by Mark Edlitz
When I spoke with Martin, he was in the midst of training for Craig’s fifth (and final) Bond movie.
How were you cast as a Bond double?
When Daniel Craig was cast as Bond, I remember thinking that I kind of looked like him. But it started when Adam Kirley and Lee Morrison, my friends and colleagues, were working as stuntmen on Casino Royale. Adam Kirley did the car turnover in Casino, which made a world record [for turning over seven times].104 These are good friends of mine. Much of the film industry is based on trust and relationships, who you know. But you also need to offer the product. They started working on Casino in September 2005, and they said that they needed one more Daniel Craig double. In late December, I received a call from Gary Powell, the stunt coordinator. Receiving a call from him was like Christmas. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never thought I would be given a chance. Then I got called on January 2nd for a fight audition. I got to meet Gary and the rest of the guys. I did the fight audition then met Martin Campbell, the director, by around 11:00. By about half-past twelve, I got the nod, ahead of another guy, to be one of Daniel’s doubles. There is always a collection of doubles because of the array of skills needed. There are also different units that are running at different times. I got sent home in the afternoon, packed my bags, and the next day I went to Prague for six weeks. Then I came home for the weekend and went to the Bahamas for almost three months. It all happened in a bit of a flash.
After you’re cast, they need to make you look more like Daniel Craig.
The aesthetics are important. Daniel’s a certain height, a certain build, and a certain complexion, which, fortunately, I match. Then you go to different departments, like the hair department and the wardrobe department. Even though I have blond hair, they generally wig me. I have matched Daniel’s hair before without a wig but it can be a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes it comes down to how you look in the costume, in makeup, and in the wig. Those are big elements. They can make or break a career. A good wig can send you on your way up and a bad one can put you in the other direction.
Your job doesn’t start on set or even with rehearsals. It begins with your training.
I am currently in that training stage. I want to be as fit as possible and ready for whatever they throw at me. My goal now is to get as close to Daniel Craig as possible. Generally, this is how my day goes. I get up at 5:00 in the morning, have coffee, take supplements, and meditate. I have about a half hour to myself. I leave the house at about a quarter to six. I get to the yoga studio at about 6:15. I practice yoga from 6:30 to 7:30. I go for breakfast. Then I will do my writing and reading. From 9:30 to 11:00, I do Thai boxing. Once I finish, I do cardio, which is about thirty minutes on the bike. I come home, rest, and eat. I will do any admin [administrative work] that life throws at me. Then I do weight training in the evening or go for a spa, a massage, or see the osteopath. I am training or investing in my body for a minimum of three to five hours a day.
How did the parkour chase at the beginning of Casino Royale come about?
Generally speaking, there is quite a lengthy rehearsal process before you shoot a stunt. If we’re shooting on January 1st, then the stunt team will get together three months prior. The script will be broken down and we are aware of the potential stunts coming up. We break it down, plan, and rehearse. There are usually many rehearsals and, sometimes, they’re painful. Stunts are a calculated business but sometimes there’s a little trial and error. There’s a lot of effort, too. Things creatively change on the day that you’re shooting, and you have to adapt. It’s an ongoing process.
Were other stuntmen playing Bond in the parkour chase?
Ben Cooke and I both doubled for Bond.
That sequence established that Craig’s Bond is a different one than we’ve seen before. Bond is outmatched; he’s not as skilled as the man he’s pursuing.
That comes from the scriptwriters and the directors and their interpretation of the character. That’s beyond my own scope as a stuntman. But I always have to slightly be aware of that. But let’s take my brain completely out of this. I am told what to do. [Laughs.] Let’s make no bones about that. I don’t have any input in that. I’m told jump and roll, land and crash.
The essence of the stuntman is to mirror the actor’s interpretation. I follow the direction of my stunt coordinator, who is adhering to the director, who is adhering to the script. It’s a process where all the different departments work together to create the end product. It involves working with the actors, the stunt coordinator, and even the environment itself.
What do you remember about Casino’s tanker sequence?
That was a great stunt. Bond is running on top of the tanker. He needs to catapult himself through the window so that he could fight with a driver, the baddie. At the start of the night, I was talking to my lovely stunt coordinator, Gary Powell. I have massive respect for him. I remember Gary’s final words to me, “Don’t fuck it up.” I’m like, “Okay, Gary, got that.” [Laughs.] We all knew that it was a tricky shot. Martin Campbell, the director, said, “We need the shot tonight, Kai.” I thought, “No pressure.”
We’re doing this to stunt and I’m running on top of the tanker with my safety wire on. We’re going probably twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. But as I was catapulting in the cab, the wire was hindering me. I kept getting caught on the wire. It was preventing me from swinging around. I think we did it three times and I didn’t get into the cab. But I was mindful of Gary’s words and that Martin needed the shot.
Keep in mind that the engine of the tanker was exposed, although I don’t remember why. You could see the engine turning over as we were driving. Ideally, you want the safety line on, just in case you get it wrong and you fall into the engine or off the side of the tanker. But I trust myself, and I know what I can and I can’t do. I knew that I wouldn’t mess it up. I asked to have the safety wire taken off. I wanted to get the performance right. Sometimes, to perform the stunt, you have to go to the next level. The safety line was taken off, and we got the shot. I did it three times. Then we were able to move on. It was a victory.
These are dangerous stunts. Have you gotten injured?
I was injured in rehearsals for that sequence. It was when the tanker goes up on its side. It was in the first or second day of rehearsal. There was a grill on top of the tanker and there was a thin bar, which you hold onto, that went across. Before we did it, I asked Gary if I should leave my helmet on and he said yes, so I put my helmet on. As the tanker went up on two wheels, it completely threw me and I smashed my head on the side.
Oh my gosh.
There you go, Mark! So I smashed my head on the side and, for a moment, I got disoriented. As I became disoriented, I lost my grip on the handle. I had the safety line on so I wasn’t going anywhere. But I got my hand jammed under that bar. As it was coming down, my hand came down the other way, and that’s when I broke a few bones in my hand. Looking at it now, I see that I still have a bump there. It swelled up immediately but we tested the stunt and got what we needed. Lee Morrison did a great job and Gary got the information that he wanted.
My hand swelled up massively. Fortunately, we had a little bit of a break after that when I was able to heal. But that’s the nature of rehearsals. And that’s where your determination is important. You could just say, “Oh, well,” and then let the next person take over. But at that point in my life, to take that job away from me, you’d have to pull both arms off of me. You just grit your teeth, go through it, and get the job done.
After Casino, did you know they would call you back for the next one?
No, they don’t tell you. But you hope they do. It can be a fairly competitive business.
But they did call you back.
I worked on Quantum of Solace next. I did the diagonal jump at the beginning.
That’s when Bond and M are interrogating Mr. White and then Bond has to chase down the double agent.
Bond gets to the stairs and he doesn’t run down them. Instead, he ju
mps across.
It’s a character-defining moment.
Right. He says to himself that he can save a few seconds by jumping, even if it does rough himself up a bit. That’s why audiences love him.
Then came Skyfall. You did the fight underwater at the end.
Bond shoots the ice and they go underwater.
In that case, it’s harder to match Bond’s movements. Are you just trying not to drown?
That was a difficult and demanding stunt. I hadn’t fought underwater before. I also had to remember all of the fight choreography. We had safety divers just out of frame.
Was there an instance when you thought you’d double Bond and it didn’t work out?
Because of the nature of James Bond, a specialist is often used. For the bike stunt on Skyfall, I rehearsed plenty. To prepare for that, I went to Spain and did some Enduro [mountain bike] riding for about a week. Then I came back to England; I probably would ride three times a week. But on the day, they brought a guy called Robbie Maddison, who is a phenomenal talent. I could be on the track 24/7 and I could still not compete with Robbie Maddison. He’s a legend on a motorbike.
While I am investing in skills and cultivating myself, I have to be wise and understand what I can and what I can’t do. Even if I could do it at a certain level, who else is out there? I have to think intelligently and focus on my strengths while recognizing in that competitive environment that it’s not going to be adequate no matter how confident I become. There are specialists who are phenomenal talents, and, ultimately, you have to respect that.
In Spectre, you played the helicopter pilot who fights Bonds. What do you remember about the stunt?
I thought Daniel is very strong. It was a close-quarters fight and it was very physical. But by then Daniel and I had developed a lot of trust with each other.
Bond always has a goal, doesn’t he? Bond’s intention was to take control of the helicopter. And he doesn’t always care how he goes about it. There is a moment where I got my head shoved against the dashboard. We did it so many times. That night, I went to the osteopath and he said, “Mate, do you know your nose is out?” Daniel is a very physical man and, like all fights, it was very physical and very brutal.
You doubled Bond, so when you’re fighting Craig, it’s Bond versus Bond.
[Laughs.] Exactly.
Usually Bond puts himself in danger, but that’s one of the times where he endangers civilians. If Bond didn’t take control of the helicopter, he could have injured hundreds of people below.
That’s a good point. But that’s not really part of what we do. That falls to the writers and directors. I just work on the stunts they ask.
Watching that scene for the first time in a movie theater, I had a strange, passing thought. I wondered if he was an evil helicopter pilot who worked for an evil helicopter agency or just a guy who happened to be piloting the helicopter that day.
He’s probably a mercenary, isn’t he? He knows what he signed up for. He’s got a certain set of skills and he’s getting paid for it. He’s probably got the theory, “Tell me no lies and I’ll say nothing.” That was probably the character.
I don’t have to feel bad for him?
[Laughs.] No, you don’t.
I feel better now. It seems like the stunts most often used require running, jumping, rolling, and fighting skills.
That’s a pretty good list. I’m a physical guy. So it helps.
You’re training for Bond 25. Do they say you’re definitely going to be doubling Craig? Or do they say keep your skills up and we’ll figure out how to use you later?
I have spoken to the stunt coordinator Lee Morrison and Boris Martinez and I understand that there is a potential role for me to double Daniel. But nothing is guaranteed. I prepare myself for everything but expect nothing. That’s all we can do in life and in the stunt game. You don’t really know what’s going to come up. You might have trained, rehearsed, been through costume, but then there are last-minute script changes and they cut the scene. It’s happened quite a few times now. But that’s beyond your control. I get myself as fit as I can, as ready as I can, as focused as I can, and see where it takes me.
I prepare myself as well as I can in terms of mind, body, and conditioning. I can never go wrong having fight skills and making sure they are current at all times. Sometimes I dip in and out of gymnastics. These are all fundamental skills. It’s a focus, a goal, and it’s what gets me up at 5:00 in the morning.
The yoga, the training, the conditioning, the Thai boxing, the weight training is what is going to stand me in good stead coming into the next film. If the stunt coordinator calls me up and says, “Kai, we have a go-kart chase coming up,” then I will say, “Okay, no problem.” Then I find out where the local go-kart track is, and I throw myself into whatever discipline is required. At this stage of my life, I’m a good all-arounder. I’m a physical person. I am crashing and bashing for Daniel, maybe some fights. That’s where I’m focusing my training.
Does eating like Craig play a part in that preparation?
A big portion of my career is looking like him. I’ll speak to his trainer and find out what his body type is like. Is he bulky? Is he lean?
Do you need to study the way Craig’s Bond runs or is it not that precise?
Copying how he runs and how he moves is crucial to your existence as a stunt double. You are always trying to match and mirror what he does. Whomever you double, you want to get a 100-percent accurate interpretation of what he’s doing. The cut [between the actor and stuntman] needs to be seamless. You don’t want the audience to think, well that’s the actor, and that’s the stunt double. I watched Daniel’s films, trying to mimic and understand the way he moves. We all have a unique way we move. Matching it is critical to your success as a stunt double.
How does Daniel move?
Daniel’s a very physical man, very capable. I’m talking about his Bond and the character and not Daniel himself, although he is a physical man, too. His Bond is very masculine, strong, and has a confident movement.
His fighting style is different from the previous Bonds. It’s less polished.
It’s been a great interpretation of Bond. He’s quite rough. He will do what it takes to get the job done. It can be quite brutal. He knows what he wants and he always gets it. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond was probably a little more precise and a little more suave. Daniel’s Bond is more rough and tough.
Can you describe Bond’s fighting style?
He really throws his entire body into it. He’s been trained in different martial arts and he uses a combination of all of them. But it’s not one style. I know on a Batman movie [Batman Begins (2005)] that they were basing his movements on Krav Maga. But I didn’t hear any one style referred to on any of the Bond movies.
While performing a stunt, do you ever feel like Bond?
I was just listening to the Bond music and my friends will play it. But while I’m working, I have to put all that out of my head and focus on just the stunt. If I stopped and thought, this is cool, it might affect my work. Afterward, I might stop and enjoy it but not while I’m performing.
The stunts show how resourceful, brave, and prepared Bond is. In that way, Bond and stuntmen are similar. Do you relate to Bond at all?
Yes. Yes. Sometimes when I’m at a restaurant, I check out to see where people are sitting. I’ll see what the easiest escape is and ask, who can I eat beat in a fight? I started checking out number plates. [Laughs.] So yes.
To double for Bond you have to be near the top of your game. You have to be sharp. You have to have awareness of your environment. Bond is an intelligent, aware, evolved person who is always picking up information. It’s all-important to his survival. If he’s not sharp, he’d be dead. For sure, there are crossovers.
What stunt are you most proud of?
It’s from Casino. Bond is fighting a guy on a crane and he’s holding on with just one arm. But before that, they’re fighting. Bond goes to grab the man’s
backpack, and the other guy swings Bond around. At that moment, Bond is effectively off the crane. So while doing it, I grab the crane with my left hand and I’m swinging. Then I pulled myself up.
Before we did it, I was on the crane thinking, “I don’t know how it’s going to work.” It was also super-hot, my wig is falling off, and I have to go to the toilet. I was stressed. I was 150 or 160 feet in the air. I felt like I was on my own. But that’s the moment when you get the most out of me. We did the stunt and got it bang-on every take. For me, personally and professionally, that was the most important moment in my career so far.
Why is that?
I was still quite new to the Bond stunt team. A stunt like that can shape the future and it can curb the future. The fact that I pulled off the stunt, it projected and elevated me forward. Had it gone the other way, I could have gone to the back of the line.
In some ways, you were lucky that Craig was cast. If it was another actor, you might not have had these opportunities.
Absolutely. I never dreamed of working on a Bond because I don’t look like the other Bond actors. Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore look diff erent than I do. I’m blond and fair-skinned. So there was luck involved.
What has being Bond meant to you?
It has been a huge turning point in my career. Prior to Bond, I had already been working in the industry for five or six years. I had done a lot of work, but I needed a bit more, and Bond certainly gave me more. Financially, it certainly changed my life. It has been a huge platform for me. To grow professionally, you have to constantly evolve. It has helped me grow as a human being. It’s stretched me in a good way. I’ve had to learn more about myself so that I could evolve.
It’s been an amazing life journey but it doesn’t define me. Without Bond, I am still me. But Bond gives me a massive leg up in life. Knowing that I’ve been successful has also given me confidence. I am blessed with the opportunity that is coming along. It’s been an amazing journey. It spills over into your personal life. I make sure that I’m grounded, humbled, and that I’m still me.
