John Wick: Chapter 4 - Behind the Scenes

Chad really hooked into this idea of trying to study John Wick through the situations of other characters and he was really drawn to The Good the Bad and the Ugly and so enter Donnie yet as Cain and Shamir Anderson asked tracker ours was okay well if anyone doesn't get to this one moment everybody loses they were all three different people all going and like they all had a point you know so like that's fun about and that fits into our wicking world where there are no good guys period there's just better bad guys like Wick is not a good technically good guy he's an assassin like he's living in this world he just happens to have a code in this world that we feel attracted to so doing that structure of good the bad the ugly with different perspectives and you add in you know the character of the Marquee Bill skarsgard's character who's got who's literally is the only person doing the right thing it's kind of fun we have hiroyuki sonada who I worked with on 47th Ronin he has a daughter who's working with him and that's the uncomfortable Arena sarayama and then the antagonist of the piece the Marquee Bill Skarsgard you're kind of following their stories as they're trying to get John Wick and Kane and John Wick have a past tracker was kind of a younger character who's kind of outside of it who's not an assassin but then gets kind of takes a deal the force to become an assassin and these characters come after John and then there's moments where we have to work together against the table so that Dynamic is a way of opening up the world who are these other characters that exist in this world and then how do they interact with John and how does John interact with them I'd say first and foremost I love working with Keanu Reeves I think he's one of the best creative collaborative Partners I could have ever wanted let alone imagine Keanu and I every time say no this is our last one we're not going to do it again we'll see what happens then we go on a press tour it seems like every time at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo we'll sit around having a few drinks in their Scotch bar and we're like oh that was that was uh that was a good one good thing you know glad it's done glad it's done yeah great great um I got an idea and it starts that way and it starts with an idea in a napkin and I honestly at the end of it I like the world you know John Wick has elements of things in it that I grew up watching it it has a sensibility of a western of a Samurai movie of a luja Kung Fu film it has an underworld side it has mythology it's got car chases you know like what other franchise can you put 70 Styles car chases attack dogs Samurai's ninja you know I I I don't know so it didn't exist and then we got to make it exist yeah I mean as soon as Derek colstad had these assassins come into this house to attack John Wick and once John Wick took care of business brought these gold coins and said you know I'd like to make a reservation it was like whoa okay well what can that turn into what is this other world at the base of that too is Chad's belief that the more kind of ceremony that we can present with the high table is good to elevate them because we don't want to show the faces like we don't want to do like here's a table and there are there's 12 of them and they're all sitting like no you don't see them you never see them but I think we can all relate to the idea of them and so it's been cool to tap into that personally and and then to put it into the art and and then have that as kind of overarching thing and then have a character seeking a kind of Liberation from that I I applaud him for being able to like continue to work in the action genre as hard as he does keanu's physicality in these movies is staggering you know is the amount the amount of stamina that is required the amount of like just sheer kind of energy to do like even half of what he's required to do has got to be punishing he said something really really kind of telling to me which he said I haven't spoken in like 15 weeks ah you're after he's after like like an Eastwood kind of vibe you know the training went longer than three months and it was five days a week four hours a day so it was a two hour morning session lunch two hour afternoon session and for me it's just been awesome to work with these some people and just have what they shared with us was the affection that they have for the John Rick films because John Wick action is a little different it's a lot because Chad wants reality he wants Rex he wants it to feel real he wants the beautiful violence and sort of read and so do they but all of these people are just really taking care of me John Wick fights are known for Keanu doing most of it and for being long takes and big wide lenses and it has a very very you know specific style and I wanted to honor that style I didn't want it to become this Cuddy editing you know shaky cam something suddenly different I wanted to really live in that John Wick world and it to do that you had to have Keanu Reeves doing the stuff I mean we're very lucky with uh with Keanu and what he brings to the table this is the fourth John Wick film so way back in the day going back to the first John Wick that style of of martial arts and and John Wick choreography where we were training Keanu up in that so now we're in the fourth iteration it has evolved but we still have the basis going back to the team that's done team that did the first John Wick film the second John Wick film and the third John Wick we've built up those layers of choreography with Keanu and keanu's dedication he's the one of the first ones in one of the last ones out you know he will come in Blood Sweat and Tears like leaves it on the mat every day you know I'm sure you've seen it we'll probably cut to some footage but uh uh he is dedicated to that role and he lives and breathes that role when he's doing it um he he embodies John Wick when he's there and his uncompromising vision too and his dedication to training means that it means a lot for us because we can train him in a set of in a style and then on the day when things change we know that he has the ability to do those moves and adapt to that style because we're constantly teaching him different levels of choreography Keanu is he lives up to everything you've heard about him obviously he's just such a nice guy I remember coming to the set and he was doing action you know fighting all day and he decides to offer me his seat I'm like you're here fighting all night you take the seat Keanu I'm just visiting for one hour it'll be fine that's the kind of guy he is right he's just such a nice guy and I think one of the reasons that John Wick works so much is because he's this badass assassin but when that guy is inhabited by Keanu he just you know he could play Ted Bundy and you're going to root for him I have never met anybody in the film industry even with my 40 years of working with so many Chinese directors action directors that I can truly say that someone like Chad can understand what I'm trying to express it's that whole Asian culture and Western culture even when I'm back home when I'm with my most comfortable environment in with my colleagues Asian filmmakers they don't understand me as much as chat does and that's a compliment to him and I told him that you know throughout our business I said you know it's very interesting that you understand where I'm coming from and I understand where he's coming from seldom you you find that kind of connection Chad is literally one of the greatest choreographers of Our Generation Um and he revolutionized he was there for the matrixes and everything like that he got to see that Forefront of that change from the the Hong Kong style from the Western kind of old school ballroomy brawl fights and everything like that and he was part of transitioning that change to a more realistic fight approach to to Western Cinema which really enhanced you know Western Cinema I try to rip off from the best like let's start with that you try to rip something off you're trying to get this guy do you have to make good the bad the ugly and then you it starts morphing and if you give the idea enough room and enough slack it starts morphing and morphing and morphing and morph the trick is not to try and put a suit on that doesn't fit so there's a lot of things that boy I would have loved to steal from Sergio one car why and Tarantino and Kurosawa and all this stuff but like yeah it doesn't really fit you start there and you go what I love about like oh my God it's genius then you start realing well the genius is you know not just original thought but its original application of thought and how you do and you start letting it loose and you start you start letting go a little bit and you start experiencing things in your character you start living back in your world and seeing what fits and what doesn't when I watched three I was amazed by the action sequence in Casablanca because it involved dogs and I have a dog and she would never listen to me she already sits for me so I can't imagine how they managed to do that I'm just impressed by how the action is captured more than anything else I think and just the flow of the camera movements going alongside and it all feels very natural you feel really part of the action it's not relying on camera shake and too much is really relying on the performance of the actors so that always struck me this is one of those shows where where nothing's impossible I mean if just nothing's impossible that uh every women idea that's a good one will be accomplished there's a whole uh prep for every fight scene in this case for example that I'm a martial artist and I have experience in in action then they let me oh Marco what you could do here like try like for example Jeremy that is his fight coordinator he knows me already so he knows kind of what I like my Styles what I can do what I can't do so then and then he asked me hey what about this what about that and there's like a common like co-creation of because of the character that I'm playing maybe oh this technique is not gonna fit that character that as good as maybe this other technique so then there is a little flexibility on how to put the fights in at the end for each role each character nunchucks are great because uh they're easy usually you have a stick that you hit somebody with and now you have two sticks that you can hit somebody with and it kind of just swings and it's pretty self-explanatory the hard thing is when you hit somebody with a nunchuck it bounces back so getting getting Keanu to learn what to do with that transfer of energy when it hits choreography wise we like to do contact kids hits when possible but also a lot of times we can we can do picture hits just that's not really Chad's style so so being able to put in as many contact hits as we can without it whipping back and hitting Keanu and being able to get him to control the nunchucks was kind of the big deal and also he's not just doing nunchucks he's doing nunchucks and gun at the same time and then mixing it with Jiu Jitsu at the same time so it was definitely a learning curve because it's like how do you put enough nunchucks to make everybody interested and excited but not too much where it becomes another nunchucks sequel points I was thrown into training right away with the 87-11 gang from Jiu Jitsu Judo boxing Muay Thai Fitness and on top of that dog training and that was every day from nine to five it was definitely a process but thankfully for me I am a physical person I am I would consider a fit person so it wasn't that bad but I feel like it doesn't matter if you're a Navy SEAL like that training is next level but what I love about it is everybody's so passionate I really love the stunt dogs I went to meet them they are amazing I did not know that they because I obviously I asked them I saw John Wick 3 and I was like those dogs are literally incredible and they told me you know the way they do it is with this kind of um neon green um kind of bit that they put on them so that's what I'm set we're not allowed to wear green because they've literally been trying to attack neon green with the actors it's the same as when we start with the stunt guys it starts with you know very what we call doggy Basics cool so the dogs around here's the stunt guy's voice we start the dog working beside them we start the stunt guys doing some falling stuff we're acting stuff beside the dog and then we slowly integrate the two together that was probably the most of most time I've spent working with animals in my entire career and it was definitely a pleasant process and I will definitely be getting a dog after this movie is done when I saw the first movie which I wasn't in I was I enjoyed it so much I immediately like reached out to Keanu I was like dude all of our friends all the guys that worked on The Matrix pictures like everybody's in the movie you gotta hook me up he was like we've been thinking about you and so uh you know to get to play a character who was this Regal sort of Monarch but his kingdom is sort of underneath all of this sort of like uh highly stylized elegant sort of chic that's happening it's really kind of it's a nice kind of juxtaposition so I'm having fun man I'm just happy to be here incredible Lawrence Fishburne as the Bowery King where I had Safe Harbor and for me personally fish is safe harbor it's been such a mentor to me since working on the Matrix and 1997 so it's you know we have a friendship and it's cool to be working with him again and what he brings to the Bowery King is so special one who else could be the king donian is the legend of action Cinema he's one of the greats one of the best to ever do it I had the fortune of working with him once before on Ip Man 4 and I was the bad guy in that and he gave me a real good kicker which my character greatly deserved and it's just a pleasure to work with somebody like that you're working with people at the top of the game for me I do a lot of action films that's my thing that's what I'm known for but if you get to do action in a John Wick movie that's the highest Accolade this is where it's at right now in terms of action there is no better action movie action movie franchise being made at this present time better than John Wick and now we're adding to that Donnie Yen and Shamir Anderson who's no slouch himself he's bringing the action in this but Donnie of course it goes without saying that he's one of the greatest to ever do it no matter how cool we are and how old we get we're all competitive and you know when I see who's full of [ __ ] and that and Danny is definitely not full of [ __ ] like he is phenomenal he's [ __ ] a mate like an amazing athlete amazing like I can't even say I've met so many amazing people in my life but like the speed at which Donnie can move memorize and creatively feel things out like he knows him very well our best choreography team can only enhance him but they're not gonna like he's already better than 99 of choreographers and stunt performers I know literally that good the way I process the style of the fightings in all my movies I identify this personality first it's not about the style people always ask me oh you know what martial style you want this but to me it doesn't matter right to me how this person reacts is how this character reacts it's a little bit jumpy it's a little bit calm it's a little bit like for example this guy his family man introvert calms walk slow talk slow therefore his movements is variably serve he only reacts to and outside force so it's always the character once I identify the character it comes natural for me to have these body movements if I wanted to use an example to explain to people who's fascinated my films and I use music like jazz how do I explain to you why am I playing this note this passage because it's my feeling Chad was always a solid guy when I first met him at the age of 25 he was a solid cat he was a hard worker he was a good listener he was a team player and he was a leader and he's just grown in all of those capacities his his Delight in making movies as a director is the thing that I appreciate the most and it's where we sort of meet he's extraordinary in the sense of how he's grown how he matriculates all of his Inspirations and his knowledge and his practicalities so to me he's the director he's also got a great hand in ear for script and for producing production he knows how movies get made and here being on chapter four you know I say these John Wick films for Chad and I are like we prepare a meal we're the chefs and he's the head chef I'm a sous chef and then we find the ingredients we're putting it together he's and that partnership has been really fun and some of the best creative days for me uh can I discuss it Ad nauseam many many times John Wick doesn't know he's in a movie John Wick believes he is John Wick and you know puts on the suit he believes he is that guy like that's the anchor and the cast follows Keanu they go well if he's taking it serious I'm going to take it serious and then we make fun of ourselves it's that simple like that's that's the only true north we say by the rest that goes back to jump the shark and also like look if John Wick believes that could happen it's in the movie Keanu is always quiet and shy but you know he's a hard worker so really matching for the John Wick character John Wick as a depth so that's why it's so believable and then people want to support him we've had such a good time this time he's got some great stories he stole some great Stories the other night um and yeah man I mean he's such an amazing actor he's just so solid and to play with somebody like that is you know it's always easy man it's great if you enjoy the World building of the John Wicks then we have some really a lot of fun stuff in store we have new characters new levels of action for John Wick action the production design the scale the scope a lot of big rooms High ceilings with Berlin we're in Paris we have amazing thespians and costume design there's other themes that are coming back from all of different versions of all of films so there's stuff that you can recognize and then there's new things we're trying to cook up beautiful Feast with multiple courses and some nice wine so sit back see it on the big screen eat some popcorn and John Wick Ed dude oh my God

Channel: Mayhem Mendes

Views: 1,667,653

Keywords: john wick 4, john wick 4 review, john wick 4 behind the scenes, making of john wick 4, john wick 4 stunts, john wick 4 fight, john wick 4 bts, john wick 4 rotten tomatoes, john wick 4 ign, john wick 4 imdb, john wick 4 interview, john wick 4 reaction, john wick 4 jeremy jahns, john wick 4 keanu reeves, john wick 4 explained, keanu reeves, donnie yen, scott adkins, john wick 4 training, keanu reeves training, keanu reeves john wick 4 training, john wick 4 post credit scene

Id: J-3-mbzCZFw

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Torley_]

This is a great example of how to do a behind-the-scenes without unnecessary music or crap, it covers a lot while feeling very candid.