J.J. Perry is a Taurus award-winning stunt performer, actor, martial artist, stunt coordinator and fight choreographer. In recent years, he has also become a second-unit director and was the stunt coordinator and fight choreographer for The Expendables 3.
Perry has worked with the likes of Mel Gibson, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Chuck Norris, Loren Avedon, Gina Carano, Daniel Bernhardt, Milla Jovovich, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hardy, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Wesley Snipes, David Boreanaz, Jason Statham, Sammo Hung, Gary Daniels, Kiefer Sutherland, Nathan Fillion, Ben Affleck, Jet Li, Mike Norris, Russell Wong, Thomas Ian Griffith, Will Smith, Gerard Butler, Liev Schrieber and Steven Seagal.
From 1986 to 1990, Perry was a US Army soldier in the 82nd Airborne Corps and started his martial arts training back in 1975 and began with stunt-work in the late 1980s when he got out of the army. He has had over 24 years of martial arts training and has a 5th-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a 2nd-degree on Hapkido and has experience with all kinds of weapons. He got his black belt for Tae Kwon Do at the age of 12 and competed from the age of 7 till 24. Besides martial arts, J.J. is also skilled in riding bikes, rodeo and does weight lifting. He is the co-founder of Taekwondo West martial arts schools in Inglewood, California, and Venice, California.
On working on Expendables 3[]
Perry on-set with Ronda Rousey
- “Statham saw the pre-vis ‘cause I already know what he likes and he was like “perfect mate, that’s what we’re doing.” But, Wesley came in and he – we “Blade-esqued” his fight a bit, but he’s done so many films he had his own opinion and we made him some changes and for the better. I want them to take it and make it theirs. We’re constantly looking for that, because that’s their character. I’m not “Doc” in the movie, I’m the fight coordinator and the stunt coordinator. I’m gonna lay out a framework and create a scenario, but he’s gonna come in and put his flavor on it and that’s what we’re looking for.” Expendables Premiere.com interview
- "It evolves every year, it's changing," Perry said about the various combat techniques in the film. "So what we're trying to do them is give (the actors) the newest, especially on reloading, going from rifle to pistol, going from pistol to knife, to hands, to feet, all the way down. So we're trying to make it as new and fresh as we can and still look interesting for the movie."
- "Part of the process is definitely getting the actors in," Perry said. "Finding out their skill sets, and with someone like Rhonda Rousey, who is the best woman fighter on the planet, she came in here and just put on a seminar. I had to tell her to ease up, because she was throwing the guys so hard and she wasn't even trying. It was ridiculous."
- "I want them to take it and make it theirs," Perry said about the actor's making changes to the pre-viz sequences. "I'm looking for that. We're constantly looking for that because that's their character...We're going to lay out a frame work and create a scenario, but he's going to come in and put his flavor on it and that's what we're looking for."
- "We did a oner, a long piece with Jason and Antonio Banderas coming out of The Block (a location in the film) on their way out and we had eighteen stunt guys, four repelling in, and another fourteen popping up. So we had Banderas spraying seven and Jason spraying seven, we did it all in one shot. It took us three takes to get it, but we were well rehearsed. That was a big deal."
- "Jason does all his own stuff man, he is a freak. I've done four films with him and I've got to tell you he is a choreography freak. He's an Olympic level diver, a tremendous athlete....Jason has a great style of fighting because he fights like a man. It's not Kung-Fu. It's like 'I'm a man' fighting. You pick someone up, you throw them on their head and beat the piss out of them."
- "This is the biggest action movie I've ever done, and I've done about 115 action films. So as far as workload this is like if you took 'Expendables' one and 'Expendables' two and put it in a blender and poured a bottle of hot sauce on it. As far as action goes, that's what we're doing right now, and we're in it right now, and I'm loving every minute of it." ComingSoon.net article link
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