"She Lit a Dude on Fire": 'Ballerina's Norman Reedus and Len Wiseman Share Stunt Secrets From Set

You can't welcome a person like Norman Reedus to the world of John Wick and not ask about how the gun-fu franchise compares to his long-running gig in The Walking Dead and spin-offs. The actor is entering the franchise with a new and mysterious character whose motivations will only become clear once we finally sit down to watch Ballerina. He'll star alongside Ana de Armas (Ghosted) and Ian McShane (American Gods) in the new installment, which is directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld franchise).

Ballerina takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4. That's why the screen will light up with the presence of De Armas, Reedus, and John Wick himself, Keanu Reeves (Sonic The Hedgehog 3). The movie will be the first time in which we'll see silver-screen action without Reeves in the lead, and depending on the part that Reedus will play, we could be looking at a new major villain or massive ally to inflate the unforgettable characters from the franchise.

You can't welcome a person like Norman Reedus to the world of John Wick and not ask about how the gun-fu franchise compares to his long-running gig in The Walking Dead and spin-offs. The actor is entering the franchise with a new and mysterious character whose motivations will only become clear once we finally sit down to watch Ballerina. He'll star alongside Ana de Armas (Ghosted) and Ian McShane (American Gods) in the new installment, which is directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld franchise).

Ballerina takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4. That's why the screen will light up with the presence of De Armas, Reedus, and John Wick himself, Keanu Reeves (Sonic The Hedgehog 3). The movie will be the first time in which we'll see silver-screen action without Reeves in the lead, and depending on the part that Reedus will play, we could be looking at a new major villain or massive ally to inflate the unforgettable characters from the franchise.

COLLIDER: Len, the John Wick universe is already established with its own style, so I wanted to know if you could talk us through your process of making it the same thing but also your own thing in that universe of Ballerina.

LEN WISEMAN: The way that I approach it, really, is coming at it from love and being a fan of the series myself. So I really go into as, “What would I want to see if I wasn’t directing it?” Because you can get caught up in your head a lot if you really start to try and guess what other people might want from it. The starting point for me is, “What would I love to see, being such a fan and loving the movies? What would I want to see? What would I be expecting?” I come at it that way and then just start to build and have fun. I love creating action sequences and the ideas behind them, so I just start workshopping a lot of those things into the world. But I really, not from a selfish point of view, but I just go, “What would I love to see? What would I love to sit down in a theater and see if I was watching something tie into this world?”

Norman, we know that there’s an obvious difference between the action in The Walking Dead and Ballerina, but I wanted to know from you how they compare in terms of your preparation and your approach.

NORMAN REEDUS: It’s a different fighting style, totally. The Walking Dead is very sloppy; this is very choreographed and a lot of people put it together to make it safe and look spectacular. I’m pretty good with weapons after all this time, but it’s always a math problem, even on the TV show. Everything’s math. The fighting’s math. You show an arrow, bend out of frame, you come up without the arrow digitally, and you show another arrow. There’s a math there.

WISEMAN: Yeah, it looks fluid, but our first scene together, there were so many things by the number because, also, a lot of stuff was blowing up around us. So it’s these calls. It’s like a dance rehearsal that you go through. So it is a bit like a grid math equation, and then a lot of rehearsal. We threw Norman right into…

REEDUS: A lot of sharp stuff.

WISEMAN: Yeah. It was like, “Stand here, don’t look there. That’s gonna blow up in your face.”

REEDUS: And I don’t have shoes on.

WISEMAN: And you don’t have shoes on.

REEDUS: When I ride a motorcycle sometimes, when I’m on a trip, and I’m going around a corner, I’ll imagine how to lay down the bike just in case I have to lay it down last minute. There was a lot of that in that first scene. There’s a lot of sharp stuff I don’t want to put my hands on, steps being removed underneath my feet. There’s a lot of bang, bang, bang, bang.

There Was a Flamethrower Incident on the 'Ballerina' Set

"After that, she was just flamin' people."

Following up on that, can you talk to us about — without any spoilers, of course — which was the hardest scene or fight to pull off?

WISEMAN: It wouldn’t seem like it’s the hardest, but it was: there’s a restaurant scene, and it’s just because it was so close quarters. There was a lot of choreography within a small space. I fell in love with this location that I found that’s more of a tavern — you see bits of it in the trailer. It was so complicated just because it was so narrow with low ceilings, so it became more dangerous because we wanted it to be so violent and not be restricted by anything. For me directing, that was hard to work out the space.

REEDUS: What about the fire and the water?

WISEMAN: Yeah, but that’s fun. [Laughs]

REEDUS: Didn’t you say it was, like, 106 bodies she burned?

WISEMAN: Yeah. In the first one, I was testing it out because I wanted to show her that it was safe, and I also wanted to try out a flamethrower. Right? Because how often are you gonna get to do that?

REEDUS: Of course!

WISEMAN: So, I test it out, and I want to be able to tell her, “It’s safe.” Then, I go, “This is fucking cool. It’s quite an experience.” And then I get a radio call that she has tested it, and she cried the first time, but she also lit a dude on fire — I was hitting plexiglass. It’s different if you go, “Okay, test this out,” and you actually burn somebody on fire. Then she got over it. After that, she was just flamin’ people.

REEDUS: Aw, she cried during the first one?

WISEMAN: She did.

REEDUS: That’s sweet.

WISEMAN: It is sweet.

There’s a while until June, so where are you in terms of editing? Are you almost done?

WISEMAN: Almost done. We’re in the sound mix now. So, sound effects, visual effects, scoring, and stuff like that. We’re in the final stage of post.

And John Wick movies have been getting lengthier, so for Ballerina, do you have an idea for the runtime?

WISEMAN: Seven hours. No, I don’t know the exact timing yet. We’ve still got some finessing to do. No idea yet.

Ballerina opens in theaters on June 6.