Creativity and taming fear: How a stunt person pursues his craft

During his Hollywood career, Timothy Eulich has been mistaken for Robert Pattinson and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a sign of a job well done. Mr. Eulich has been a stunt double for both stars, and many others. Tumbling down escalators? Being set on fire? It’s all in a day’s work. 

These days, the 20-year veteran of film and TV is spending more time behind the camera as a stunt coordinator. Mr. Eulich recently worked with actor and martial arts star Michelle Yeoh (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It’s a mind-bending, metaphysical action movie brimming with absurdist and risqué humor. A collaborative effort by filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – who call themselves The Daniels – it plays as if “The Matrix” had been co-directed by Salvador Dalí and Buster Keaton.

Mr. Eulich – who is the brother of the Monitor’s Latin America editor, Whitney Eulich – recently discussed via email and phone the craft behind intricately choreographed stunts. His goal: ensure that the action sequences serve the story so they aren’t “empty calorie” scenes. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Before you got into stunt work, were you one of those kids who was climbing every available tree and pestering your mother to take you skydiving?

I’m sorry to say I was not. I loved martial arts. And I also really wanted to be an actor. I saw a path there for myself and ... put all of my time and resources and energy into being a stuntman, which was the first step to being a stunt coordinator. 

To me, the action sequences are the most dramatic points in the story. I have this analogy that I use. It’s like in a musical when the characters break into song and dance. It’s not arbitrary. They have reached a point in that story where simply speaking the words no longer serves them. It’s no longer bringing them closer to their objectives. They have no other choice but to break into song and dance to express themselves. And it’s the same with a good action movie. You’ve reached this point in the story where words are no longer solving our problems. We have no choice but to break into action. It’s drama made dynamic. That really excites me.

What kinds of stunts have you performed?

I jumped off of the Great Wall of China stunt-doubling Matt Damon. I transferred from a moving speedboat to a helicopter in Fiumicino, Italy, doubling [for] Dylan O’Brien. I’ve been hit by speeding cars. I’ve flown on wires. I’ve been dragged down the road by a pickup truck with my hands bound. I’ve played zombies, vampires, ninjas, pirates, police, and firefighters. I’ve done sword fights, knife fights, bar fights, martial arts fights, and shootouts. That’s a short list.

Before dangerous stunts, how do you deal with any fear? 

It’s an oddly grounding moment for me. I feel very, very at peace. It’s almost meditative: just slow everything down. I find myself becoming hyper aware of everything around me and everybody’s movements and everybody’s actions. Right before you’re about to do something very potentially dangerous or probably painful, you have people touching up your makeup, poking your face, playing with your clothes, making sure [your] clothing looks exactly like the actor’s. You have other performers coming in and asking questions. There’s a lot of energy building up right before that moment. ... So you have to internalize that and find a way to prepare within that chaos.  

You were a fan of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Could you ever have imagined working with Michelle Yeoh? 

That was a very influential film in my overall life and certainly influenced the trajectory of the career path that I’ve ended up going down. I don’t know that I ever really imagined actually working with any of the stars that I idolized from a very influential age. But working with her [on “Everything Everywhere All at Once”] was such a treat. She would come in and rehearse with us for a couple of hours and never go full-out. And in any of the fight choreography [she would] ask lots of questions. Then she would film it on her phone and then she would leave. But then she would come back on the days that we would shoot the action sequences, and we would work through it with the other performers until everybody was comfortable. And then she would just turn it on and perform her balletic, violent performance. 

The fight choreography is very influenced by the old Jackie Chan movies where there’s a lot of humor. Tell me about that.

The directors and myself and most of my stunt team and a lot of people who worked on the movie, we grew up consuming those films. But it’s not something that is done very often in today’s moviemaking. So for example, the first fight that you see in this movie is the fanny pack fight. You are pairing that silly item with these devastating and brutal reactions. So you still get that exciting fight sequence, but there’s also a humor to it that is unexpected and just amplifies the energy.

What can you tell us about choreographing stunts for the upcoming Season 4 of Netflix’s “Stranger Things”?

I worked on “Stranger Things’’ as a supporting stunt coordinator for the main stunt coordinator, Hiro Koda, who is a big mentor of mine. I can’t talk too much about it, but from an action perspective, this season is significantly amplified from what we have seen in previous seasons. I’m really excited to see how that all plays out. 

You’re an advocate for stunts to be an official Academy Awards category. What’s your pitch for that?

We are arguably the only creative entity within the filmmaking process that’s not recognized by the movie academy. We’re craftspeople and artists. We bring a tremendous amount of creative influence into these films that audiences are watching.  

In your job, what brings you the most joy?

Collaborating within the frenetic energy of creative people is by far the most exciting and joyful part of my job. That moment where everybody is coming together with the same goal of making this show the best show that we can possibly make it, that puts a huge smile on my face. 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is rated R for some violence, sexual material, and language.