Gangs of London stunt boss lifts lid on ‘animalistic’ fight scenes that were so risky they required ambulance on set
GANGS of London stunt boss Jude Poyer has offered an insight into the ‘animalistic’ fight scenes.
He revealed things would get so physical they needed an ambulance on set just in case anyone was seriously hurt.
The stunt coordinator spoke to and broke down some of the most hard-hitting and intense fight sequences and what goes into pulling them off.
Jude said: "We’ve got some hard hits in Gangs of London, there’s a moment where Elliot’s stunt double gets thrown into a wall and bounces off the corner, or backflips and lands on a washing machine…The stunt double only had to do that as many times as was necessary for us to get the shot."
He added: "We always have medics on set and sometimes, if we’re doing something a bit more serious, I’ll insist we have an ambulance crew on set [but] we didn’t have any serious injuries.
"We had one stunt where somebody had to fall backwards down a flight of stairs, and they were taken to hospital just to get checked out."
Planning the epic fight scenes is hard work as Jude mentioned they could take a few days to film.
He explained: "It was normal to have around three or four days to film our bigger fight sequences.
"But we would spend more time choreographing and shooting a pre-vis. So we might spend four or five days choreographing, then four or five days shooting a pre-vis and trying different things."
He added: "You want to give each of the [fight sequences] their own flavour or characteristic. The audience can get bored and feel like they’ve seen it before."
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Fans of the gritty drama can expect more nail-biting episodes as last month Sky announced a second series for Gangs of London.
Fans will be pleased to hear that the action will return in 2022, with filming already planned for next year.
The drama is now set to explode on to screens around the world as AMC has picked up rights for series one of the smash hit in the US and will also join as a co-producer for series two.
Viewers in the US will be able to watch Gangs of London Series one this autumn on AMC, with the show also scheduled to air on Sky in Germany and Italy this summer.