We chat with BlackAdam action designer Chris Brewster about storytelling through action in the DCU and the different fighting styles of Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam & Aldis Hodge's Hawkman:
Black Adam has grossed over $350 million worldwide, marking a definite shift in the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe. Black Adam introduces the titular anti-hero and the Justice Society of America, while also bringing Henry Cavill's Superman back into the fold. Black Adam features some of the most brutal action sequences in the DC Universe, with the anti-hero literally tearing an enemy in half. The iconic action sequences in Black Adam were designed by industry veteran Chris Brewster.
Before we even started the stunt team on this project, Jaume, the director, had come up with an animated version of just about every piece of action. Which was really helpful because it showed us what he wanted, what his vision was. Ultimately our job as a stunt team and the action designers is to take his vision and make it come to life. He would show us what he wanted, and then we would basically design all the action, start on the ground.
Chris Brewster: Absolutely. I mean as action designers, we don't just make movement for the sake of movement. To us, we are telling the same story in the script. Instead of a line of dialogue, we have a punch or a grab or a kick. Every move we do has to tell a story. It's really imperative that we know the characters.
Another character I want to talk about a little bit is Cyclone because I noticed that, first of all, it's not a power we see a ton of in really any superhero genre. I know we had Storm way back in the early 2000s. But this is really something new for this era of superheroes. I noticed the way that she moves with her power is very graceful and very dance-like.
Quintessa definitely came in, and [they] had so many ideas. It's really, really awesome when actors come in having already done all of their homework and have a vision that they're trying to create. I mean, Quintessa came in on day one and had videos of different dancers that they liked. They had all these concept videos of silks; just silks all around people's arms and the fluidity of the movement.
With Dwayne, it was almost the exact opposite. Not because he didn't want to put the effort in, [but] he is a very busy man. We only got about two weeks with him to prep the entire film. In that two weeks. Again, he was just all over; doing all kinds of stuff. Most of the action sequences that we had with him, we had maybe a day to prep him for each one of the action sequences. He just has this incredible ability to launch an entire piece of action, and he has it.
Ultimately, we’re working with god powers here. For a human body to actually do the things that you can animate, it's borderline impossible. We had to find that perfect balance of exactly what we can do and make it as dynamic and exciting and just intense as possible. But to keep everyone safe so that we can shoot an amazing action movie. Then everybody will go home to their families at the end of the day. That was a huge challenge.
Chris Brewster: Ironically, working with the DP usually comes with challenges. Obviously everybody working on a film set is very good at what they do, but a lot of times it's like every department is focused on themselves, and they don't necessarily overlap too well. But this was one of those cases where everybody overlapped really, really well. Lawrence, he's a joker. I mean the guy knows how to shoot anything. The guy's an absolute legend.
Chris Brewster: There's quite a few. For me, as an action designer and getting more into second unit directing, my specialty is exactly that. It's telling the story through the movement of each character and breaking down each character into how they would stand, how they would fight, and what kind of position they would be in. A more aggressive fighter will lean forward.
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