Dan Bradley Exclusive Interview

by Helen Earnshaw | 3 December 2012

The Bourne Legacy

Dan Bradley has been taking part in and putting together thrilling movies stunts for many years and he is the man behind the great motorbike chase that bring The Bourne Legacy to an exciting conclusion.

We caught up with him to chat about the challenges of putting that sequence together as well as making his directorial debut.

- The Bourne Legacy is about to be released on DVD here in the UK and you were one of the stunt drivers for the film so how did you get involved in the project?

I was the stunt co-ordinator and the second unit director on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum so Tony Gilroy, the director, asked me to do this one and I was only too happy to oblige.

- When did you meet Tony Gilroy for the first time?

It's funny because I never met him through the course of either The Bourne Supremacy or The Bourne Ultimatum, despite the fact that he wrote both of the scripts, as he was never on set while I was there.

So I actually met him at his house in New York and we sat and chatted for the first time just a few months before we started shooting.

- Was it in this chat with Tony that the great motorbike chase scene that is in the movie first came up?

Tony had indicated that he wanted a motorbike chase in the movie and he had actually had a few gags in his original version of the chase that I thought that were really good such as when the assassin jumps from his stolen motorcycle onto the police motorbike because it was faster - that was Tony's gag.

I was given the opportunity to spend a week or so in Manilla just looking for inspiration and some locations and just trying to find something that would be unique.

One of the things that struck me was the traffic in Manilla and just how chaotic it was and I just thought 'this would be terrifying for two people on a motorcycle.'

- Can you talk a bit about the roads in Manilla - are they safe do something like this on?

There were some challenges on the roads in Manilla, above and beyond the fact that they are very crowded, the local vehicle is called the Jeepney and it is kind of a home build mass transit vehicle and they all run on diesel and they all leak.

So the roads have a great deal of oil and diesel on and so any amount of added moisture it literally becomes an ice rink and it is hard to walk and treacherous on a motorcycle.

We actually wanted to clean certain sections of the street and other surfaces that the bike would go on because you just couldn't stay up right.

- So how easy was it to get roads closed to be able to shoot these scenes?

There were a lot of negotiations with the city councils and police districts to get street control. Manilla is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and so that negotiations were fraught with peril.

We actually lost of our locations at the very last minute because of the impact that any slowing of traffic would have for fifty miles around.

- So how do you go about choreographing a sequence like that? And how long was the rehearsal period?

I do my little scout and get my ideas together as well as read the script and talk to Tony a little bit about characters and any things that he wants to see and then talk to the actors.

I will then go off and spend a couple of weeks dreaming about it and writing a chase and writing it out in great detail.

I then do a shot list, if I could draw I would do storyboards but I can't draw, so I write out the shots and then I will sit with Tony and the actors and members of the crew with toy cars and show them the action.

This 3D table top method allows you to put a small lipstick camera and put it amongst the toys and show them some of the specific angles that I had in mind.

- In terms of job satisfaction is out there when you are directing the stuntmen or when you see the sequence on the big screen?

For me it is a bit of both. I love shooting the action and I love the energy and the immense challenge of getting it all to work.

Some days it is incredibly frustrating because there is so many elements that you have no control over such as the traffic and the weather and at an inopportune time a vehicle stops running and you are waiting for a mechanic.

So there is always chaos around the periphery and you never know what is going to happen - but I thrive on that and I think it is the best job in the world.

But I will never forget the moment, it was in Bourne Supremacy actually, I was sitting in the audience in the middle of about twenty stunt guys who were involved in the movie and they hadn't seen the movie.

I had seen the movie already so I was watching the audience more than the film and I was watching stuntmen who had driven the cars in this chase gripping the arms of their chairs and were completely sucked into the story of this action piece. The reward for me is watching audiences react and enjoy, hopefully, the work.

- Jeremy Renner is a huge motorbike enthusiast.....

Oh yes

- So how much training did he need - he was without a helmet as well for the entire sequence?

The whole not helmet thing was a big cause of anxiety for the whole shoot - I am a motorcycle rider and I feel absolutely naked without a helmet.

But sometimes in movies you have to do things that are not optimal and so we were very diligent in creating the illusion riding recklessly through chaotic traffic. And it was very much an illusion because he was the star of the movie and if something happens he can't finish the movie.

So it was a very carefully choreography situation and if it got too foggy or there was too much moisture present we just wouldn't let him ride.

The chase that you see would not have been possible if Jeremy hadn't come to the set already being an accomplished rider.

He got some training from the top riders in the world and he trained a lot with the stunt double for Rachel Weisz sitting behind him as he hadn't had that much experience of riding double and trying to slide a bike to a stop with two people on it a completely different skill set.

- When Jean Pierre Goy is riding the bike is that Rachel Weisz with him?

In my memory the only time that Rachel was on the back of the bike was... it was 98% Jeremy and there might have been one or two shot where JP was in control with Rachel on the back.

Yeah I would say 98% of the time Rachel was behind Jeremy. But the vast majority of Jeremy's riding was with a stunt double for Rachel behind him.

- You have talked a little about Tony Gilroy already but how did you find working with him in general?

He is a very smart and very very organised and I would work with him again in a heartbeat. It was a pure joy because he knows exactly what he wants and he just goes about it - there is no drama.

- You have called being a stuntman or a stunt co-ordinator a dream job so for someone who wants to get into that career where do you start?

The truth is it a very hard field to get into as there are thousands of stuntman available for every single job. There are guys that have resumes that go back a decade that will be competing for the first job that you are competing for in your first movie - it is tough.

What you have to do is get out onto the set and you have to meet other stuntmen, it is very often that you will meet other guys who want to be stuntmen. You have to find out where they work out and the gyms that they go to.

It is like a higher level of networking. You have to demonstrate that you have incredibly physical skills but then you also have to demonstrate a great mental agility and appropriateness (laughs).

The single most important ingredient to all of this is perseverance as it will take most people three to five years from trying for you first job to actually land one. It took me five or six years to really make a living and not have to worry about other part time work.

- You got into stunt co-ordinating quite early on so is that quite rate?

For me it happened in a way that I never expected as I wasn't actually looking to be a stunt co-ordinator as I was quite happy being a stuntman.

Someone I knew was producing a small movie and asked me to be the stunt co-ordinator on it but I have to admit that I was very reluctant.

But I read the script and I realised that I knew how to do everything that was required and I was unemployed at the time so I was happy to have the job (laughs).

It lead to the next job and the next job and then all of a sudden I was a co-ordinator - it was never really my goal it just happened.

- You have worked on some massive movies such as Independence Day, Spider Man 2 and 3 as well as Quantum of Solace so do you get that excitement and buzz when you get on set or are you in the zone of concentrating on the job in hand?

I myself find that the best way to organise the work and my though process is not to think about being bigger and better ' this is a huge movie so how are we going to knock the socks off the audience?' but to concentrate on telling a good story and creating an action piece that is driven by the character and has all the same constructions as a dialogue scene.

So I do resist the idea that if it is a sequel or a big blockbuster that we have to apply a different set of rules to it. I am very much a storyteller and I just want to tell a good story but my medium happens to be action.

- You are also about to release Red Dawn so is that pretty much ready to go?

Well Red Dawn has actually been done for about three years but the bankruptcy of the studio that produced it has caused a huge delay in it's release.

But it is finally going to be released during Thanks Giving here in the States.

- And you have got Chris Hemsworth on your cast list.

I cast Chris Hemsworth in Red Dawn and the very next day he was cast to play Thor. So the entire time that he was on my set playing Jed we all knew that he was going off to star in a big Marvel movie as the title character and we were all very excited for him - in fact he was called Thor on my set.

We were all aware that he was going to step onto a bigger stage when he left Red Dawn.

The irony is the original Red Dawn got to introduce a bevy of young stars to audiences and only because of the bankruptcy of the studio as the sequel been denied that pleasure. We have amonsg our cast we several guys who have become big stars since doing Red Dawn.

- So how did you find making the transition into the director's chair?

It is a different kind of challenge. Frankly being a stunt co-ordinator can be a very hard job and be very stressful and I thought it was easier being a stunt performer as I never worried about being hurt myself.

But when you step away from being a performer and become a co-ordinator you carry the responsibility of the outcome. You plan the best the can and you hire the people possible and you hope that they are all successful - if something happens it is very hard to deal with.

It think that is why it is so hard to get into stunt work because do you take a chance on a guy that has never worked before? Or do you hire the guy that you have seen work for ten years and has a huge resume and a great reputation?

Every time you hire someone new and you are rehearsing and working out and hanging out you can never really know what happens to a person when the cameras show up as a lot of people lose control emotionally because of the anxiety.

- Now that you have stepped into directing is this where you want to be or are we still going to be seeing you working on stunts?

I have been a co-ordinator since the eighties so I have done everything that I Have every dreamed of doing as a stunt co-ordinator and a stuntman so I think that directing is now going to be a large part of my future.

At this stage of my career I get to face new challenges and learn move things and that is great.

I see myself directing my own projects as well as well as directing the second unit because directing the second unit is the best job in the world as I get to go out with the best cameramen, crews and stuntmen in the world - it really does beat working for a living.

- Finally what is next for you?