Making a Massacre

Peterloo’s stunt coordinator Steve Dent on building a bloodbath

1 got actors to ride

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“When I first heard about a Mike Leigh action sequence, I thought ‘Hello, are we going to sit down in a library and throw books at one another?’ The first thing he said was I want all my actors to ride. I suggested when he auditioned his cast he’d send his favourites over to me and I’d mark them one-five on their riding ability. He liked that idea.”

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“On the recces, Mike goes off into his own world. I went up to him with loads of ideas and his team said, ‘No, walk away, leave him.’ All of a sudden he looks up, has an idea and you have a chat about it. That’s how we worked it out — lots and lots of little conversations.”

2 talked it through

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“Mike’s got no script. That was a tricky thing really. He had little bits of card in his pocket. He said, “I don’t want it too violent. I want it to be nasty, I want it to be an accident.’ He talks you through it gently and says. ‘Go away and send me something.’”

3 we improvised

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“It was difficult to get the actors to hit the spot with their horses during the riot. We had 44 horses. It’s always a worry with horses and supporting artists that someone is going to get trodden on. We were very lucky, we walked away unscathed.”

4 PLAYED IT SAFE... 5 …BUT NOT TOO SAFE

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“I’ve done lots of battles with people fighting but this was people just bashing the shit out of people. The yeomanry were just thugs riding over people. The Hussars came in and gave everyone a tune up. If we made it look like carnage, happy days.”