Charlize Theron trained for three months before Atomic Blonde began shooting. At the press events, she had a memorable update: "I'm on my fourth root canal. Thanks, David."
Director David Leitch, who had spent years as a stunt performer and Brad Pitt's stunt double, built the film around what fighting costs. The philosophy shows most clearly in the staircase sequence, an extended fight through a Berlin apartment building that appears to be one unbroken take.
It isn't. Leitch and stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave stitched multiple takes together using camera pans, wipes, and body crossings to hide the seams. Hargrave operated the camera himself because he knew exactly when an actor missed a hit.
Theron did almost all of it herself. "All the fighting, all the brutality in that fighting and the selling of fighting," Leitch confirmed. "It's all her."
It's on Max.
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