Awards Daily’s Megan McLachlan chats with stunt coordinator Cory DeMeyers about his Emmy-nominated work on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones.
Stunt coordinator Cory DeMeyers has worked on television series before, including Stranger Things and FX’s Snowfall, but HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones is a different kind of beast.
“On a show like The Righteous Gemstones, we’re doing feature-film-level stunts but on a TV schedule,” says DeMeyers. “It’s twice as fast but just as big. It really keeps you on your A game because you have to get everything done on that timeline and have to keep it just as safe and impactful for the story.”
Since its first season, the HBO comedy has always had its own distinct tone, telling the story of the evangelical Gemstone clan through a lens that continues to redefine the genre.
“It’s a dramatic comedy in its own way. It’s shot very seriously. Even though the ideas and characters are very ridiculous, they light it dramatically, and it has a serious undertone. But then it has these massive action pieces and life lessons throughout the show as well.”
One of the biggest action pieces of the third season comes in the second episode when Gideon (Skyler Gisondo) and Eli (John Goodman) get caught in a high-speed car chase.
“We brought our stunt drivers in and fitted them in their seats to make sure they felt safe when they were doing the turnovers and everything was fit to spec. Then, when it came time to shoot, it was only Day 6 for me on the show. By the time we filmed that scene, it was the second Monday I was at work. Jody Hill [director of the episode] and I and Paul Daley our DP just jammed for two days straight with our stunt team and shot that entire chase sequence in two days, including both of the wrecks.”
In Episode 7, as the adult Gemstone children escape a militia bunker, Gideon once again shows up to save the day, this time in a monster truck that destroys everything in its sight. For this sequence, the stunt team received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Stunt Performance for Ryan Disharoon (the driver of the monster truck), Jett Jansen, Richard King, and Michael Endoso (who’s also Danny McBride’s stunt double).
“I think we have 12 to 14 stunt performers [in this sequence], and that was something that was talked about for months. The week of the shoot, we got two days to go out with the stunt team and start blocking stuff, building the jumps for the monster truck, and then you essentially have a day to get it done, so it’s important to use people who are the best at what they do. You’re not going to bring in a good monster truck driver, but the best one for the job—and Ryan built that truck!”
DeMeyers emphasizes that when it comes to stunt coordination, story comes first when applying action, and no scene from Season 3 exemplifies this better than the naked fight scene between BJ (Tim Baltz) and Stephen (Stephen Schneider), with the former attempting to prove he’s man enough to fight for his wife, Judy (Edi Patterson).
“It came together through collaborating with [director] Jonathan (Watson). We were waiting until we locked down a house for Stephen. Jonathan and I walked through it together, and we were really able to drive home what we wanted to create in those action beats. It’s not a long fight, but it’s long enough to feel extremely intense. So every piece of action you’re going to highlight has to have some sort of impact, and they have to be different. We tried to make sure every piece of action inside the house served a purpose and was very impactful and very different from what came right before it.”
Baltz and Scheider were completely game for the fight, and in addition to figuring out their and their stunt performers’ movements, DeMeyers says he had other safety precautions in place.
“We did put up giant flags and bounces to try to block the neighborhood’s view. We tried to give the actors as much privacy as possible. On set with nudity, whether it’s a romantic scene or an action scene, we’re going to have an intimacy coordinator to make the actors feel comfortable and set limits. I worked closely with our intimacy coordinator and actors to make sure everyone felt safe.”
Along with the Emmys coming up in September, DeMeyers has the premiere of Nutcrackers at TIFF, which finds him reteaming with David Gordon Green.
“It’s something we felt was going to be really special while working on it. And we’re really pulling for that film. It just has the best vibes!”
All seasons of The Righteous Gemstones are available on HBO.
