Bernhardt kicked up the intensity, and the pair began a screen-fighting crash course that focused primarily on an appropriately middle-age concept: hip rotation. By the time they got to set, Bernhardt says, “ was so prepared, he knew every single move.”īecause Odenkirk had never headlined an action movie, his at-home workout regimen had mostly consisted of biking and hiking. The personalization and time investment-the hallmarks of 87eleven’s training method-aided the actor immensely. With the support of producer and 87eleven co-founder David Leitch-himself a former stuntman, and now, with his 87eleven partner Chad Stahelski, one of the brains behind the John Wick franchise-Bernhardt tailored beginner martial arts training around Odenkirk’s television production schedule, gradually and cautiously conditioning him into a well-oiled workout machine capable of memorizing complex fight sequences. The goal was to make sure he could perform “99 percent of his own stunts,” Bernhardt says, eliminating the need for stunt replacements and providing Naishuller with longer takes for an extra layer of realism. “He wanted to do as much as he could to make it as special as possible.” To achieve his seamless pivot into action, Odenkirk spent two years overhauling his physique, committing to intensive training alongside stunt performer and actor Daniel Bernhardt. “He didn’t want to just come in and do something OK,” Naishuller says. Like the best action movies, Nobody gets right to the point-it supplies a mixed diet of hand-to-hand combat, gun fights and car chases, each made more impressive by the relative ease in which Odenkirk navigates them. “I think we both take a lot of pride in creating something unique with each project, with each character, and making it work.” “I think it’s great for both of us,” says Mark Vanselow, Neeson’s longtime stunt double and trainer. In effect, their roles become even more crucial to productions, adapting to the unique challenges, precautions, and timelines specific to whipping older actors into cinematic shape.
The boom has trickled down a little further, to the stuntmen and trainers who help old dudes fight like young ones. Gerard Butler, Denzel Washington, Jason Statham, and Bruce Willis: All have moved seamlessly from being in-their-prime action stars to over-the-hill (but still-in-their-prime!) action stars. Everett Collection / Courtesy of Allen Fraser for Universal PicturesĮver since Liam Neeson unleashed a particular set of skills in 2008’s Taken, studios have realized that there’s a ton of money in turning middle-aged dads into cut-up killing machines. Show whoops ass” might sound, the project slots neatly into recent Hollywood history. As Hutch Mansell, Odenkirk plays a libido-less husband and unengaged father a break-in throws him back into a lethal underworld, filled with foreign adversaries he thought he’d left behind. Nearly three years later, Odenkirk’s unlikely transformation makes its big-screen debut in Nobody, Naishuller’s Wick-inspired entry into the reliable old-man-revenge subgenre. Courtesy of Allen Fraser for Universal Pictures “I’ve never seen him do this.” Fight Coordinator and Stuntman Daniel Bernhardt training Bob Odenkirk for Nobody, 2021. “I’m looking at Bob, thinking, Isn’t this way more exciting?” he recalls. Though it was a rough sketch of what Reeves-a mid-50s peer-was accomplishing across the facility, the scene gave Naishuller chills. From afar, the director used his camera to capture Odenkirk absorbing contact, practicing punch combinations, and giving everything his middle-aged, unchiseled body could muster. Odenkirk, then 55 and best known for his comedic work on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, was “sweating like crazy” through a grueling workout, Naishuller remembers.
#STUNTMAN BOB FULL#
At the other end, inside a small, makeshift room full of cardboard boxes, Bob Odenkirk was falling onto a mat. At one end of the building stood Keanu Reeves, rehearsing fight scenes and perfecting his choreography for John Wick: Chapter 3. There, he witnessed a striking juxtaposition. In the summer of 2018, the director Ilya Naishuller visited 87eleven, the Hollywood “action design” studio responsible for some of the wildest fight sequences in recent memory. The old-man action boom has a trickle-down effect: Meet the trainers who get unlikely heroes like Bob Odenkirk and Liam Neeson into ass-kicking shape. Oldboys: How Midlife Action Stars Get Ready to Fight Action Designer and Stuntman Mark Vanselow with Liam Neeson during filming of The Marksman (2019)
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