When entering back into the world of John Wick, it isn’t just the pulsing score, neon lights, or sleek production design that welcomes you back into the fold, it’s the legendary stunt and fight choreography that allows you to feel back in the Ruska Roma, Continental, and Wick-verse. Supervising Stunt Coordinator Stephen Dunlevy is no stranger to the world of John Wick, as he was a stunt coordinator in the fourth installment and worked in stunts on chapters two and three. Dunlevy, a legend in the world of stunts with credits from The Matrix Resurrections, Uncharted, and Mad Max: Fury Road, spoke with Offscreen Central about the character development of Eve through her fighting style, the most challenging stunt in Ballerina, and much more.

Kenzie Vanunu: Congratulations on the film! I was so excited to be back in the world of John Wick and specifically to the amazing stunt design it effortlessly brings audiences back to it. I know you’ve been working in this world since the second installment from stunts to stunt coordination on the fourth chapter, what has it been like growing within this franchise that continues to push itself?
Stephen Dunlevy: I love this world. I mean, being part of with 87eleven and Chad [Stahelski] for so long and seeing the way it’s developed through the process. Being part of John Wick: Chapter 2 and seeing the way it developed to John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and then obviously being so heavily involved with it in John Wick: Chapter 4. Coming back for Ballerina, it was amazing to be able to expand the world that is John Wick and the High Table and everything like that. It’s really an honor to be part of any of these, this Wick universe.

Kenzie Vanunu: Awesome. I love the language that’s spoken throughout all of them with the choreography and the stunts. It’s such a beautiful thing to see grow each time.

Something I love about it is just the various types of weapons and fighting styles used in the world. And then in Ballerina, we get everything from flamethrowers to plates to ice skates. What was the most challenging thing to work with in Ballerina?
Stephen Dunlevy: Challenging? Normally I get what was the most fun. All of them, everything has its own moments of like, okay, we’ve done that. How do we do this? I think the grenade fight was definitely challenging because we’re so used to like a gun on gun or you go like guns are like long range to short range and then we go short range with like weapons with pens and things like that or the ice skates, which are a lot of fun. You know your ranges with those weapons. With a grenade, it’s kind of like one of those ones where it was like, okay, we’re going to be in a close environment of these, like this basement kind of thing. And now we have this grenade, which we did play with the aspects of what a grenade does and everything like that, but we wanted to kind of stay true to the form. So, there’s a concussive blast and there’s explosions and you can’t be too close to someone when those grenades go off unless there’s some kind of shield in place.

So, we played with the doors, and we played with distances and things like that. That was definitely one of those ones where it was like, ‘okay, what do we do here? How do we make this work? How do we make it fun? And how do we progress the fight so it’s not just static.’ And it’s not just this monotonous like she throws a grenade, and someone dies.

And what we love to do with this universe is play with distances. So that the door where she hits the guy, puts the grenade in his mouth and then uses the door as a shield, you know, playing with those moments definitely allowed us. And playing with the table and the number of grenades we used, that was all like part of the R&D of it.

Kenzie Vanunu: I loved that sequence because it was really cool with the production design of the use of space. I felt like you were getting further into this store. She didn’t know how for like how much further up it went and how many back entrances there were. It was really a fun choreography of also using the space to her advantage and her discovering it as she was going.
Stephen Dunlevy: I’m glad that played out because you’re the first person I’ve talked to about it and hearing that from someone else because obviously we’re so developed in that world. The whole thing was meant to be almost like this maze, like she’s lost. She’s having to fumble her way through and that’s part of what makes her survive is her ability to adapt on the fly, to be able to just adapt to sequences.

And she doesn’t have the strength of say like John Wick. She doesn’t have the same skill sets or because she’s younger and she’s not as advanced as an assassin. So, her quick wits kind of let her survive the situations.

Kenzie Vanunu: Yeah as she’s going then when she discovers the box of grenades. I love this discovery and how that’s integrated to her fighting style but also each sequence was really developed in that idea. I also really loved when she used the remote and the Buster Keaton cameo on the TV.
Stephen Dunlevy: Yes! I think that was a little nod from one of the one of the guys on the fight team was like, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool…’ Yeah, really great.

Kenzie Vanunu: I did the little point at the tv bit. It was a very cute inclusion. I think a really interesting aspect to Ballerina that makes it different from John’s story is that he was fighting to get out where Eve is fighting to get into this world. How does that impact the crafting of her fighting style while still keeping the ‘John Wick aesthetic?’ 
Stephen Dunlevy: I think it’s interesting in many ways because I mean there’s an anger that we never like we find John Wick at the end right of his career and he’s done this thing to get out that we don’t know what it is and things like that, but the cool thing about Eve is we find why she’s there, how she got there and there’s this fire, this intensity that just drives her. There’s this need for vengeance. Whereas Wick is like six foot tall and he’s a like a 50 year old guy and he’s stronger and she’s a younger female that’s five foot seven so we have just physical limitations on strength and size and things like that so it’s being able to adapt yes they both trained in the same world under the Ruska Roma but how does a younger less experienced woman come out of this world as opposed to like where John Wick is now who’s in his 50s who survived all of these things. We get to kind of reinvent and play with her style, where she’s quicker but she’s learning. We see her punch someone in the face and she hurts her hand and she’s like, ‘okay I can’t do that again.’

My wife’s five foot seven around the same height as Ana [de Armas] and she’s a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so she has to be quick and wily; people like her to a kind of a cat because you never know where she is, she’s always moving she’s always finding a little cheat whether it’s a thumb in the neck or something like that that people don’t necessarily see to be able to beat you, so it was being able to play with that wiliness, to play with that ability to adapt on the fly, to be super aware of her environment and the objects that were in her environment, so that she can survive and adapt to these situations. It gave us a big playground to play with like when you’re going with the Wick‘s like obviously Keanu’s established now and we did John Wick: Chapter 4, we have a baseline and where this was a completely new character with Eve trained in the same place, but you know as like just everyone is individual and no UFC fighter fights exactly the same way, right? They’re all doing kind of similar styles and things like that but she is very much her own kind of interesting individual that has her own style and her own way about going through this.

Kenzie Vanunu: I’m five feet, so I was really excited to see like someone not six foot like fighting people in a realistic manner. I love that part of her plot was essentially them telling her like use what’s around you, you’re never going to be the strongest person physically so you have to be smarter, I really love that being incorporated into the fighting style and choreography.
Stephen Dunlevy: It was part of that vulnerability too because I think when people try do female centric stories where there’s a female like assassin or something like that, they very much go, ‘oh I’ve got to play like an 80’s type of The Terminator kind of thing, you’ve got to be invincible and you’ve got to be the best punch and then get back up,’ and this is where you lose something; the character never feels vulnerable. I think what Eve kind of brings to the table is this amazing vulnerability to her character as well and you’re never quite sure whether she’s going to make it. Ana did an amazing job at transitioning the thoughts we had with that and she came in wanting to do that as well so we were very much coming in on the same page of of of like where we were coming from a physical world to where she wanted to come from an emotional world as well.

Kenzie Vanunu: You can feel her character like being nervous but also wanting to just push through and you can really feel her passion through that. It was really exciting to watch Ana as Eve working all that out to be visible on screen.

We talked about all the various weapons used throughout Eve’s many battles in Ballerina. Is there a specific sequence or stunt you’re most proud of in the film?
Stephen Dunlevy: The flamethrower sequence was amazing, just what it took to do that. We brought Jayson Dumenigo out from Action Factory, who was just recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the fire gel that he developed. So, that allowed us to really push the limits because we were using real flames with real flamethrowers on real people in there! Those people are really on fire! The great thing about working with Lionsgate on these John Wick [films] and the 87eleven Entertainment is they understand what it takes to do these. They give us the time to develop and the time to rehearse with these, so we got the time to develop these flamethrowers and we got the time with our amazing special effects department along with we got the time with Jason and got to bring his some of his team out. We got to train up local guys in Hungary to be able to do this, so that allowed us to to be able to do this amazing sequence with real people on fire. I did the Mad Max: Fury Road and what really hits home for me is dong it practically. If you’re having to rely on visual effects, people know. On [Ballerina], I think we did over 200 fire burns in eight days.

Kenzie Vanunu: With the recent announcement of a Stunt Design Academy Award that will be awarded first in 2028, I think the world of film and award season will have a bigger interest in stunts. What does it mean to you as an artist in the stunt film world to have the Academy take this step to honor your craft? 
Stephen Dunlevy: Having some recognition from the Oscars, I think it’s fantastic for the community as a whole. Back in the day, there was no such thing as a stunt coordinator. It was the first AD and they just bring guys in. Obviously, there’s been a progression over time and I think what it means is there’s a professionalism and an art. It went from guys just goofing around to there is a real professionalism with a real art to designing these sequences. Now, there’s physics and safety involved, it’s not just punching people. There’s a language to the action and it’s integrated into a film as kind of an unspoken dialogue. I think it’s realizing the commitment that that stunts makes to film so I’m very excited about it. I think the community is very excited about it.

Kenzie Vanunu: Film fans are very excited to see the stunt community finally recognized and embraced by the Academy! I’m so excited for everyone to see From the World of John Wick: Ballerina and more of your amazing work! It was a real honor to speak with you!
Stephen Dunlevy: Thank you so much! Great to speak with you.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is currently in theaters.
You can read our review of the film here.