Meet the stuntman who makes Charlize Theron, Bob Odenkirk, and Lou‘s Allison Janney look good

As an actor in The Matrix Reloaded, Barry, Nobody, Atomic Blonde, and now Lou, Daniel Bernhardt has enjoyed a lot of high-profile roles. You may not remember them especially well, though, because Bernhardt is usually on the receiving end of a beating by the hero. And in his capacity as a stuntman and fight choreographer, he’s also the one who makes those beatings look convincing. Bernhardt started on this path when he was cast in Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite, filling the Jean-Claude Van Damme role for the sequel.

Since then his appearances have included Agent Johnson in the Wachowskis’ bigger, badder, more brutal second installment of the Matrix film series (he’s the guy leaping from one car hood to the next during the freeway chase), and more recently Bernhardt played the tireless adversary facing down the title character in the Barry season two episode “ronny/lily.” Producer and Bullet Train director Chad Stahelski enlisted Bernhardt as fight choreographer for Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody, where he made Bob Odenkirk look good while battling through a bus full of thugs, including one played by Bernhardt. Speaking to The A.V. Club for Anna Foerster’s new Netflix thriller Lou, his latest project as fight choreographer, Bernhardt talks about the challenges—and thrills—of getting the likes of Odenkirk, and this time, Allison Janney up to speed as on-screen badasses.

DB: It started with Bob Odenkirk. I work out of 87Eleven and 87North, the two hottest action companies in the business. [Director] David Leitch and his wife Kelly McCormick said, “we’re doing this movie called Nobody, and Bob Odenkirk is going to be in the movie. Would you train him?” So I met Bob, we hit it off, trained him for Nobody. And that led to Lou, where our producer asked if I would be interested in being the fight coordinator and train Allison. And oh my God, Allison, I’m a huge fan of her work. We met and we just hit it off and we probably trained pre-shooting maybe three months. And then we trained when we were shooting in Vancouver, probably for another two and a half months. And she was unbelievable. I mean, so naturally gifted because she’s a dancer.

AVC: Is it better for you if a person comes in with some level of fitness already, or do you prefer sort of the raw, untouched clay that you can build from?

DB: It doesn’t matter what I prefer. It’s what I get. Bob Odenkirk always talked in interviews that he’s never done anything like this, that he was completely raw. Allison was an athlete, a dancer. And both were amazing. I take what I get and I’ll train them as best as I can. But in the end, it’s always up to them. Allison really, really, really, really wanted it, and she was so eager. I never had to push her to train. We basically trained every day—and not just a little bit. We trained for hours.

AVC: Allison is six feet tall. What adjustments do you have to make to accommodate an actor’s physicality? And do you find that the character itself drives how you train or prepare them?

DB: Allison is this beautiful woman, six feet tall and she’s all legs, so for me it was really important to incorporate that in her fight. Like, her arms are so long, her legs are so long, so it taught me how to choreograph the fight. I wanted to put in kicks. I wanted to put in big punches to really show off her length and strength.

AVC: How difficult is it to adapt the fighting to a filmmaker’s needs?

DB: When I met the director, Anna told me, in this fight I want to do pieces that are longer. And in the shack fight, we actually choreographed a piece where we do not cut for ten moves. And Allison just picked it up like nothing. This whole fight, we probably rehearsed it for a couple of weeks. She did so well, and she did 99% of all her own fighting. There’s only two things where I had to use a stunt double, where as a fight coordinator, I would never allow it, where I have to flip her into a table and have to smack her into a wall. An actor cannot do that—it’s too dangerous. Everything else is all Allison.

AVC: When Kill Bill came out, there was talk at the time about how most actors couldn’t do more than one or two movements at a time, but I understand Zoe Bell was doing eight or ten or something like that. Are actors getting better at adapting to this kind of choreography?

DB: I think it’s gotten very popular to do one-ers. It all kind of started in my opinion with Oldboy. They did this massive one-er and then they duplicated that in [Spike lee’s remake]. I did it on Atomic Blonde, with Charlize Theron where David Leitch wanted to do a one-er. So they became really, really popular. They did it in the Netflix movie Extraction, where [director] Sam Hargrave did it. And everybody started to love the one-ers. So if the director wants a one-er, we’ll give him a one-er. It just takes more rehearsal time, and needs an actor who’s really willing to come in and train hard. He needs the cameraman and the whole team to prepare. And Anna didn’t want all one-ers, she just said, I just want as long of pieces as possible. And we just found pieces that worked well to go longer. But I also like the drama in the fight of the close-up. I think if you watch our fight or if you actually watch all fights, they’re very dramatic where you go to close-ups. It’s the acting. And now you have an actress like Allison Janney who is just so incredible and in your face when fighting.

AVC: You are also the person whose ass actors get to kick to make them look good. What’s the key to being that guy whose purpose is to make this other person look strong?

DB: I make her look good, and she makes me look good. I love that by having an actress like her, the way she acts with me in the fight makes me look good. So it’s a back-and-forth. There’s nothing really different than doing an acting scene, it’s just we’re trading blows, and I was just very lucky to have her. I’ve been very fortunate. I worked with Allison Janney, I worked with Charlize Theron. I have these incredible, talented women that I could fight with. And I’m also the fight coordinator, so I have a different job as well. I’m an actor on it. I’m a stunt actor or action actor on it. But I’m also the fight coordinator. So to me, it’s very important that my leading lady looks amazing, that I make her shine, and that I shine myself.

AVC: You play Allison’s opponent in the shack fight in Lou. Do you look at acting that does not involve fighting as a largely utilitarian skill for yourself?

DB: It was a little bit different on this one. I actually literally had two jobs, more than on Nobody. On this movie, my job was to train the actors, do the fight choreography, do all of the contacts for the director, make sure the actors are safe on the day with the stunt coordinator together. But then also I had an acting part on it, like a really good role. So I had to make sure that I was really up to date with the acting. So it was both equally important. But the most important thing that I’m very, very proud of is the safety of my actors. That’s the absolute most important thing. I think the worst injury we had on the movie was a splinter. Anna had this incredible vision about having this fight in a shack.

But when I first got the job, Anna was looking for a fight coordinator on this movie, and so I got the interview and she calls me up and she says, “Hey Daniel, I got this script. How do you see the fights?” And I said, “Well, Anna, before I can tell you how I see the fights, I need to know what kind of movie you’re making.” And once she told me what kind of movie she’s making, then I could decide how I see the fights for her movie. And then at the very end of the conversation, she said, “Daniel, I interviewed a lot of people. You’re the only one who asked me that question.” “Well,” I said, “how can I tell you when I don’t know—are you making Kill Bill? Are you doing Atomic Blonde? Are you making Gone With The Wind? I need to know what kind of movie you’re making.” So I had such an incredible working relationship with her where she was already in Vancouver and I was in L.A. We talked about camera lenses, we talked about angles. We talked about the character, about the story. Once I did the pre-vis, we actually shot the movie, the fight scenes, almost shot by shot by the pre-vis we had done, based on her vision.

AVC: I want to ask about the amazing scene that you did in Barry. As a stunt performer and a coordinator, how do you modulate the coolness factor of a fight scene so that when you’re watching John Wick, it doesn’t feel like The Matrix or Barry or Anchorman?

DB: Funny, I helped do all the contacts for Anchorman 2, which was one of the funniest things I’ve ever done. But on Barry, I really would lean on my fight coordinator, coordinator, and my director. On Barry, I have to give all the credit to our director [Bill Hader]. He had such a clear vision of what he wanted. He passed that vision on to our stunt coordinator. And our stunt coordinator then came in and told us the framework of the fight he wanted. From the very beginning, he said the director wanted it all to be a one-er. Then he gave us the framework of where he wanted us to be, where it has to start here. And then, of course, we as performers come in and start helping out—“Oh, we could do this, we could do that.” And there were a lot of moments in Barry where, when I walk down to the room to get my bag and he goes, “Whose trophies are those?” And I just kind of raise my hand. That was an idea I had. And there was actually dialog and we took all the dialog out, which people thought was hysterical. [But] that was his vision. So when I shot that fight scene and the whole acting scene and everything, he was the producer, he was the star, he was the director, and he was even the writer on it. And that episode got nominated for like seven Emmys.

AVC: I mentioned Anchorman because I knew that you had done some work on it. Is there a fight scene, maybe in a film that’s not as well known, that was either especially difficult or rewarding that you wish people would see?

DB: One of my favorite fight scenes was a fight scene I did in my first movie in 1995, in a movie called Bloodsport 2. I was very lucky. I was named to be the lead actor to replace Jean-Claude Van Damme. And I did this fight scene with a very, very good friend of mine who you know—Chad Stahelski. Chad at the time was a stunt fighter, a stunt man, and he choreographed the fight scene for me in Bloodsport 2 that him and I do together. And it’s still today one of my favorite fight scenes I’ve ever done. My second one is probably Matrix Reloaded, which, again, I worked with Chad. I was hired to be Agent Johnson, and I worked with Keanu Reeves. I mean, working with Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne on Matrix Reloaded? It was like a dream come true. My third one was probably John Wick, again with Keanu Reeves, and I was chosen by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch to fight Keanu. That was my third, and my fourth is Atomic Blonde with Charlize, and my fifth is now with Allison Janney.

AVC: You mentioned Bloodsport, a franchise from the heyday of ’80s action. Do you want to pursue more acting roles, or do you see yourself following Chad’s work and moving more into filmmaking or choreography?

DB: I love the movie business. I love moviemaking. So I always say to my friends, you can hire me to be your actor. You can hire me to be your fight coordinator. You can hire me to be a stunt actor. You can bring me in to train the actors. It doesn’t really matter to me as long as I can work on set, as long as I can create and be creative. That’s all I really care about. Like right now, I’m in Albuquerque on a show, actually a Netflix show, and I’m just I’m playing a little fun acting gig. And then when I come back, I’m even up to direct something. I also just did a huge movie for Netflix called Extraction 2, where I play a really good part in it. My buddy Sam Hargrave gave me an incredible role in it, and my second job was I wasn’t the fight coordinator, but I trained all the actors except Chris Hemsworth to prepare them for the fights. And I trained them for like six months. They did incredible. I love what I do and if somebody approaches me and I’m free, I take the job. If it’s acting, directing, producing, if it’s fight coordinating, as long as it has to do something with action, then that’s what I love.