He points out, “When I first came to LA, I was sweeping stages and doing gigs, and one of the first things I did was become a sort of mascot with Stunts Unlimited. I ran around with the stunt team with a mentor named Alan Gibbs. These were the people who did all of Roger Corman‘s movies, The Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit—all the top stunt drivers at the time. It was a wonderful education.”
“I love stunts,” he declares, a statement that might seem surprising coming from the man who directed the early CGI triumph The Mask. “I still believe in physical action, because it creates suspense that all the technology in the world can’t duplicate. If an actor in a horror film is coming down a hallway, and they know a door is going to explode out, they’re actually scared. Even though it’s safe, and even though I walk them through it personally, and show them how to do it, there’s a different tension in their performance.
“There’s a different tension when the principal actors are in a stunt fight. When I was making The Scorpion King, I told Dwayne Johnson the he needed to kill his enemy with his heart. ‘Yeah, you’re going to close in with a sword, and I know you can do the physical stuff, but remember why your character’s doing this.’ We would go over that part first.”
For all the talk about dealing with tough guys and doing physical stunts, Russell sums up his role in simplistic terms. “I’m a cheerleader as a director, honestly. It’s a little corny, but it helps. I’ll make a fool of myself sometimes,” he confesses.
Clearly, the cheerleader approach works, especially when working with big-name stars. “I’m grateful for my career,” he reflects. “I’ve had the opportunity to direct Patricia Arquette‘s first movie, Cameron Diaz‘s first movie, Dwayne Johnson’s first leading role,” he points out. “It’s very fun as a director, very satisfying. I’m grateful these films are entertaining beyond the year that they were made.”
And if it took challenging Arnold Schwarzenegger to put more crocodiles in Eraser to give those films such staying power, then it was clearly worth it.
