The Stunt Driver and Stunt Coordinator
What exactly does a stunt coordinator do? Coordinate stunts, of course. Well, there’s more to it than that. Much more. The stunt coordinator often becomes a sort of dance choreographer, but instead of the people doing moves, there are drivers doing moves with vehicles.
“There’s a misconception that we’re just a bunch of crazy guys who jump in cars and do crazy stuff,” Robert asserts. “There’s hours and hours of planning and preparation and choreography. It’s so detailed. This guy has to be at this spot at this moment, that guy has to be at that spot at that moment, and that marriage of all this coming together is a big undertaking. Sometimes I will be on the radio calling out cues based on time or the timing of move A into move B. I have a certain cadence to get to the next cue. There’s a lot of layers. When it all comes together, it looks great.”
Stunt Coordinator Robert Nagle.
The stunt coordinator helps the director, in this case Michael Mann, achieve their vision for a film.
“It varies some project to project, meaning how much creative involvement I have,” Robert says. “A lot of it is just translating from what’s in the script into action. Then, how do I make that practical and possible? You know, trying to keep everything grounded in the realm of reality.”
Robert has worked on a wide range of films. He performed as stunt driver on Marvel movies such as “Venom,” a couple installments of the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, and even on the TV series “Star Trek: Picard.” As stunt coordinator, he oversaw stunts in “Ford v. Ferrari” and “Baby Driver.”
A historical film like “Ferrari” has different demands than a more fantasy-based Marvel film, which relies more heavily on special effects. A historical film even requires a different approach than another film Robert contributed to, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
“The Mille Miglia is such a unique race–it’s a 1000-mile loop through Italy,” says Robert. “I start with [asking] how would this race work versus a sprint race at Willow Springs? It’s completely different. It’s a matter of getting into the driver’s mindset. How would they approach it? How would the [car] constructors approach it? How do we make it exciting but not outside the realm of reality? It was an ongoing conversation with Michael Mann and getting what he sees in his mind and translating that into actual action.”
With something historically based, Robert did his homework.
“It was me reading books about this era and understanding the drivers,” he says, “looking at as many images as I could to get a sense of what these cars were, what the terrain was like, what these guys had to deal with.”
In the movie “Ferrari,” Robert is particularly proud of one scene.
“There’s an incredible piece we shot for the Mille Miglia that was in the mountains of Italy called the Gran Sasso,” says Robert. “It was just stunning. To watch these red cars at speed running through the hills there was just breathtaking.”
How does Robert define success for what he does as a stunt coordinator?
“When the audience walks away feeling exhilarated and the action marries up and follows the storyline and it’s seamless–because one doesn’t stand without the other,” says Robert. “When all that comes together and people really enjoy the experience, I feel like we’ve done our job.”
You can see Robert Nagle’s work in the “Ferrari” film starting on Christmas Day.