SciFiWire are running a piece where they talk to Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo about the stunts they perform in the new series. They reveal that the cast members will do as much of the stunt work as allowed, following in the footsteps of Matt Damon in the Bourne movies, which were also produced by Knight Rider head honcho Doug Liman.
“I like to use Bourne Identity as the template for what I can do, because it looked real when Matt Damon did his own stunts and fights,” Bruening says. “Bourne was PG-13, and that’s the kind of fights we have in this. The physical fighting, when you’re honestly fighting, is as close and intimate as it can get. My character has been in the Special Forces unit and is highly trained, and it has to look that way.”
Bruening studied meditation and a martial-arts stick-fighting technique from Thailand in preparation for the role. “I’ve always been athletic all my life, but this special training helped me a lot,” Bruening said. “And Deanna learned a lot, too. To borrow a phrase, I pity the fool who ever tries to hurt her.”
Deanna Russo agrees, and has also put in a lot of work training for her role. “I did a ton of fight training, a few months of it, before we started filming,” she says. “I got stronger and learned more tricks myself to make my character more interesting to watch. When I did a few of the stunts, people said not many of the girls could do that.”