yes, that’s very crucial. Let’s take Frankie, our actor Ben Robson is 6’4”. If you put a 6’4” guy in a stairwell, you have to be careful of your camera movement because you don’t want him to block the people he’s fighting, nor do you want the other people coming down to look like they’re on the same level when they’re three steps up because you don’t get that depth and sense of tension and danger. So, you have to be really creative with that. And then, concerning our ladies, Nhung Kate, who plays Yen, is a powerhouse. Audiences will be very surprised when they see her in action. Marina [Mazepa], who played Gretal, is from a contortion background and she knows martial arts, as well. It was fun finding her flavor and keeping her creepy, cool and mysterious. And then, Nhung Kate is like a buzz saw, where she’s just attacking. Story wise, her character has that purpose and a true reason why she’s so angry when she gets to Gretal and goes all out. It was interesting to find that balance between one who’s a little slow and methodical, and one who just wants to rip your head off for revenge. You have to contrast your distance, their arm length, their leg length and their heights, but then you have fun with it too. Yen can’t reach her because Gretal has long legs, so we had to change her attack lines and how she can maneuver around that to get in there to attack her. That’s something we definitely think about when we’re making up these fight scenes because it creates a better story.

I really appreciate all the care and attention that was put into the stunts and the fights in this series.

STOVALL: Can’t thank you enough for that. It’s a dance. That’s something that Chad has stressed and that I’ve always looked back on, myself. Once we pair up, we’re partners and it’s a dance. Whether you’ve got a three-count, I’ve got a six-count, and we come together for an eight-count, and your angles are 45, my angles are 90, and we’re gonna do a 180, that really plays into fight scenes. When you go that far, you create different lines, different levels and different pathways of seeing the fight scene and the audience won’t feel bored. If it’s just a two-dimensional fight scene, there’s nothing unique. We want to pay attention to all of that, when we approach storytelling.

The Continental is available to stream at Peacock.