HUGH Jackman’s longtime Wolverine stunt double said it’s imperative never to make physical contact with the actor during fight scenes.
“But if the actor hits you, then you have to shrug it off and say, ‘O, my fault,’ even if it was completely their fault,” Daniel Stevens told The Sun. “You got to downplay it and make the actor feel good.”
Daniel Stevens was Hugh Jackman’s stunt double in four Wolverine storiesCredit: Photo John Chapple / www.JohnChapple.com
Stevens said the highlight of his decades-long career was his work as WolverineCredit: Photo John Chapple
Jackman wrote a signed thank you note to StevensCredit: John Chapple
He recalled a time when he was on set of the movie Kong: Skull Island, where he had to catch a sword that John C. Reilly threw and it cut his hand.
“He was meant to throw it sideways so I can catch it, but one day he threw it straight at me with the point at me and it stabbed me in the hand.
“And I was just like, ‘Ohh sorry. My bad.’ He asked me if that cut me and I just said, ‘No, no. I’m completely fine as my hand is bleeding.'”
That’s the extra pressure he had to shoulder during fight scenes with the legendary actor during the 2017 movie Logan, which was Jackson’s swan song as Wolverine.
That was the fourth time Stevens doubled Jackman as the beloved X-Man comic book character.
“When we did Logan, which was the final instalment of Hugh as Wolverine, he ends up fighting himself as a clone in the movie,” Stevens said.
“So I actually got to fight Hugh on camera, where normally he would do a take and then I would do a take. But we never worked together. So Logan was probably my favorite movie.”
Several framed pictures of Wolverine movie posters – including one with a signed thank you note from Jackman – and a pair of the iconic claws hung on the wall behind Stevens while he talks.
The Wolverine movies were “the highlight of my career,” said Stevens, who also doubled as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars and performed stunts in major Marvel movies like Endgame, among other movies.
“Because I did it four times, I felt more connected to the character and helped Hugh develop the fight style of the character,” he said.
Stevens said he parlayed his love for extreme sports into a successful, decades-long career as a Hollywood stuntman.
Stevens on the iconic Wolverine motorcycle that Jackman rode during his Wolverine moviesCredit: Daniel Stevens/Instagram
Photos of Wolverine movie posters hang on the wall behind StevensCredit: Photo John Chapple / www.JohnChapple.com
These were from two of the four movies that Stevens served as a stunt double for Jackman
