
Movie Fights: Keanu Reeves vs Hugo Weaving
August 25, 2013
A testament to the martial arts choreography genius of Yuen Woo Ping.
From Wikipedia:
“Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor’s strength. He built on Reeves’ diligence, Fishburne’s resilience, Weaving’s precision, and Moss’s feminine grace. Yuen designed Moss’ moves to suit her deftness and lightness. Prior to the pre-production, Reeves had suffered two-level fusion of his cervical spine and his legs had been becoming paralyzed, so he had undergone a neck surgery. He was still recovering by the time of pre-production, but he insisted on training, so Yuen let him practice punches and lighter moves. Reeves trained hard and even requested training on days off. However, the surgery still made him unable to kick for two out of four months of training. As a result, Reeves did not kick much in the film. Weaving had to undergo surgery on his hip after suffering an injury during training.”