Ayla Ruby
Bringing the dangerous Mojave wasteland Fallout from video game lore into live action is no small feat especially when it demands explosive action in a post-nuclear winter world. From wrangling massive Securitrons, choreographing fight scenes involving a prosthetic heavy Elvis worshipping gang, and strapping stunt performers into heavy NCR Power Armor, stunt coordinators Casey O’Neill and Josh Kemble had their work cut out for them in season two. Fresh off their Emmy nomination for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming, they sat down with us over Zoom to talk about their work. Below, they talk about the collaborative atmosphere on set, the physical realities of operating inside massive creature suits, and how bringing production home to the California desert helped make the wasteland so much more real. Read on for the full chat.
Ayla Ruby: Good to meet you. Okay, so first I’m really excited to chat. Congratulations on the nomination. It’s amazing and well deserved.
Josh Kemble: Thank you.
Casey O’Neill: Thank you so much.
Ayla Ruby: I always like to ask people because sometimes there are fun little stories. Where were you when you found out? What was your reaction?
Casey O’Neill: Josh, I’ll go ahead and then we’ll just take turns so we’re not talking over each other. But we kind of found out with the rest of the crew, which is really exciting and getting the news and Walton had left us a nice voice message too saying… I was on the plane and it’s sinking in and so proud of everyone, not just our team, Josh, myself, Ryan, Nicole, Jeremy. It’s definitely a team effort with the stunt department for sure. And not only just for us, for everyone else to get recognized for their hard work on the show is pretty amazing. Sorry, Joshi, I’ll let you go ahead, buddy.
Josh Kemble: Yeah, that’s pretty much the same. We found out and then at work, everyone was so elated that congratulating us. And if it wasn’t for Casey and actually the whole crew and the people that hired us, it’s rare to say it’s like a family, but this one’s like a family and everyone cares. So it’s been pretty nice.
Ayla Ruby: Well, that’s wonderful to hear. And again, congratulations. So well deserved. Okay, so I have many questions about Deathclaws and Power Armor, but I want to back it up to even before that because just the job, the magnitude, the depth of it all. You start from the script and then you don’t have any stunts, you don’t have any people falling out of windows. How does that work for you guys?
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, we pretty much take the script with Geneva and all the writers. They have an amazing writing team on the show, and then we kind of just bring that what’s on the page to life. We have a lot of conversations with them, with the directors, and try to just really… If there’s something we feel like, oh, this would be kind of cool if we do that, and try and make it better than what’s on the page maybe in a way, or just try to enhance that. But, Josh, I’ll let you talk to that too, because Josh is involved with a ton of the pre-stuff and has amazing ideas too. We kind of collaborate with each other and bounce them off each other. And he runs a lot of the rehearsals and we kind of tag team that stuff. So, Josh, I’ll let you talk about that stuff.
Josh Kemble: Yeah. As a whole, Geneva and the writers and stuff let us be really creative with not too much limitations. So it was really fun to just try to come up with cool stuff and try to do things that isn’t the norm and stuff we don’t see all the time, which you can get into. But it was really nice. And Casey just let us go crazy and have our own ideas. And it was a group effort. It was really fun to be that creative and come up with the stuff because the Deathclaw and Securitrons and stuff, it’s not stuff you see, so coming up with ideas for that was fun.
Ayla Ruby: So I want to ask about the Deathclaws. I played the video game – New Vegas. I played the other ones too. So I was very excited to see the Deathclaws, and I know a lot of other fans were too. What did that look like? Because I understand there was a person inside the creature.
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, we had a stunt performer inside of the Deathclaw and also a stunt performer inside of the Power Armor as well, the new NCR Power Armor, which got introduced this season, which was exciting. And it’s just collaborating with other departments, VFX, obviously special effects, and our stunt performers, Legacy, Cary and his whole team coming up with all that because there’s animatronics involved with it. So it’s really an effort between everyone to make that thing come to life and choreograph the fights and all the stuff. There’s wire work involved with that. We’ve been very lucky to get some cool stuff with the Power Armor flying and getting knocked around and doing all those kind of things, which is challenging because it’s a suit. The suit’s gigantic. And of course with the Deathclaw, it’s the same thing, doing all those things. But I think we were pretty successful with making it happen.
Ayla Ruby: How does that work rehearsal-wise, just planning the physical suit? Because you have to be able to have the range of motion, right? How does that work with you guys and just doing what you do? Is there collaboration or?
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, yeah. I’ll let Josh-
Josh Kemble: Yeah, from us getting Jeremy or Tim in the suit and seeing the capabilities of that and what they could do movement-wise and punches and all that is we try to dig into that and then shoot a pre-vis and see what we can get away with and to make it as cool as we can.
And, yeah, it was challenging, but in the end it was really cool to see because you just don’t see those type of things flying through the air and fighting and doing all the stuff that we got it to do. And like Casey said, it was a team effort with Legacy and the people operating. Sometimes it wasn’t just one person, there’s two other people, one working each arm. So it was challenging, but in the end it was rewarding to see that come to life.
Ayla Ruby: Was it similar with the Power Armor that you mentioned? Because I’ve read that that’s very heavy and again, it’s this big bulky thing with the person in it, right?
Casey O’Neill: Yep. Yeah, yeah. And we have to find a specific size. It’s a very slim 6’4″ build that has to go inside of the suit. And, yeah, the suit itself is challenging to be in because you can’t really hear well, you can’t see well. It’s a lot of working out with those guys and then figuring out how to make the suit come to life. Because if you’re just in the suit, it looks like that.
Jeremy, Tim, and they’re really make the suit come to life. They’re really good at that and making it look like it’s a real prop, it’s a real Power Armor. And that is challenging in itself for sure, but they’re great at it. And, yeah, I’m really happy with how it all looks and also the introduction of the new NCR Armor and all that stuff. So it’s exciting to see something that’s in the video game and then taking it and putting it on screen for everyone else to enjoy it in that, a different kind of view of it for television.
Ayla Ruby: Now, I think I saw a clip from Prime Video. It was talking about the behind the scenes and the stunts and the NCR armor. I saw there were harnesses or something. Because again, that just seems really interesting and really cool in what you guys do.
Josh Kemble: Yeah, there’s a harness. He not only has his suit on, but he has the harness in there and then we got to find the holes to connect all the wires. And not only is the suit tight, but then the harness is tight. And so he’s in that all day and it’s not very easily to get out of. But man, they both, Tim and Jeremy, just did a terrific job. It’s hard enough even to be in the harness without anything on, let alone the suit. So they made it look really, really good.
Ayla Ruby: Was there anything for either of you that was really, I guess, the most challenging thing or just really super professionally gratifying that you could do and that you were able to make happen this past season?
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, I think you nailed it on the head with the Deathclaw, with Securitron, with Power Armor. Those are definitely the most challenging things to do. For instance, when we had the Elvis Ghoul shoot out, the stunt performers had prosthetics on and stuff, so that’s its own thing. But they’re not lugging around the suits. It’s kind of on them. They’re doing some cool wire work and things like that. We blew off a guy named Casey Pieretti’s leg. He has a missing leg from a knee down, but he has this prosthetic piece that he can pop it and it looks like it got blown off. And so those are fun things to add into there.
And also the contortionist we had in the room where she unfolded herself before she got shot by the Power Armor. So we’re just trying to add little things like that that make it more unique and just different than just a body getting shot. But that’s the fun part. And definitely the challenging is the Securitron and all the things that have to come together to make that look alive and look good on film. I think definitely the big props and stuff is the most challenging of the show for us.
Josh Kemble: Yeah. And the time to rehearse that, then shoot it. And a lot of the time it was Casey directing and it was pretty fun to watch. And we got so much done, which it was shocking because we did so much in a day and you just think you can’t get it all when we did and he made it look great and it turned out. It was wonderful.
Ayla Ruby: That’s amazing. Now, can you talk about the Securitrons a little more? I’d love to just know more about that process.
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, go ahead.
Josh Kemble: Okay. Yeah. The Securitrons are very similar to the Deathclaw where there’s two puppeteers, three actually to wheel it around, one on each arm controlling the arms. And so you all have to do plate shots, you have to do different passes to take. They’re in a green suits and it’s a bit of a process. And that particular prop’s very bulky, heavy, and large. So to fit it into some of those sets that we had and to actually fly the Power Armor, he leaps in the air and he knocks the hand off, it was really confined.
And Howard and his team are awesome, but I remember him saying, “Hey, I’m sorry, but the ceiling’s not very high in there.” I said, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.” But that’s the nice thing about the show. I know we’ve said it before, but everyone is so collaborative. Everyone is lifting each other up and helping each other out. And that’s the best part about it. Jonah and Kilter, his team, they really put together an incredible crew. So it makes it easier for us and really enjoyable to be around A, nice people, and B, people that are extremely talented in what they do.
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, we couldn’t do it without all of them. I mean, it is, like I said, it’s a family and we all have each other’s backs, and it’s a joy to go to work. It’s not always like that, but I really enjoy going there and it’s like seeing a family every day. I love it.
Ayla Ruby: Now I talked to Howard a couple of weeks ago, I guess, and he talked about the big move. Did that affect you guys at all? Or was that not so much affecting you guys when you were?
Casey O’Neill: Which was that? The big move?
Ayla Ruby: The move to LA…
Josh Kemble:Radford from…
Casey O’Neill: Yeah. Yeah, because the first season was in New York, and then we were Utah and also Namibia. But then being back in LA, it’s nice because I live in LA, so I love that part, so I’m home. I think there’s some amazing crews around the world, but I truly believe some of the best crew people are still in LA. And that’s where it all sort of started in Hollywood, but you have a lot of talented people here. And of course, the weather in LA is always the sun’s out, and I think it’s conducive to the show, the desert scenes where we’re out in Baker halfway to Vegas and we’re shooting out in the desert, and it just shows in scope of the California landscape. And I think they captured that really well for Season 2.
Ayla Ruby: Oh, that’s wonderful. Do either of you have, what are your biggest takeaways from this season? What do you walk away with either having learned or being really excited about?
Josh Kemble: This show for me is just so unique and it’s a feature in a TV show to me. I don’t know, I wasn’t on the first season, but the Vault, just the Vault system now is all together in one is seeing that is just, it’s mind-blowing what they do. From the actors, and they’re so easy to work with us and they’re not just acting, they’re friends of ours, so you really want to make them look good. And I don’t know, it’s a different experience for me from a lot of my career, and it’s just been really enjoyable, and it’s fun to watch, and I’m anxious to see how the new season comes out. I don’t really watch all the shows that we do, but this one is different for me.
Casey O’Neill: Yeah, I agree. I agree. It’s a great team. We have an amazing stunt team, the wire team, all our stunt performers. We’re super blessed and fortunate to have some very talented people join us on our team. And obviously Josh and Ryan, Nicole, Jeremy, they’re all part of the team that are doing all the things and keeping the ship moving forward because there’s a lot of prep and time that needs to happen for organization and setting up rehearsals and all the things. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. So very fortunate with an amazing stunt team that we have.
And I guess the biggest takeaway, not to be redundant, but it is the people, the people that we’re working with and working with Kilter. And Jonah’s amazing. The writers are incredible. The actors are amazing. They’re very talented actors, but they’re also very talented physically, and they’re always want to be involved.
It’s a great experience to see them do what they’re doing on screen. Obviously, we have some stunt doubles that do some stuff too, but I love that part of seeing the actors being able to be involved and putting their input in and really being creative to our process as well.
Ayla Ruby: Wonderful. Thank you both so much for chatting, and I’m so excited to see what comes next.
Josh Kemble: All right. Well, thank you for having us. It was a pleasure to meet you.
Ayla Ruby: No problem. It was wonderful-
Casey O’Neill: Awesome.
Comments
Loading…