Telling the Stories of Physical Violence with Fight Master Richard Ryan

This week’s guest choreographed one of the most iconic fight scenes in all of cinema. If you don’t know his name, then maybe you’d recognize Brad Pitt shouting "Hector!" in his portrayal of Achilles in the film Troy.  That's right, the sword master for the film, choreographer for that iconic Achilles vs Hector fight, and this week’s guest on the Actor’s Instrument, is none other than Richard Ryan.  Richard’s credits extend across theatre, film, and television. He is a  fight master with the society of American Fight Directors, he was Robert De Niro’s double in the film Stardust, fight coordinated on The Golden Compass, and The Dark Night, and has most recently served as the stunt coordinator for Vikings, and Vikings Valhalla on Netflix. But-Richard started out as an actor. And he joins the show this week to discuss his process of working with actors to tell stories of physical violence. Disclaimer: this episode’s primary recording was unfortunately lost, so this episode is audio from a backup cloud recording. Audio quality may vary.