The Fall Guy cast actual stuntmen in supporting roles: ‘It's life imitating art’

Every good director needs to know how to collaborate with his stunt team, but few directors have quite as much firsthand knowledge as David Leitch. The 48-year-old filmmaker may be best known for helming hits like Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2, but he built his career as a longtime stunt performer, often doubling for A-listers like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Now he’s paying tribute to the oft-overlooked world of stunts, directing the new action-comedy The Fall Guy (out May 3).

“Stunt people and all the blue-collar crews were struggling this year as we had our labor strikes,” Leitch tells EW. “They’re the ones that really make the magic happen. I just thought it was time to tell a story from their perspective.”

More than just spotlighting the stunt team’s skills on The Fall Guy, Leitch also wanted to make sure they got some dramatic moments. The filmmaker confirms that several stunt performers play characters throughout the film, like Justin Eaton, a top-notch martial artist who has a small but memorable supporting role.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but Justin has a small part, playing a stunt double on set,” Leitch teases. “It’s life imitating art, so maybe he doesn’t have to stretch too far to play that character. It’s a fun, pivotal role. And I also have a whole troop of bad guys. It’s a lot of faces the stunt community will recognize and cheer for, even though they’re the bad guys.”

Inspired by the classic ‘80s TV show with Lee Majors, The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as a down-on-his-luck stunt performer named Colt Seavers. Colt gets a job working on an over-the-top blockbuster directed by his ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt), handling every car chase and taking every painful punch. But when the film’s lead actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) disappears, Colt promises Jody that he’ll find her missing star, using his onscreen skills to navigate a very real world of danger.

Obviously, making a movie about stunt performers means that you need some pretty impressive stunts, and Leitch says he and the crew approached The Fall Guy as a sort of “bucket list” opportunity, wanting to embrace as many practical action sequences as possible. He notes that the stunt community has evolved since the original Fall Guy was on television, and his goal was to highlight his performers’ impressive and diverse skillsets.

“It used to be there were just these hard-boiled cowboy types that had a lot of guts and determination and would just press the button and go,” he explains. “It was sort of my generation that started to really specialize in different disciplines, like martial arts, motorcycles, cars, rigging. Stunts became very specialized. We had an opportunity in this movie to not only highlight people at the best of their discipline under the stunt umbrella, but to also go for some achievements.”

Those achievements include ambitious feats like a 150-foot fall and a scene where Gosling himself surfs behind a garbage truck. (Production shot in Sydney, Australia, and Leitch is profusely grateful that the city let them close the Sydney Harbour Bridge for filming: “They were really supportive and let us lock it down for a couple hours to drive him at 40 miles an hour behind the back of a truck.”)

He also praises some of the many performers who double for Gosling on screen, calling their talent “humbling.” Logan Holladay, for example, is an accomplished stunt driver, who handles most of the scenes where Colt gets behind the wheel. “We wanted to do some big car jumps and some incredible cannon rolls, so we really let him bring his expertise and do his thing at the highest level,” Leitch explains.

As for Eaton, aside from his minor role in The Fall Guy, Leitch wanted to give him some “heightened” fight scenes to properly show off his skills. And Ben Jenkins doubles for Gosling in multiple scenes. “He comes from a parkour free-running background, so there’s a great foot chase in the movie,” Leitch adds. “He’s also just a great physical double, so we hit him with a car, whatever. Everybody got to do a classic version of what they’re really good at, and hopefully we amplified it to the next level.”  

The result, Leitch hopes, is an action extravaganza that pays tribute to the world he loves. He points out that even in 2023, the Oscars still don’t have a category recognizing stunts, something he would love to see remedied.

“Maybe it’s always been in the DNA of the job,” he says. “We are sort of the ninjas of the movie business. We create the magic but get none of the credit. Maybe that’s where it’s always going to be, but I hope not. I hope that our voices are heard and we start to get recognized.”

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