Cory DeMeyers is the Emmy-nominated Stunt Coordinator of Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones. He stopped by to chat about working on the show as well as working on Halloween Ends.
So we’re going to be talking about you being a stunt coordinator on The Righteous Gemstones, particularly Season Three. Can you talk a little bit about creating some of the feature level action, particularly on the shorter timeline of a TV show?
Yeah, absolutely. One of the first things that comes to mind for me is the car chase that we did in episode two. So, that car chase, I was on another show at the time when I got the call to start on Righteous Gemstones. We really kind of prepped that from afar and I sent somebody ahead of me to look at the locations. But when I got boots on the ground, the car chase started day six of me being on set for The Righteous Gemstones. So, we had five days to prep the car chase and two days to execute it. That was finishing the prep while still shooting other stunts and scenes on set. On a feature film for a car chase like that, you’re going to get a few weeks to prep that. And then you’re going to probably get a week of shooting to execute that. Whereas on a television timeline, you might have a week or so to prep it at most. And then you’re going to have a day or two to execute. But, working with Rough House, the guys that that produce Righteous Gemstones, those guys are such professionals. They understand the level of talent that’s required to get these kinds of things done on any scale, but especially on a shortened timeline. So, we were able to knock it out in two days. Jody Hill was directing that episode. Paul Daly was our DP, who I know from Project Power when he was a camera operator and I think they absolutely killed it. Our stunt team was tip top. Stanton Barrett, he’s a generational stunt performer. He’s driven NASCAR and stock cars. And then Joe Dryden was our other driver who did the 70-foot pipe ramp. And then Stanton did that sidewinder right into that dump truck there in the middle of a river street in North Charleston.
Do you like to try and keep everything as practical as possible?
I do. I think especially when it’s, even some of my visual effects friends, I think that are real and true filmmakers right at their core. They even prefer as much practical as possible so that way we can enhance it, but not have to create it from scratch digitally. And so that’s one thing that’s been awesome on The Righteous Gemstones is they use visual effects when necessary. But we do try on the show to keep as many of these gags practical as possible. I think it lends a level of authenticity to what we’re doing as a viewer, right? Like you really know every time. It’s not that it always pulls you out of it.
Yeah. I mean, that’s the whole point in action is that you’re supposed to watch and think “that’s amazing” and then whenever you see it’s animated, you’re like, “oh, that’s less amazing”.
Totally. Yeah. You want to do it as real as possible and sell it. You really want to sell that action. And the closer you can get to reality, but while doing it as safe as possible is what we strive for.
How did you work with Danny McBride and David Gordon-Green to create the standout and impactful moments in the action?
I mean, both of those guys are very collaborative, right? One thing that David did actually in his episode last season was he had a one-er sequence, right? He had a robbery that happened in his episode. It’s a flashback for Steve Zahn’s character to kind of show how he became this disgruntled Christian militia leader. David was very, very open to collaboration, same as he was on Halloween, which is how I got hooked up with him. We would pitch ideas back and forth and with both those guys, best idea wins, right? It’s not my way or the highway with either Danny or David – it’s best idea wins. And usually, it’s the idea that’s going to have the most impact, but also going to continue to drive the story forward and develop the characters which is a place that I like to come from an action design. I love doing cool stuff. Everybody likes to do cool stuff, but is the cool stuff you’re doing driving the story forward. I think with most films that should be the purpose of the action is to enhance the story. Every once in a while, we get to make a film or a television show where it’s just ambiguous action for the sake of action. But on this show, it’s very story driven, even though it’s a comedy, you know?
Yeah. Whenever I talk to stunt coordinators about action scenes and ask, should they always progress the story and characters or should they just be, “we need an action scene now, let’s put it in”. But they always say that an action scene should really tell a story in itself with a beginning, middle and an end. Do you think that’s true?
I think that’s very true. It’s the same as professional wrestling, right? In professional wrestling, you’re telling a story throughout that match. And it has a beginning, a middle and an end which is why even professional wrestling to some degree is so well liked because the fans get to watch a story unfold. It’s not just a match. It’s not just a fight. Those professionals are telling a story. And yeah, so I definitely agree with that. And to your other point, if I was asked just to create, “oh, we need something here”. I’m still going to contemplate what would the character do in that moment, right? I’m not going to add a butterfly twist or a backflip if our character has never done that in the entire film and there’s no reason for them to do that. But we’ll find something else cool for them to do that might make sense.
Yeah, it’s got to be believable for the character and what they would do.
Yeah!
So, these are words I never thought I would say, but how challenging was it to do episode six’s nude fight scene?
Well, the nude fight, which is one of my favorite moments in the season. I think a lot of people really enjoyed that. The biggest challenge really was making sure the actors were comfortable throughout the entire process, right? And both Tim and Steven had worked together. They had seen each other throughout the season. But, when you have to be physical with another man on camera and one of you is nude, right? It adds a whole other level of danger for the actors for both of them. They don’t want to hurt each other. And now you’re literally more vulnerable, right? You’re completely exposed. And so, one thing that I wanted to make sure was everybody felt comfortable with the action that they were doing. They felt safe in the action that we were creating for them, right? And then we also had an intimacy coordinator. So, I think level of comfort was number one for me with those guys in that sequence. Then it was literal physical safety because if they weren’t comfortable, we weren’t going to be able to do the action. So, it’s kind of making sure they were comfortable with what we were trying to execute. And then number two, making sure we were safe in the execution of that, now in this vulnerable position. And Stephen did great. Stephen did 99% of his nude fighting. We had a double for him who jumped off the bed into the family photo and broke that, right? Because even though we’re using sugar glass, you can still get cut using sugar glass. We didn’t want to expose him to that so, we did one jump with our actor. We did one jump with our stunt double and had him break the glass. And then Tim outside of the hard wrecks, which we used his stunt double T. Ryan Mooney, Tim did everything else for BJ. He did the end scene with the punches, the groin grab on the ground, the flip over, and it really always adds a nice layer to the character and to the fight when you’re going to have your actors doing as much as possible.
And that’s a perfect example of the action progressing the story as well. Just a nice little character moment of breaking the actual picture because just the symbolism of that.
Yes. Oh, 100%.
There’s also a great monster truck escape scene in I think it’s episode seven. Can you talk about doing that?
Yeah. I grew up building cars, maybe I shouldn’t say it, but street racing a little bit (laughs). I’m from Flint, Michigan, originally. So, it’s, Motor City next to Detroit. I was always very interested in cars and I moved to California to build and drive race cars, I thought. I have a martial arts background so, I ended up becoming a stuntman and I have always been comfortable around cars on set. I’ve done some driving myself, but I had never worked directly with a real monster truck. We’ve done lifted trucks in some shows that I’ve been on, but never monster trucks. And so, we worked with our transportation department to find a company to build us the Redeemer. Then once we started moving forward and realized that we were going to be using this in more of the season than just one episode that it was originally slated for. After it showed up, everybody wanted it in every episode. We made sure to get the best driver possible. And for me, that was the guys that built the truck. Ryan Disharoon was our main driver for the Redeemer. He and his father own a company that builds monster trucks and does fabrication. They have working monster trucks in shows around the country year-round. That was the first safety call that I made was getting the best driver possible for the truck. And then as the coordinator, you’re looking at the overall picture. So, my job was to learn as much about him, his abilities and his truck as possible, so I understand motor sports, but monster trucks are a little bit different. They’re 12,000 pound killing machines, so, you have to respect them on set and you have to make sure everybody else around you respects them and what they’re capable of and understands that even when things are going great and we’re starting to get comfortable with the truck because our driver is so good and everything’s just working the way we want it to go, that things can happen that are out of everybody’s control. You have to constantly be communicating, not just with the stunt team, but with the crew, with the cast, so they understand the power and capabilities of the machine that we’re working with and continue to respect it and help keep everyone safe.
Do you think that’s probably the most challenging of the stunts you’ve had to work on for the show?
I think it was the most challenging for me. It was the most nerve wracking. Because you have this piece of equipment that you’re using in multiple setups with multiple people on set and even when we were doing the destruction during the escape, there’s 40 background playing militia. We’re riding it on two wheels, blasting through outhouses, smashing through RVs. There is debris flying, but I had a remote kill switch at all times. So, myself and then Ryan’s father, who helped build the truck, Rick, who’s a monster truck driver himself, Rick and I both had a remote kill switch. So that way, if we saw anything go wrong, even if somebody else didn’t notice, or if something major went sideways, we could cut the engine immediately by hand on set with line of sight. Then the team trained me on how to cut the fuel to the monster truck as well. So, if anything happened, we could shut the truck down remotely. First person to get to the truck hits the fuel cell, turns the fuel off, so that way there can’t be a fuel leak and lead to anything bigger.
You’re stunt coordinating upcoming film Nutcrackers with Ben Stiller. Can you discuss working on that? What stage is that?
Yeah. I mean, what I can say about that is that it was an incredible experience. I’ve been very lucky to work on multiple projects now with David Gordon-Green. And it started with being the co-stunt coordinator on Halloween Ends. I originally came in as the fight coordinator on that movie to help build the final sequence with Laurie and The Shape. And my mentor, Kevin Scott, was the stunt coordinator. A few weeks in, he said, “Corey, I want you to coordinate with me on this one. So, I’m going to make you the co-stunt coordinator. You’re going to run a bunch of stuff on set”. He directed some of the action units, but gave me a really, really big opportunity to step up. And from that, David brought me in on Gemstones, a commercial with him, and then invited me on Nutcrackers. It was interesting because we have some fun stunts that are very grounded in reality and Nutcrackers, for sure. But it was this beautiful indie film that everybody just fell in love with while we were making it and recently was announced to be opening TIFF. So, even as a stunt coordinator, I like to consider myself a filmmaker. I love film. I’m a cinephile. I’ve produced and directed short films and done some commercials when I was a professional athlete that I had to helm. Getting to be a part of an indie film with a director, with the skillset and the scope that David Gordon-Green has was incredible. And Ben was incredible. Tthat was somebody I’d always kind of wished to work with. And it all came together on this beautiful little project in Ohio over the winter, I guess. Yeah, last winter into this winter. So, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve seen a couple of clips. It looks amazing. But I can’t wait to see the whole film. And maybe I’ll get to go out to TIFF and check it out with everybody.
Let me know if you are because I live in Toronto.
Amazing. I’ve been to Toronto a few times. I used to do parkour professionally. I competed in Red Bull events all over for parkour. And when did I come through? 2015, one of my best friends and business partners did a documentary film that we released on Amazon Prime and Vimeo on demand. And we did a 15 city tour in North America. And we hit Vancouver and then we hit Toronto as well on our crazy loop. So, there’s an amazing little parkour gym there called the Monkey Vault. So, we came through an event and then got to screen our film in town.
Before you go, I’ve got to ask because the Halloween movies are some of my all time favourite movies. How cool was it being on set with Michael Myers?
Oh my gosh, it was the craziest. Honestly, that was a bucket list thing that I didn’t know I wanted. I loved the films growing up. They’re so iconic and they’re rich with history but I never imagined that I would be working on a Halloween film with Jamie Lee Curtis. I feel like not a bastardized version of Halloween. She helps make Halloween. And to be a part of what might be her final Halloween film was incredible. I actually doubled Rowan Campbell for portions of the movie. And I did some of the work for him in Halloween Ends when he was The Shape. I’ll tell you, there’s something really crazy when you put on that mask. My stepfather is a martial arts instructor and he used to say that you come to martial arts, you do martial arts, you don’t have a uniform, and you’re still learning. But when a kid straps on his uniform for the first time or ties a martial arts belt on for the first time, you feel like a martial artist. And I feel like that on shows, sometimes you put on your wardrobe and it helps you get into that character. But I’m telling you, when they put that mask on you, it is a completely different feeling. Immediately, it just puts you in a different zone. I got chills. I felt different. I felt weird and you just immediately become that character. I don’t know if anybody could put that on and not be Michael Myers, because you just move different. But that was a very, very amazing experience. And to get to work with James Jude Courtney, who I became friends with on that show, he was the new Shape for the last three films. James is incredible. And I think he’s just an outstanding shape. It was a real honor, man. It really was and that’s something that I’ll always have.
That’s fantastic. I’m jealous.
Yeah, a little sliver of film history. You know what I mean?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat today. And I’ll see you next time in Toronto.
Absolutely. Thank you very much. Have a great rest of your day.