Highlander
Transcripts:
DVD Extras

Christopher Lambert (actor):

Bob Anderson is an amazing sword master, but he needs also to be with somebody who can bring it to another level. It's not-- I'm in good shape, but I'm not a connoisseur of martial arts, of different moves, of creative moves for that. When we started to work on number four, I was looking at Adrian and saying, well, well, hold it. I'm going to need six years to do what you're asking me to do. So, it was, in some ways, number four was the first Highlander where I did a lot of sword fighting, but much less than one, two or three, because it was very sophisticated. But I thought it was great for the movie. So, everything went well, clicked, and, you know, when you've done a series for six years, there is a reason.

Adrian Paul (actor):

Bob, to me, I mean, he's had, at that point, he'd had thirty years' experience. He'd done the Highlander movies, he'd done Star Wars, he was actually the guy behind the Darth Vader suit. He'd had so much different experience, and I was like, wow, this guy's amazing. And he taught me-- What I liked about Bob, I mean, I worked with Bob for like two or three years-- Two years? Two years. Both in Paris and in Vancouver. And what I liked about Bob was his creativity. It's true, he has only one particular style. He's into the European style, and you need to expand upon that when you're dealing with a series that travels to sort of every different corner of the earth. But what Bob does, which I really like, and I learned a lot from him, is that he's a great, he's an artist. He's not a bricklayer. In other words, you can put a sword fight together and be like, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. But what he does is he'll walk into a room and he'll go, "You know what? We should do something with that crane or those barrels over there. We need to do some flips off." He'll create a picture for you as the entire thing. So you're not just seeing a sword fight, you're seeing a dance, a recreation of something. And that's what I really liked about him.

Clip from 3x06: "Courage":
[Cullen attacks DM.]
Cullen - Come on! Fight! [DM knocks his sword away & gets him down on his back at his mercy.]

Bob Anderson:

My name is Bob Anderson, and my age is unknown, but I'm getting on a bit, that's for sure. Everybody says to me, "When are you going to retire?" I'll answer that when the time comes. During the war, I was in the Marines. And one of the sports you can play on board a ship -- because Marines are on board a ship as well as on the ground. And one of the sports you can play is fencing, because it doesn't require a lot of room. I could run a fencing club in this room, virtually. And so fencing is quite popular on board a ship. And I learned that. And when I left the ship, I became a physical educator in the Royal Marines to start with. And I did all the sports and I increased my ability with fencing and trained under the French Olympic coach for three years. What a lucky fellow I was. And having finished that training -- my coach, whose name incidentally is Roger Crosnier, or was -- I took over his job in England as National Coach, British Olympic Coach.

And during that time, I used to do odd bits of film. My first film was The Master of Ballontrae with Errol Flynn. He used to drink a little too much, but a minor complaint. He never was drunk when he was fencing, that's for sure. We did have a little thing where he was backing up this staircase up to the deck, and I had to make a thrust at him. And just as I was making it, I saw his eyes flicker and he was late on the parry and I stabbed him in the leg. Not much, just a little. And of course, it's cut and all that, and it's "Oh, my leg" and "Oh, get me a gin and tonic." And what happened was they had these sightseers going around the ship -- the pirate ship -- in boats and it distracted him for a bit. And he nicely said it wasn't my fault. And we became friends. I did three more, a TV series and also -- a short one, that is -- and also another film in Italy called Il maestro di Don Giovanni. And of course, we all know that he died very early at the age of sixty.

STAR WARS

Ah, yeah, I doubled for Darth Vader. I think it's fairly well known in the business. The main reason was for safety because Darth Vader was completely covered in all this armor and the head dress and all that stuff. He was well protected. But poor Luke Skywalker was, you know, in normal dress. He could've got cut anytime. And quite often, with that helmet on, when you lift the sword, the shoulders pushed the helmet up. You can't see the person. So they really wanted an expert inside that outfit to make it safe. And that's why I did it. I choreographed the fights, but also I did it for the safety factor. And then Mark Hamill could let himself go without any worry. Didn't matter if he hit me... which he did.

HIGHLANDER: The Series

Clip from 1x01: "The Gathering":
Slan - Haa! Not two against one. Tsk tsk tsk tsk.
CM - Thanks, Slan. I know the rules. You and me. Now.
[CM & Slan begin to fight.]

I don't think I did any doubling in the Highlander. You know, going back a long, long way, you know. We're talking about the past. No, I did. I doubled. I can't remember specifics. But very soon, I realised that I was getting too old to run about and do the fighting. And I should stick to the choreography of the sword fights and became a swordmaster rather than a stuntman.

Clip from 1x01: "The Gathering":
[CM & DM fencing in Duncan's warehouse.]

["The Gathering" clip goes to split-screen.] Swordplay is timeless. There's still fencing with swords today. And the films have gone through this period of change -- [split-screen changes to Mexico battlefield from "The Revolutionary] -- from when I was a young man, going to the cinema, it was mostly cowboys we went to see. And then it became gangsters. [split-screen changes to Jimmy being gunned down in the alley in "Glory Days"] Then it became guys with guns in cars. [split-screen changes to 1920s vehicle chase from "Money No Object"] Then it became car chases. And there's an evolution to this. And eventually they've run out of all these different things. [split-screen goes away] They come back to the beginning. Swordplay... in space. And anywhere else they can put a sword, they put it in.

Clip from Highlander 2: The Quickening:
[Immortal assassin attacks elderly Connor MacLeod. Connor defends himself with a length of pipe.]

Oh yes, we were talking about sparks. Quite often you see swords clash or they hit metal pieces and spark and so on. And they are generated afterwards -- they can be put on now afterwards -- or you can do it technically by getting a twelve-volt battery and putting the positive lead onto one sword, the negative lead onto the other sword. And if you click them together, they will spark.

Clip from 1x10: "Revenge is Sweet":
[DM & Reinhardt fighting on New Year's Eve, their swords sparking as they clash and as they hit the metal railings.]

The interesting thing on the first story of the series -- we were fighting on this bridge, and instead of using a battery, we used a generator. Could give us any amount. We set it on thirty-five volts. Wired up the swords... No, put the negative on the bridge -- the metal bridge -- and the positive on the sword. Anything I hit, sparked. If I ran the sword along the wire fence, you got prrrrrrt, sparks all along. Just enough. It was perfect, absolutely perfect. The whole damn bridge was thirty-five volts. [laughs] That was good. I remember that very well.

I didn't think of it as creative control at all. You got a script and that made out the fight -- not in detail, but where it would take place, and who won -- and we always know the Highlander wins.

Clip from 3x10: "The Samurai":
[DM's sword tip becomes trapped in the rocks. Kent thrusts at him and DM stops the blade between his palms. He pushes the blade to the side, grabs the hilt and turns it around, impaling Kent. Kent falls to his knees. DM grabs up his own katana from the rocks.]

And the interesting thing about the television series is that you can use any sword you like. Because the Highlander was other periods. You kept jumping forwards and backwards. So I could use a whole range of different swords. What an experience. What you learn in doing a television series like that is fantastic. And you can work with a wide range of actors and actresses. I have a thing about using actors. It's very simple. If it's dangerous, I put a stuntman in, double it, if I can, and if I can't, I won't do it. As far as I can see, I won't let the director do it because I don't want an actor to be cut, and swords are dangerous if they're not used properly.

Because of all these different actors and the different weapons that you can use, and the different fight situations, you can learn so much about choreographing the fight sequences, changing things, that I would recommend that any stunt coordinator or swordmaster to do a television series in order to learn their trade properly.

I don't know what swordplay was like in the fifteenth century. I don't have a neighbour who was around in those days. I've never spoken to a swordsman from the past. So you use your imagination and you make it up. I feel that my job is to entertain an audience with swords, and stuntmen entertain the audience by doing stunts, and directors entertain audiences by doing damn good films.

Well, the Highlander himself used the same samurai sword that was presented to him, I don't know, three or four hundred years previously.

Clip from 3x01: "The Samurai":
Hideo - And now my first favor? [rises to his feet]
DM - [stands with him] I will be honored to be your second.
Hideo - [hands him the dragon-head katana] When it is over... the sword is yours.

He carries that all the way through, that sword. It's a samurai sword, a katana.

You get to know a lot of actors and actresses, and some of them -- not all of them -- but some of them are excellent. They pick it up. They pick up the sword movements very easily. They follow sequences. They always have a good memory. Actors must have a good memory, to remember lines. So they always remember their sequences. And where I can, if they're good enough and safe enough, I use the actor. I prefer to use the actor rather than the stuntman, because the actor feels the sequence and the fight. But the stuntman is excellent with the performance of the physical act, and then you have to do it with the actor anyway in close-up.

Clip from 2x08: "Revenge of the Sword":
[DM & Jimmy fight hand to hand briefly, then Jimmy grabs a sword.]
DM - Come on. [grabs two swords from rack on wall]

Adrian Paul is a very physical, well-trained person, apart from being an actor. He's very strong, he's very fast, he's very fit, and he's very good at all the physical activities that he will meet, certainly in swordplay. And he wanted to move-- I kept the samurai sword European because he was a European with a Japanese sword. So I kept it rather on that side, that the sword was Japanese, but we didn't do a lot of samurai stuff. But he was interested in welding the two together, and he took a lot of martial arts training outside of that. And it came along very fine.

The samurai sword can be used with one hand or two hands, and I just broadened the movements. If he's fighting somebody with a broad sword, that's a big four-foot to six-foot type of sword, thick blade, two hands. It comes with quite a whack. There is a way, of course, that I teach to make it safe, where they have to stop their blade on the parry rather than aim at the person. Otherwise they'll cut their heads off, and we don't want that. Well, on the Highlander... hm. [shrugs, laughs]

Clip from 3x09: "Shadows":
[Garrick attacks DM. DM gets a slice through his guard & brings him to his knees, knocks his sword to the side.]
DM - In your dreams. [beheads Garrick]

But with a samurai sword, it's a very strong but very... medium-light sword. It's still a two-handed sword. You may remember that the handle, particularly the Highlander's handle, was quite long, it was 'two hands on' easily. And you make the parries deeper. Whereas if he was fighting -- if I'm the Highlander and you're fighting me, and you have a cutlass, which is a fairly light sword, you make your cuts, and I can take them out here [motions in front of himself]. But if you have a broad sword, and a mighty sweep is coming round, I'd have to come back here [motions closer to himself]. Because the strength of the parry -- I don't want to get too technical on this -- but the strength of the parry is the opposition of your forte to the opponent's foible. The foible being the front part of the blade, the weaker part, and the forte being the strong part of the blade. So when you parry, you parry with the strong part of the blade against the weak part of the opponent's blade. That's a principle of defense. And you apply that because of the swords and because of the aggression of the individual.

Well, the sword-- the companies that make swords, ancient swords, can't remember the name of the one we used on the Highlander, but they had a very wide selection of swords, and they would send a couple of swords down. I'd tell them what I wanted, they'd send a couple of swords done, or I'd pick them out of their manual, and then I'll have them made in aluminum, because the swords usually are quite heavy. And wherever you've got a heavy steel sword, you have danger. The aluminum swords are very light, and I believe in lightness, as I mentioned earlier, lightness of the blade and the ring of the blade. So I have them copied in aluminum. You take off the cutting edge, and you round the point, and you teach them to do it well, and that should make it safe. But they're still dangerous.

It's like a conversation. You and I are talking. It'd be ludicrous if I answered your question before you asked it. Well, if I parried before you attacked me, that'd be ludicrous, because I'd miss it, and I'd get hit. So you have this timing and rhythm, which you have to adhere to. You start slowly. You learn to defend yourself. You learn to attack your opponent. You learn to put them together. You learn to duck, and weave, and dive, and do all the stuff that people love to see on TV or on the film. And you learn all of these things, and I think you should have asked me also "how have the fights changed since those early days". The main change is that in those days, it was a fight, and the director usually said, "Okay, I'd like to see a master." Now a master is the fight from start to finish. Well, that's impossible. There's so many blade movements and things for somebody to remember. Inevitably, you had to put a stuntman in. So directors gradually changed, and they'd shoot it in sections.

So I would start choreographing the fight sequence right at the beginning. So when these guys, these actors, learned the attacks and the parries, and so on, they were actually eventually doing the stuff they would do on film. And all the time -- they would know this -- all the time, they were doing this learning process, they would realise that "the better I get at this, the better I'll look on film." And by the time they get to shooting, they should know it pretty well.

In the old days, they used to say, "Right, train these guys to fence," and then I'd say, "Right, put a fight there, and you've got to get the actors to do it." That was never very good and often very dangerous. So now I'm allowed to do my thing, which is start them at the beginning, choreograph the fight. It does mean there are certain changes, which have to continually be made as we progress, and they get to know the fight intimately, and they get to know their opponent intimately. It would be awful to have two actors come together for the first time on the set, and I say, "Now you're going to do a sword fight here. This is what you're going to do." They need a day's rehearsal. Nobody's going to give you anyway. So they're all very well rehearsed, too.

Clip from 2x02: "Studies in Light":
[Greg swings at DM, who ducks & takes of coat. DM uses coat to deflect blows, kicks Greg, & moves up stairs to next landing.]

Three years, different fight every week. January to the end of March, three months. That's... twelve fights in France during the winter, and three months in Vancouver during the summer. So about twenty-four to twenty-five fights in one year. All different swords -- except for the Highlander. All different actors. All different sets. And it's a hell of a job. It's a big job. But then, I guess that's what you get paid for. And it's a wonderful experience. I said it earlier. I'd really recommend that sword masters and stunt coordinators should have a TV series at one time or another to really learn what has to be done. Because you have the quick change over. Every week, it's something different. Makes your mind very flexible. You recognize a good piece of action in that position much quicker. So it's a very good learning process for everybody.

There were a large number of males that was a great pleasure to work with. One that stands out in my mind most is the girl that played-- always seemed to come up against him quite often in the series -- [split-screen clip of Amanda fighting Luther in "Legacy"] -- and eventually took over the series after Adrian did the final major picture. She took over the Highlander series. I think they wanted to change the format completely. And she was a wonderful girl to work with. [split-screen ends] Very good with the sword. Obviously, because she got the lead part. And extremely lovely and extremely nice to work with.

I can not remember all the actors and actresses. Sheena Easton comes to mind -- [clip of Annie Devlin fighting Richie at the lighthouse in "An Eye for an Eye"] -- a singer, English. Excellent. Worked out extremely well in the sword fight. Every fight I do, I put in as much as I can and I make it as glorious as I can with the actors.

Well, I've got the sword that the King -- in section three of Lord of the Rings, I think the title is The Return of the King -- and I have the sword that he used just before that third episode, because he had a bigger sword after that. But the one he used in the first and second, I have a copy of that one which they nicely gave me because the people that produced swords in Lord of the Rings are the best I've ever worked with. And I still don't know how they did it. They produced swords that didn't break. In my time, one sword we had to throw away because it died of fatigue. The blade got soft, literally, and was twisting. And so we threw it away, but they never broke. And I'm used to ten, twenty blades breaking in a movie quite often, at the hilt. That's a weaker part. But he did it and they never broke. So they made me one and let me have it because I wanted to show it to-- on the other films that I go to, that this is how it should be. And they used to ring so wonderfully. It's a thing with me: balance of the sword and the ring of the blades are the two most important things, next to the actor and the choreographer and everybody else. [laughs]

I wish I had more. It's not easy to get swords and take them as your personal property. But occasionally you can, and I do have a collection of swords from movies which I keep at home and I'm pleased I got them.

Major films. I don't want to go back too far, so... because you can imagine, in fifty years, you do lots and lots of films. I've done films where I've gone to the studio, fallen down the stairs, got my money and left. I can't even know the name of the film, but I used to be a stuntman in those days. But these are major films that I did. [reading from list] Kidnapped with Michael Caine, The Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi. I doubled Darth Vader in those two. Highlander. That was a major film. Princess Bride. By the Sword, which is one I mentioned is worth seeing. Three Musketeers in Europe. That was with the-- Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland. First Knight, that was a good sword film, First Knight. The Phantom. Not a lot of sword playing that but some. I'm sorry, I haven't got my glasses on. The Mask of Zorro, one of my favorites, naturally. And The Parent Trap I did a little in. Two girls had to fight. I took that because it was done by Hayley Mills in 1962, and I wanted to do that, just that little bit of fight, modern fight -- the training camp. And since then The Lord of the Rings and of course Bond: Die Another Day.

Yeah, it's got to be the Princess Bride. It seems to be the best one for everyone else. It's got to be the Princess Bride. The reason is attributed to different things. The fact that they started left-handed and finished up right-handed. The fact that it was a wonderful set that had rocks in it and you could run around and leap and do all sorts of things like that. The fact that you had rehearsal time, which is wonderful. Because to do that sort of fight left- and then right-handed, you do need a little rehearsal time. And the fact it clicked. Rob Reiner was the reason it clicked. He was the director. It's got to be the best. Everybody tells me. And yet it wasn't a major picture.

I seem to have got quite a bit of work, which follows up almost to the question of when am I going to retire. Because everybody asks me that. I am really eighty-one. And people ask me when am I going to retire. I don't know whether it's because they want to step in my shoes or what. But they ask me constantly. When am I going to retire? I can tell you that -- this is the first time on film -- that there is the sequel to Zorro, which I did with Antonio Banderas. And the sequel is coming up fairly soon, I think. And hopefully I'll be asked to do the swordplay on that. And then I will retire.