THERON USES TOP-SECRET TRICKS FOR ‘ATOMIC’ STAIR FIGHT
Stunt doubles and foam walls were involved, but the actress got her fair share of bruises
Kick. Thud, thud, thud. Ouch. Tackle. Thud, thud, thud. Ouch!
Watching Charlize Theron’s MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton knock foes and fall hard down marble stairs in Atomic Blonde is an electrifying, and painful, experience.
The stairwell clobbering is the highlight of a marathon action sequence in the new thriller (in theaters now), featuring Broughton trying to get her intelligence asset (Eddie Marsan) safely out of East Berlin.
First she has to fight their way out of an apartment building with those marble stairs, which leads to one thug being kicked down a flight and Broughton taking a hard tumble herself.
“Everyone needed to be on their game to make all of this happen,” says director David Leitch, who has extensive experience as a stunt coordinator and as Brad Pitt’s former stunt double. “Stunt men for generations have fallen down stairs, myself included. There is a technique.”
Daniel Bernhardt, who plays the thuggish soldier, did several variations of that my- God-hebroke-his-neck fall backward. The stuntman was protected by stair padding painted to look like marble.
“We made padded sections of the stairs where we knew people were going to be in dangerous sit- uations,” says Leitch. “There’s a lot of big movie tricks that I have been doing for years in my stunt life that we incorporated to make you believe heads are hitting marble.”
Despite the big fall, Bernhardt didn’t injure himself beyond bumps and bruises.
“For as violent as it looks, we took all the safety precautions,” Leitch says.
Being the irreplaceable star of the movie, Theron battled her own dings (including cracked teeth that required dental work). But she didn’t take the stair tumble. That was left to her stunt double, Monique Ganderton.
Theron did perform the moments where a wincing, falling Broughton is slammed into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. This wall too was foam-padded and painted.
“Even with that, on take 12 and you’re slamming yourself into that hard mat that violently, it’s still no fun,” says Leitch.
The fall was shot to look like a single take. Ganderton says each smaller stair sequence required 15 to 20 rehearsals to get right before shooting began.
“We didn’t know if (Theron) would be up for it,” Ganderton says. “But she totally was and she kicked ( butt).”
Beyond being the crown jewel of the Atomic Blonde action, the punishing scene has a vital payoff.
The movie starts with the aftermath of the apartment battle, flashing to Broughton getting out of an ice-filled bathtub, her naked body covered in unsightly bruises.
“That’s something we wanted to evoke from the beginning,” says Leitch. “That this person is in a crisis. And it’s about her life as a spy having a toll on her body and soul.”