David Leitch

People have given their lives to this industry to make movies compelling. ”

Stunt coordinating is a good training ground for directing because you have exposure to all the departments in film. ”

You know, the 'Atomic Blonde' universe is its own universe. There's influences obviously of Bond and Bourne and 'Wick,' all the things I've been exposed to, but it is its own universe. ”

Sometimes, the action genre does get stale. Although I want to go back and see my favorite characters in their tentpoles - and will religiously do that - it's really fun to see breakout ideas and concepts. Let's make some new stories. ”

As a second unit director, you're entrusted to shoot the action sequences. On every movie, it's slightly different. ”

The thing that I like about action sequences is that if they're done well, you get to know more about the character in those few minutes than you do through 10 minutes of exposition. ”

There are a lot of big action movies that we've worked on where the attitude has been, 'Let's just get through this scene.' Then you get those jumpy, what-were-they-thinking action sequences. ”

I think, as a choreographer and an action designer, you're constantly giving your characters problems to overcome. That's what makes it fun for choreography. But it also makes it fun for the audience to see them solve those puzzles and how they are as a human being. ”

There's an arc to an action sequence, and you need to come out the other end knowing your character better, and maybe the story has moved forward in a compelling way. ”

I look at the action scenes as placeholders when I arrive on a script, knowing that I'm going to expand on them when I understand the constraints of the movie, the locations of where we're shooting, the abilities of the actors, and where we want to go with the characters. ”