Stunt director Andy Armstrong is one of the biggest names in the Hollywood action business. t2 caught up with ‘the man who knows no fear’ to talk mind and mechanics of the daredevil stunts in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, that premieres on Sony Pix today (1pm and 9pm).
PS: Armstrong was also the man behind Hrithik Roshan’s jaw-dropping stunts in Bang Bang.

What’s been the toughest bit of designing the stunts for the two Spider-Man films (The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel)?

The biggest challenge always is to try and do something different. With the two Spider-Man films, it was to do something that was typically
Spider-Man, but was again something the audience hadn’t seen before. So the jumping, the lunging, the flying, the webbing…all of that had to be there, but done with a certain freshness. And I think we achieved that.

Was there a specific brief from director Marc Webb for the second film?

We discussed that we would continue the movement we had in the first film, but to make it more real. One of the things we developed in the first film was that even in the instances Spider-Man was computer generated, to make it realistic we gave the computer animators very, very specific reference material so that they could create real body movements. So even if he’s swinging from a very tall building in Manhattan and it’s a computer-generated Spider-Man, all his movements would have seemed like that by a real person. I loved working with Marc… he was very clear with his vision and Andrew (Garfield) was very cooperative and always keen to try out something new.

Which was the trickiest stunt to pull off in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

The vehicle chase through New York at the beginning of the film which has Spider-Man on the side of a truck… we wanted to make it a kind of standalone action sequence that could be used as a ‘wow’ moment in the promos. The whole sequence is completely real… there’s no use of special effects. We wanted the look and feel of a James Bond film or something like Bourne Supremacy and film a sequence that could be part of any action movie sequence… not just Spider-Man.  

After so many decades in the business, how do you manage to keep it fresh every time?

I don’t know… I think it’s just constantly trying to do things that haven’t been seen before. I am always looking for new references and ways in which I can derive my stunts from seemingly everyday life instances. Often, I go back to very old cinema… some of the stunts we did in Spider-Man were inspired by films of the 1920s… a lot of Buster Keaton films. I look back a lot at the past for my work and that’s something that I bring to the medium.

How long does it typically take to design a stunt?

It can take weeks, really. Before we come to the film set to actually shoot it, we take weeks to design it and then rehearse it over and over again. We rehearse it in many different ways with different stuntmen to try and reach a consensus on the best possible way to do a particular stunt. The action sequences consume the largest amount of the budget in a film like Spider-Man and so we have to ensure that before we shoot it, there is hardly any margin for error. But what we start with… the idea of a stunt… is most often not what we end up with… it undergoes many, many changes. Sometimes , we end up working for weeks for a sequence that lasts just a few seconds on screen. But no stunt is ever easy and since there is so much money involved, any mistake can prove to be very costly. But the sense of satisfaction that comes with doing a stunt well is unparalleled.

Your family has been in the stunt business for generations. Is being a stunt expert a given for every Armstrong?

(Laughs) No, no. One of my nephews is in special effects and my daughter used to do vehicle stunts, but now she’s a mother and a photographer. But yes, it’s quite a dynasty… we all love this profession. Two of my grandchildren are already interested in stunts… my grandson, who is just six, is already racing go-karts! (Laughs) My son, who is almost 34, has about 20 years of experience in action because he has been coming on set and helping me ever since he was a boy.
 
 

You were a stunt consultant on Bang Bang. What was that experience like?

20th Century Fox who were partners on Bang Bang (with Fox Star Studios, India) called me midway when the movie had already started. They had some problems… Hrithik (Roshan) had an injury on the sets (for which he had to undergo brain surgery). They wanted to continue doing stunts — Hrithik was more than willing — but they also wanted to make them safe and so they got in touch with me to ask if I would consider taking over to make sure that the action was top-class, but also safe. I had a great time working on the film… so much so that I am actually in talks with Fox Star about doing a similar kind of film… a kind of Hollywood-Bollywood film. I am very interested in working once more in India because the Bang Bang experience was very good. I am as proud of the kind of stunts we did in Bang Bang as I am of any other Holly film I have worked on. Hrithik is a huge action star who did all his stunts himself and that lent a lot of authenticity to the film, though it’s dangerous too.

You also wear the hats of director, producer and writer. What do you enjoy the most?

I really enjoy creating stunts and seeing them through safely. You feel like a magician because you create something and when people see it, they don’t know how it’s done and that in itself is very satisfying. The reason why I came back to stunts even after trying my hand at direction and writing is that I enjoy it much more than anything else. I will probably direct again, but it will have to be a film that’s all about action and stunts.
Is there a recent action sequence created by someone else that made you go, ‘I wish I had done that!’
It happens all the time. I constantly see things and say, ‘Wow, that was something!’ I loved the action in the last Bond movie (Skyfall). I am a great admirer of other people’s work… almost every great stunt in every big movie I wish I had done. I also looked at a lot of other Bolly films before I did Bang Bang, just to understand the flavour. I liked the action in the Dhoom films. I also liked Bang Bang because it just seemed so Hollywood even though it’s a Bollywood film. I loved the dance numbers! (Laughs)

Priyanka Roy
Which is you favourite Hollywood stunt? Tell t2@abp.in