Chad Stahelski quotes:

When I first met Laurence I was Keanu's [Reeves] stunt double on the first Matrix. So, a little evolution there with career status. But then cut to the thirteen/fourteen years later where now I'm asking Laurence Fishburne to trust my directorial capacity [in John Wick 2].

Production wants a miracle on every movie. They want us to do something new and amazing - but then they give you a 55-year-old actor with sciatica who doesn't want to train.

Keanu and I were in New York, I was prepping John Wick 2. And when Keanu [Reeves], [writer] Derek Kolstad, and myself sat down and wrote the character, it was completely, one hundred percent based on Laurence Fishburne. Like, in my head I saw this guy.

Laurence [Fishburne] is a great example of how to communicate to the audience as you're acting with another actor.

I spent a lot of time with both [Laurence Fishburn and Keanu Reeves], obviously, on the Matrix trilogy. Worked a lot, on a day-to-day level, with Laurence Fishburne. And then we'd bumped into each other through the film community for years and years.

Honestly, when you think of any great action hero or any great hero out there or great character actor, you kind of transcend the character. You just don't love the character, you love the guy. In any of the great action stars, you see the guy doing the work.

I consider Laurence [Fishburn], Keanu [Reeves], both very acclaimed actors, I mean so good.

With John Wick we wanted to do something like that. So rather than punching, kicks - and for the kind of way we wanted to shoot it, which is longer takes - our initial instinct was let's go with a throwing or grappling arm.

I'm an audience member too, man. I hate shitty sequels.

Say you can't put one foot in front of the other, you punch like a child, and you're not flexible at all. We'll show you some aikido, some ground jujitsu, some gun stuff, some knife moves. We can make a pretty good-size dent with that.

For me, it's about surrounding myself with the best, most talented team out there, and not ever being afraid of being the worst guy in the room. It's ego-crushing, yeah. Every day is ego-crushing. But it keeps you sharper than you can imagine.

I guess I have kind of a type. Pretty much anybody who shows up in a black leather overcoat, I've doubled for them.

Laurence [Fishburn] helped redo some of the dialogue [in John Wick 2], he and Keanu [Reeves] workshopped it. And he couldn't have been more respectful couldn't have been more brilliant on set. I said, "look, I'm gonna have to work you a little bit here cause I only get you for three days." He never left set, was always engaging, always working on his lines, it was awesome.

We're under Rigan Machado, who I think is one of the best jiu jitsu instructors at least in Los Angeles, if not in the world. We have a lot of his instructors here, as well as Japanese jiu jitsu, Japanese judo, and sambo. That was Keanu's [Reeves] recipe [in John Wick 2].

I think what we want to do is - when we choreograph, when we design choreography, we try to take it from a character standpoint first. Obviously you write a script and it's like, a Jason Bourne or a John Wick or something like that, you don't start choreographing double twisting wire moves and backflips, or doing the splits. You try to keep it so it fits the character, or the tone of the film.

Character imperfection is the important thing to keep them from being superheroes.

I think we're all kind of alike when you do your first film. You have great hopes, but you don't hope too much.

I have a very strong belief in what I like, or a very strong opinion in genre films that I like to watch.

In fact rules are more important in our underworld than they are to the regular citizen who works within them.