- Technically, martial arts is the art of war.
[slapping] [grunting]
It's basically the art of kicking the crap out of someone.
[slapping] [grunting]
[laughing] Sorry.
[pounding drum beats]
Hi, "Vanity Fair," Scott Adkins here.
Today I'm gonna walk you guys through
how a martial artist trains for a movie.
[grunting]
I don't remember the first time I saw Bruce Lee,
but I was growing up and Bruce Lee was just
the best martial artist in the world
and "Enter the Dragon" would always be on
TV late at night.
So I think martial arts and films almost
impacted me at the same time, in a way.
I remember starting judo at age 10,
thinking I wanna be like Bruce Lee.
And then when I was about 13,
I went into Taekwondo.
And then I went into kick boxing,
a little bit of capoeira, a little bit of krav maga,
a little bit of chi chuan do,
and a bit of wushu kung fu.
And then these days it's MMA.
One of the great things about making movies
is you always come into contact with
masters of various different martial arts.
I've met amazing people, and I've always been able
to gain knowledge off of these people.
So the films has actually been great for that as well.
[clanking]
My first experience in a martial arts film
was a baptism by fire, let me tell you.
It was called "Extreme Challenge" and it was
directed by Stephen Tung Wei, who was
the little boy in "Enter the Dragon."
The one that gets slapped on the back of the head
by Bruce Lee.
- Never take your eyes off your opponent.
- It was very difficult.
I remember doing this one fight scene
for two whole days on this raft in the middle of this Lake,
with this other wushu expert champion.
I remember thinking, Jesus, this is difficult.
[laughing] This is hard work.
I was ready to a degree, but I don't think
anything can properly prepare you for it.
Especially if it's a Hong Kong movie,
because it's just hard core the way they do it.
There's no rehearsal period.
You turn up on the day in a Hong Kong movie
and the fight coordinator works out
what that section of the fight's gonna be.
And he shows it to you, and there and then
you've gotta remember exactly what's been shown
and repeat it at a level that is
gonna be able to be captured on film.
And then that's it.
That's gonna be on film forever then.
So it's very stressful when the other guy
and yourself are moving at such a fast pace,
trying to remember what the next step is.
It's so fast that actually you can't think of it.
It's done on instinct.
And if you make a mistake,
if you don't duck at the right time,
you're getting hit.
Doing a Hong Kong martial arts movie
as my first movie was great, to be honest,
because I learned exactly how to do it the correct way.
In an American or European movie,
the typical way to shoot action would be,
you know, the way you do a drama.
You'd have your master shot, wide shot.
And then you'd come in and you'd get
your coverage from this side and from this side.
And then the closeup and a closeup.
So if you do that with the fight sequence,
you're gonna end up doing the whole fight sequence
from beginning to end many, many times.
So by the time I've done it, I'm absolutely shattered.
But the thing is, you can't do the whole fight scene
from beginning to end at full speed,
and make it brilliant for every angle, every time.
It's just impossible.
But how much of that footage is gonna be
on the editing floor, wasted?
So the way the Hong Kong guys did it
is that they will say, okay, we're gonna do
this section of the fight,
six to 10 movements, whatever it is.
And we're gonna use this angle
and you're going to throw that kick,
and I'm gonna come and the camera's gonna
come round here, and we're going to capture it beautifully.
We're gonna frame it perfectly.
And then we know that we've got
that section of the fight and we're gonna
move on to the next bit.
That is basically the Hong Kong way.
And it wasn't until "The Matrix," when Yuen Woo-ping
who was the fight coordinator on "The Matrix,"
that Hollywood actually did it the proper way.
But then at a certain point, they regressed
and the shaky cam came in.
You didn't actually see the fight.
You just heard it.
The reason they're shaking the camera is to hide
the shortcomings of the performers.
That's the only reason to do it.
[slapping] [grunting]
I'm afraid the "Bourne" franchise,
they don't shoot the fights properly.
And Greengrass is a brilliant director
and there's a reason he does that shaky cam thing.
It's more of a documentary style
and it puts you in the moment more.
I was in "The Bourne Ultimatum" and I didn't know
which camera we were supposed to be
making the punch work for it.
It had about five cameras going.
Is it for this camera?
Is it for that one?
Or is it for this one?
The films are great, I love them.
But I'm glad we're not shooting fights
like that anymore.
Bloody hell.
One fight scene that sticks out as
a perfect, amazing fight sequence,
is Jackie Chan "Drunken Master 2."
Otherwise known as "Legend of Drunken Master."
I mean, there's many amazing fights
that Jackie Chan has done,
but this fight, I want to point out,
particularly because I know that they
spent three months just on the end fight
and it absolutely shows.
Perfectly framed, it's brilliantly acted
and performed by Jackie Chan.
And he fights Ken Lo, who's known for
his amazing flexibility and kicks.
It's probably Jackie Chan working
at his very, very best.
[slapping] [grunting]
What's difficult about it is that days on end,
sometimes you've been doing it for a whole week.
Every day, you come in and you're fighting.
And yes, it's not a real fight,
but you're going at it the whole day
for 12 hours straight.
If you're a professional fighter, you get warmed up
and you're warm and you do your thing,
after 25 minutes, you're done.
Yeah, you're gonna be banged up and bruised.
But the thing about film fighting,
you can't stay warm for the whole day.
It's impossible.
So inevitably, you're gonna cool down,
you're gonna pull a muscle.
And then the next day you've gotta use
that pulled muscle to do outrageous
crazy things for the whole next day.
And then eventually that pulled muscle
is a full-on injury.
And this is what's so difficult about
making martial arts films.
It's hard not to get injured.
[slapping] [pounding]
The fight that I have with Jason Statham
in "The Expendables 2" was actually really easy to film.
I was injured at the time.
I had torn my ACL, it had gone.
But when they said action, to be honest,
you don't really think about it.
Your adrenaline gets going a little bit
and you just get on with it.
It's in between takes that it really hurts.
But working with Jason was great because,
obviously, he's a martial artist himself.
And he's a very experienced with film fighting.
The thing that most people don't understand
about film fighting, it's got nothing to do
with real martial arts.
It's got more in common with dancing.
A real martial artist will really struggle
to show the techniques of the camera.
And they also have this thing in their head.
Well, that's not the right technique.
I have to do the right technique, but no, no.
You need to do what looks right for the camera
and Statham absolutely understands that.
So it was a joy to work with him.
[pounding] [grunting]
The thing about making a fight sequence
is that you're a partnership.
Yeah, I'm trying to make it look like
I'm trying to rip your head off,
but the truth is, we're two performers
working together to create this violent ballet.
And really trust is so important,
making a martial arts film.
If I'm working with someone and I don't have
the trust that they're gonna be
in the right position at the right time,
or they might end up hitting me,
then I'm not going to be able to go 100%
because I'm gonna be worried that
this guy's gonna make a mistake.
Either he's gonna hit me or I'm gonna hit him.
[dramatic music] [grunting]
[glass shattering]
Obviously, for the movies you need to look the part.
You need to look a certain way.
So muscle mass is a part of that.
You wanna look like you're carved out of stone.
But the thing about being a martial artist
is it doesn't necessarily go hand in hand
with martial arts.
The bigger you are, the bulkier you are.
It's gonna slow you down.
It's gonna make you heavier.
Sometimes you have to do gymnastic movements
on film or flashy kicks.
If I weigh more, it's much harder to do,
and it's a lot more pressure on the joints.
But you better believe that I wasn't gonna
turn up on a set with Jason Statham,
Schwarzenegger, Stallone looking out of shape.
So we've got the pull up.
I'll start with a wide grip.
That's gonna put more emphasis on the muscles in my back.
And then if you go for the underhand grip,
you're gonna actually recruit the biceps.
And then you've got your pushup.
I like to do these reps very slow and controlled,
and I move from side to side.
So I'm really using core.
And then, of course, the squats.
And the reason I like to do plyometric squats
is because I'm a martial artist.
I need to be able to jump high.
I need to be agile and I need to move.
So I like to train my legs in a very plyometric way.
[dramatic music] [clanging]
[pounding] [glass breaking]
So when I did Dr. Strange, one of the main things
that I needed to make sure I didn't mess up
with the fight sequences with Benedict Cumberbatch,
because he is Dr. Strange, as we all know.
He's carrying the weight of the whole film.
If something should happen to Benedict,
the whole film's gonna have to get shut down.
The interesting thing about Dr. Strange is that
all other Marvel superheroes, most of them wear a mask.
Dr. Strange does not wear a mask.
So that means that Benedict had to do
the majority of the fights himself.
[pounding] [grunting]
It was very important for me to,
as the trained martial artist,
keep him safe and not kick Benedict
in the face too hard.
And so one of the things I use to train for the movies
is a Taekwondo paddle.
And I will train some of my more athletic
and the basics as well.
But it's a way of keeping me accurate
and understanding the distance
to keep the other people safe.
You don't wanna be hitting them in the face
when you're not supposed to.
With "Dr. Strange," I think I did a pretty good job
in keeping Benedict safe.
But there was this one day.
[laughs]
There's a scene where my character,
he runs up the wall and then I jump
onto this banister, jump off the banister.
And I have to side kick Dr. Strange in the chest.
So, you know, you're skating this fine line of
I need to make the kick look like it's a proper kick
and that it hits and hurts him,
but it's Benedict Cumberbatch.
I can't hurt him.
And it wasn't happening for us.
I don't like to keep people waiting.
So I thought to myself, okay, I'm gonna
give him a little bit extra on this one.
I'm gonna jump out a little bit farther
and that should get the job done.
And I think somebody may have said
the same thing to Benedict.
So he came even closer and I hit him
with a very hard flying sidekick in the chest.
And I just remember seeing Dr. Strange
smash off the banister, making a sickening thud.
But luckily for me, Benedict is a really nice guy.
He took it in good spirits and we got the shot
and it's in the movie.
[pounding] [grunting]
One thing that I do for every film
and as a martial artist,
you've got to train your core.
You have to have a strong core
because every time you kick, you're using your core.
Every time you punch, you're using your core.
A few exercises I like to do are the L sit,
which is a difficult exercise.
And then I'll move on to what I call
planked kettlebell pull throughs.
Another great exercise, which again is
quite an advanced exercise, but I love it,
are the windscreen wipers.
And then the final one, and this is what
you shouldn't forget about your core,
it's not just about the arms.
Your core is your back as well.
You need good back stability.
So I've got a back extension
and I like to get on there and do back extension
holding a weight in front of me.
And again, a slow and considered movement,
but that's gonna work your posterior chain
and give you a great core.
So you can do some great kicks.
I don't really switch my training up
dependent on the film for the most part.
I'm always training in martial arts.
So I'm always ready to perform.
I don't want to be caught off guard
and go into a movie not ready to perform.
Because obviously that's what's expected of me.
So I've got a little saying, and it is,
"Stay ready, and you never need to get ready."
[pounding] [grunting]
"The Debt Collectors" was a tough shoot
because we had to move fast.
We didn't have a lot of time.
That's why I need to go into this staying ready.
We have a fight scene that opens the movie, in a bar.
It's me, the English kid, against all these
loudmouth Americans that needed to be taught a lesson.
At least that's what my character says, okay?
We had half a day to shoot this fight.
Not long enough at all.
And the thing is, before the fight scene,
there was a big monologue that I had to
deliver to these guys.
So there's always this sort of internal struggle
where I've got the actor in me wanting more time
for my monologue.
And then I've got the martial arts action performer
in me going get the acting done.
We need to make the fight good.
[pounding] [grunting]
It's just being able to move fast
and having the experience to get things done,
and understand where the camera is every time.
I usually shoot fights with two cameras.
I can make one technique work for this camera.
And I know that I'm gonna make the next technique
work for this camera.
I'm constantly juggling the editing in my own head.
[pounding] [grunting]
[thuds]