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 important motion films and franchises which have come out this century. He’s labored within the greatest fashionable film universes conceivable — 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 offered robust motion beats in comedies like Spy and Homicide Thriller 2.
Perry lastly obtained his likelihood 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 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 a success 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 fallacious prognosis, and he’s really completely wholesome. With a brand new resolve to stay, 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 a number of 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 probably the most pleasurable 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 selected 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 every little thing in between. At its finest, The Killer’s Sport appears like an motion anthology sequence, following the protagonist as he fights his method by 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 method to the film’s distinctive premise, why wrestlers (and Bautista particularly) make such nice film stars, his inspirations for the wacky solid of characters, and his love for matching old-school aesthetics with new-school expertise.
This interview has been edited for concision and readability.
Polygon: The place did this mission 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 have been searching for a stunt coordinator. By some means that went away. After which three years in the past, I obtained 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 reduce whereas we have 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 sort of got here to me.
Getting the film was an enormous win, however getting Dave Bautista to star in it was like profitable the lottery for me. All of it simply sort 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 mission has to assist in giving it extra visibility.
I met Dave within the car parking zone of 87eleven [Action Design] after 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 plenty of professional wrestlers through the years. 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 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 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 fearful 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 workforce, and all we do is produce stunt biz always.
However getting the story proper is, I feel, 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 mentioned, “Oh, I obtained this pal that I did Resort Artemis with.”
In the event 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 turned 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 like him, however Dave, he’s pricey pals with him. He known as him, and increase, Terry Crews is on a airplane.
I obtained on the cellphone and known as all my pals — Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucy Cork, Shaina West. In the event you’re going someplace to get right into a rattling road struggle, what do you do? You name your homeboys and your homegirls to come back enable you to. 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 recognize the film enterprise, extra film stars have come from WWE than anyplace else. Greater than soccer, greater than MMA. There’s a purpose. They’re live-show performers. They’re appearing to the fellows within the nosebleeds. So it needs to be large, 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 appearing stage, has actually surpassed any and all expectations for me. I do know him, and it’s unfair, as a result of he’s an incredible actor, he’s tremendous proficient, he’s tremendous clever, he’s tremendous variety, he’s beneficiant. I need to be him so unhealthy 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 slicing it proper now.
You talked about Day Shift earlier, which has a really totally different method to motion than this one. It’s vampire-centric, you’ve obtained 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 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 have been supposed to try this in a building website. 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 plenty of time, so I wanted to concentrate on my strengths. However that venue created plenty of alternatives for the bikes to do stuff that you just may not have seen earlier than. That’s your job, too, is to not regurgitate stuff 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 plenty of totally different motion instruments. You get to cycle by 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 totally different. Once we determined I’m directing the film, I went out and obtained [screenwriter] James Coyne, who’s a pal 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 folks 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 quite a bit. There was a man in my gymnasium that, when he placed on his Walkman, in the event 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 could possibly stroll throughout him. I used to be like, I want to try this. Marko, he’s a particular character. We nearly 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, 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 like Scott. I’m going to solid him in every little thing. I’ll solid Marko and Daniel in every little thing. Whenever you’re going to go someplace and do one thing arduous, you’re going to carry your folks. All of them may very well be their very own film stars. They’re all action-movie stars, however they may very well be film stars. I’ll all the time supply that to Scott, however hopefully I can supply him one thing greater subsequent time.
The film has a really comedian book-y narrative, regardless that the supply materials isn’t a comic book guide. You might have break up panels, wipes, match cuts — there’s plenty of playfulness within the film. How did you method 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 a number of the break up screens and a number of the transitions from scene to scene [were inspired by those]. I simply wished it to really feel totally different. We didn’t have plenty of time. It wasn’t an enormous finances. 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, plenty of Trinity photographs the place we’re wrapping round. I wished to take plenty of liberties with the digital camera, however I additionally wished to take plenty of liberties with the edit and the pacing. I did Day Shift, and I’m tremendous happy with that film. Nevertheless it was very scene to scene to scene. I wished to do one thing that was somewhat extra stylized.
Once we talked about Day Shift method again, we talked about how a number 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 discovered how to do that job after I obtained out of the Military within the ’90s, after I turned a stuntman. And again then, you couldn’t say “Let’s simply repair it in put up.” Anyone had to determine how you can 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 started working with these guys and actually listen 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 like them, and so they love me, and I’ve discovered a lot from them, however I feel they be taught from me, too. That blend for me has all the time been tremendous fascinating.
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 chuckle 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 sort of clueless of their life outdoors of the job. Is {that a} character trait you’re interested in in tales?
[Points at self.] It’s sort 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 folks: Don’t develop up. It’s method 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 method before I’ll.
The Killer’s Sport is in theaters now.