Brad Pitt is doing his own stunts on his upcoming film Bullet Train.
The film’s second-unit director and stunt coordinator Greg Rementer told Vulture that the A-list actor, 57, ‘did 95 percent of his physical stunts’ and ‘the fighting’ sequences for the thriller film, which co-stars Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, and Andrew Koji.
Rementer added, ‘He’s like a natural-born athlete. He really got in there!’
Rementer said that the cast of the film has stepped up their game in the physically-daunting roles.
‘Never have I ever done so many huge actors in one feature where all of them excelled at the physical movement of our training,’ he told the outlet. ‘So Brad, Brian, Michael Shannon, Hiroyuki Sonada, Andrew Koji – who was already a stud in terms of where he comes from with the show “Warrior” – all these actors put out some great action and did a lot of their [own] stuff.’
The David Leitch-directed motion picture, which is derived from the book Maria Beetle from Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, casts an eye on a group of trained killers aboard a Tokyo train.
Pitt is less than two years removed from playing Cliff Booth Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood; Booth – a sidekick/stunt double for fading actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the film – was based on Burt Reynolds’ longtime stunt double Hal Needham.
The role of Booth was one of Pitt’s most acclaimed performances, as he won an Academy Award for his efforts in the Quentin Tarantino movie.
With the win, Pitt beat a who’s who of Tinseltown icons he was nominated against, including The Irishman’s Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, The Two Popes star Anthony Hopkins, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’s Tom Hanks.
The Oscar ended a dry spell for the Hollywood stalwart who had whiffed on his previous three acting nominations in the past 25 years: for Best Supporting Actor for 1995’s Twelve Monkeys; for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for 2011’s Moneyball.