- Hi, I'm Charlize Theron.
- Hi, I'm Danny Hernandez.
- And this is Training Day with The Old Guard.
(gunshot firing)
I play Andy who has been alive for many thousands of years.
The character really dictated so much of what we needed
to translate in the physical part.
- The training sessions would go
for like three to four hours a day.
We had to incorporate just her martial art training first
and then do judo and then at the end of it,
try to combine everything all together.
We start off with basic stances, basic motion.
All martial arts always has a basis, right.
It comes from the ground up.
So the feet have to do well and then it works the way up
to the knees to the waist to the chest to the head.
We segregated the training methods.
So one day she'd just be working on
striking motions with hands,
then the next day we'll recap on throws
but then just focus on just weapon work.
- I have real love and affection
for the discipline that goes into martial arts.
I was a ballerina for most of my early life
and the discipline around it is very reminiscent to me.
I like the hard work.
I like being in that gym.
(gunshot firing)
- We started off with a simple stick first
before we put a ax in her hand
to make sure she had her proper lines
and she's not, you know, not making sure.
- Kill somebody. - Smack anybody with the ax.
So we did that first.
And then from there we've graduated to actually,
you know, having the ax with the actual weight and stuff
that should be able to strike with it.
There are seven basic effective moves
that can be used with the labrys.
It's a 45, 45, fall in the line, fall in the line,
across and cross and a stab.
Those strikes can be modified in all different types of way.
But those are the effective basic strikes.
- You know, if you stand and you do those moves, fine,
but it's the fact that you're going to have to do that
40, 80, 60 times in a day, and then you're looking
the consistency of actually shooting a movie.
That's truly where the challenge is.
- And that we train consistently, like every day.
We started every other day.
But as we got closer to shooting,
it was like an everyday process.
- It all really fucking hurt.
- I'm sure she had a lot of blisters and stuff.
- My favorite thing is that when we would be training
and I'd be like, so how was that?
How was that?
and you just walk up to me be like, yeah,
you're just making it look too hard.
I was like, this shit is hard.
(laughing)
Do it again!
Don't make it look so hard!
(laughing)
I was given one of them.
I had that thing around me the whole time.
Even on set, we just always had one around.
Constantly like practicing motion skills
and just feeling like it's like a part of your body.
That's what Danny really encouraged.
We had to really work on the technique.
I think the technique was the hardest thing
and just getting to a place where I could sustain.
Like where I had enough upper body strength
where I could actually fight all day
and do those kind of moves over and over
and over and over and over again.
The ax is such a part of her.
We had several, just depending on the scene.
We had one that had a little bit more weight to it.
We had one that was very real for like, you know,
the closer stuff where we really wanted the closer shots
to really feel like it was we were holding something real.
We didn't fight that much with that one, just because it is,
it's it's a risk that you just don't want to take.
There was like a medium, then there was a really light one
that was foamy, so that if I had to hit somebody with it,
that I could have a really good contact with it,
but it would be soft, but still, you know,
at the end of the day, the base of it is a stick,
you can't make that soft.
So you're still fighting with something
that can really hurt somebody.
It was a lot.
Most of the time, that kind of fighting
that I've done in movies has always kind of been
motivated by just trying to survive.
And in this case, that really wasn't the thing in question.
It was a skill set that I have to kind of project.
- [Director] Perfect! (clapping)
Nice!
- There wasn't a day that I didn't leave the gym, you know,
asking Danny, if we could have tequila or vodka that day
and be like, no Friday, Friday,
you get to have it. - Friday Always.
(laughs)
She had to learn how to use an ax for sure.
She had to learn how to use a saber.
She had to learn how to do close combat with hands and feet
and also incorporating weapons.
- Gun range, gym.
I mean, it sounds very simple when you say like,
Oh, it's like three hours a day,
but it became all consuming because outside of the gym,
you're either learning you know,
some kind of a weaponry skill,
or I was on horseback for many, many hours.
There were bigger action sequences that we had on horseback.
- She had to just do everything all at once.
(gunshot firing)
(gunshots firing)
- It reminds me so much of just my life as a performer.
There's there's an element of it that is performance based
and you feel really nervous.
Like I remember us shooting
the plane sequence with Andy and Niall.
It's one, it's a really big set piece for us.
It was the first week of shooting and to start the film off
with that it's just like, a lot of nerves
because a lot of this work is kind of done ancillary
away from a lot of your department heads,
from your director and really is me and Danny and his team
in a space very intimately for a long period of time.
But then all of a sudden, it's kind of like you're,
you're putting the show up
and that's a little nerve wracking.
The cameras are rolling and then when you get it right,
it's like there's this this level of achievement
that you share with so many other people
on the phone that it's like a team sport, it's amazing.
- Thanks for watching.
- And check out The Old Guard on Netflix.