Biggest Reason Aaron Pierre Looks Like a Total Pro in Rebel Ridge’s Crazy Stunt Scenes Puts Him in a Rare Minority of Actors
- Aaron Pierre performed most of his own stunts in Rebel Ridge, showcasing his dedication and love for action-heavy sequences.
- Director Jeremy Saulnier crafted intense action sequences, leveraging Pierre’s real-life combat skills to enhance the film’s authenticity.
- Rebel Ridge received a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, breaking Netflix’s streak of recent disappointments in the action genre.
In the latest refresh to its original productions catalog, Netflix dropped Rebel Ridge starring Aaron Pierre as the lead. Playing the role of a former Marine Terry Richmond, his standoff with a corrupt police department set the tone for the film. As evident, the story demanded intense action and fight sequences, which the Jeremy Saulnier directorial did not fail to deliver. However, much of that adrenaline-heavy work came from the lead actor himself.
Opting to perform much of the stunts in the flick himself, Pierre left no stone unturned in preparations for the same. Rather, his dedication helped the streamer break its streak of recent critical disappointments in the genre with in-house projects like Heart of Stone. Showcasing his brute force strength and professionalism, Pierre thereby also put himself into a select group of stars who have demonstrated similar traits.
The real-life skills that Aaron Pierre put to the test for Rebel Ridge
Famed for his action-heavy movies with a dash of thrill like Blue Ruin and Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier did not pull back his punches with his latest flick, Rebel Ridge. Taking the onus on himself to bring the filmmaker’s vision to life, lead actor, Aaron Pierre made his on-screen presence feel like an absolute unit of combat and action masterclass. A prime reason behind his fight scenes appearing as close to real was the actor’s actual knowledge of martial arts.
In talks with Men’s Health, the 30-year-old shared his dedicated passion for several combat arts, including Muay Thai and boxing. As such, his latest flick’s highlight moments, ranging from an opening encounter, a warehouse showdown, and an intense emotional final standoff, all benefitted from his dedicated skills.
I’m deeply in love with martial arts. I’m a student of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing. I’ve done some Muay-Thai as well, but that’s the one I had the least experience in, by a long stretch. It was an honor to be able to utilize those passions.
Interestingly, Pierre’s insistence on performing most of his on-screen action combat, along with his reverence for martial arts, put him into an acting minority. The same list would have him right alongside the likes of Jackie Chan, Keanu Reeves, Wesley Snipes, Donnie Yen, and Jason Statham, all of whom have done the same.
Actor underwent rigorous physical training to play Terry Richmond
Aaron Pierre did not simply play Terry Richmond in Rebel Ridge, he almost transformed into the character. In the same round of talks, he admitted to taking up weapons training, pedaling, weightlifting, and perfecting several chase and action sequences all within the confines of the director’s New Orleans warehouse, which the actor termed as their “base”.
Filled with all kinds of equipment such as “grappling mats, boxing bags, gloves, pads, wraps,” Pierre also found himself aided by “teachers” who helped him get into the mindset of his character and practice film sequences such as chasing a bus on a pedal bike.
I’m really grateful to have had the stunt team, the weapons team, and everyone involved in helping me to realize Terry to the best of my ability.
As to what his training usually looked like in the warehouse, he explained,
We would spar. We would practice choreography. We would do drills. It was strength training, but I had to really work on being dynamic. This was one of the first times it fully set into me that flexibility is a strength, because without flexibility, you can’t engage with your strength to its fullest capacity. That’s one of the things I learned from this and have doubled down on since then.
The results are now evidently clear. All the hard work that Aaron Pierre and Jeremy Saulnier put into Rebel Ridge has manifested. A 95% critical approval on Rotten Tomatoes made the film soar to the top of Netflix movie charts in several countries on the very day of its release, with more improvements expected to come soon.
Rebel Ridge is streaming on Netflix.
