Sword master creates Tolkien-esque battles
Cochrane-based stuntman taught Hobbit cast to fight
When Steven McMichael says watching a massive battle scene in the first instalment of The Hobbit is like being in the middle of a dwarf-versus-orc war, he knows what he’s talking about.
As sword master for the New Zealand-shot trilogy, the Cochrane-based stuntman was at ground zero for the carnage at Moria gate, just one of the massive production numbers found in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
He knew what to expect but admits he even he was taken aback when watching the action unfold on the big screen last week at the star-studded, New York City premiere.
“All the actors had already done the premiere in Tokyo and down in New Zealand,” says McMichael, now back at his home in Cochrane. “So I said to them ‘Don’t tell me, I want the experience it. Don’t tell me about any changes Pete has done.’ And as I’m watching the Moria gates battle it was interesting. Watching it at 48-frames-per-second, it almost puts you in the fight scene. It’s almost like I was outside again.”
That particular battle, a flashback that takes place outside of an enormous underground complex in Middle Earth, took two weeks to shoot and used dozens of extras, CGI and other tricks.
As sword master, or fight coordinator, McMichael taught actors such as Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage, dozens of background players, supporting actors and stuntmen how to best wield their swords, staffs, hammers and axes. Along with Jackson and stunt co-ordinators, he designed roughly 75 fight scenes over the three films, all frenzied battles involving hobbits, orcs and other creatures that inhabit Middle Earth.
For the second instalment of the trilogy, 2013’s The Desolation of Smaug, he also served as stunt double for actor Hugo Weaving, who plays Elrond.
All and all, it made for a dizzying and often exhausting 16 months on the massive New Zealand sets. A Colorado native and veteran stunt performer, McMichael has worked on bigbudget fare before, including I, Robot and the Fantastic Four. He landed the Hobbit job with the help of his friend Glenn Boswell, who was stunt co-ordinator for the trilogy and had worked with McMichael before.
But nothing prepared him for the sheer scale of Jackson’s vision. Twenty-four cameras would operate at any given time. It had a day crew of 600 people. No one knows exactly what the budget is for the three films, but insiders pegged it at roughly $500-million back when it was only going to be a two-part series.
“To sit back and know I was working on the biggest film ever made, yeah it was overwhelming at first,” McMichael says. “There’s a lot of information being passed down. But it was an honour to be able to be a part of it.”
And he certainly hit the ground running. Filming was initially plagued by delays, skirmishes with unions and even Jackson’s health problems. So when McMichael arrived in New Zealand in mid February of 2011, he was immediately whisked to Jackson’s house. The director was recuperating from a perforated ulcer and was eager to begin planning his battle scenes.
“He wanted to get down to business,” McMichael says. “He had been convalescing for six weeks and the actors had already started their movement training, their physical training. So he really wanted them to get into their weapons training because it’s an important piece of the film.”
A father-of-five —three of whom live in Cochrane with his wife Leslie, who is also a stunt performer — McMichael admits it was tough being away from home that long. Off and on, he was on set since February of 2011 until the past June. He became a “digital dad,” religiously getting up each morning at 4:45 a.m. so he could hold Skype conversations with his wife and children.
Before getting into stunt work, McMichael was a world-ranked martial artist and marine in the 1980s. He was a part of the Presidential Color Guard that helped protect President George Bush Sr. and was stationed in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. He got into stunt work after a move to Vancouver. He met Leslie Sponberg, a Red Deer native and stuntwoman, on the set of 1997 Ninja Turtle TV series. The 42-year-old has carved out a niche for himself in stuntwork thanks to his mastery of an acrobatic martial arts styles that mixes taekwondo, capoeira and wushu. (That said, McMichael insists the dwarfs and hobbits do not engage in backflips and such during battle scenes.)
There will be another block of shooting for the Hobbit’s third part in the spring, but McMichael doesn’t know if he will be able to participate. Since moving to Cochrane, Steven and Leslie founded White Wing Films. For the past three years, they have been developing a First World War epic called Four Saints as their first project. After numerous delays, McMichael says shooting should begin in April at the Tissu T’ina Nation Indian Reserve near Calgary.
McMichael says the film will have at least four A-list actors in it and cost $25 million, which would certainly make it among the most expensive films ever produced in Canada. Pretty ambitious for a debut.
“Our motto is go big or go home,” McMichael says with a laugh.