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The Bondsman Stunt Coordinator on Safety, Comic Inspirations & More

The Bondsman stunt coordinator James Hutchinson III spoke with Bleeding Cool about ramping up the action, comic book inspirations, and more.

It's hard to find a world that James Hutchinson III hasn't already stepped into that most haven't already dreamed of from action, comic book, adventure, thrillers, sci-fi, spy, and even comedy. His latest is the supernatural thriller The Bondsman from creator Grainger David and showrunner Erik Oleson. The series follows Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon), a bounty hunter who has run out of luck after an attempt to capture a fugitive goes awry. Fortunately for Hub, death was only the beginning with his second chance at life, hunting demons for the devil, but at what cost? Hutchinson spoke to Bleeding Cool about his most difficult stunt to pull off, how it became even more action-packed than it originally was, being vigilant with safety, and how his work in comic book films came full circle, inspiring his other work like The Bondsman.

The Bondsman Stunt Coordinator on Expanding Stunts, Kevin Bacon's Toughness, and Comic Book Projects Inspiring His Other Works

Bleeding Cool: The next question is a two-parter here. What was the most challenging stunt this season, and were there rejected sequences you couldn't pull off?

Rejected sequences? The opening of the show initially started differently, and after they did some test audiences, they concluded they wanted to amp up the stunts and the action. Overall, I wouldn't say there was anything that was rejected. If anything, we had our action boosted by the time we got around to doing re-shoots. In that sense, nothing was rejected. As for the first part of that question, what was the most difficult? There was a sequence or two of those for me with the underwater scenes with Kevin were challenging, because shooting underwater has a separate set of safeguards going into it, especially when you have number one on the call sheet going underwater, but he was game. I'll tell you, Kevin is 67 years old, and that man will go after…like he was doing stunts I thought he would have said no to. He was like, "No, I'll dive, I will do that stuff." He's been doing this since before I was born, and there's a good reason because he's an ultimate pro.

A challenging sequence for me, a very difficult one, was the fight scene at the end. That involved Hub and our demon, Lilith. Stunt performer Thomas Watson was our stunt double for Kevin, and he had to do some pretty gnarly wire gags. One in particular, he gets thrown off the hood of this car into a tree. In another, it looked from my angle on camera like he went headfirst into the tree, and I ran right away over to where he was, and I was asking if he was okay. When I see the behind-the-scenes footage, he had a solid foot and a half. He was perfectly fine. My performers mean the world to me, like I want everybody to go home the way they showed up when they arrived. I don't want anybody to get hurt on my watch, because what we do is inherently dangerous. I don't like to add to that. I don't want anybody to get hurt on watch. So that was a challenge because my performers mean a lot to me

Do you have some creative freedom when you do an original project like 'The Bondsman' versus if you're working on a project of a much grander scale? For example, when you try to recreate stuff on comic book pages like Marvel or DC, is it a more or less similar process?

No, it is different. You get into the Marvel and DC of things, and obviously, they have a lot of history. As years pass, there was a more concerted effort to bring what was on the page to the screen. You had directors who were very aware of some of like…I grew up reading comics, man. As far as I know, the storyboards are already there [laughs]. They're giving you what you should be shooting. When I see elements of the comic books appear on screen, I think one of the great ones was in 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016) when Cap (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) had their meeting where Cap brings the shield up and Iron Man's shooting. That was straight off the page.

I love being able to, especially for DC and Marvel, find those moments from the comics and put them into a pre-viz in the hopes our director will be like, "That scene looks iconic. That looks like something I've seen before. That's iconic, like you should use that!" I know the fans appreciate it, and in all truth, man, for the Marvel and DC of things, I wouldn't be doing what I do if it weren't for the fans. I'm a fan myself, like I still want to see all those iconic moments and things all the artists, like Jim Lee, brought to the page when I was a kid. I still want to see those on the big screen, because they were awesome.

When you get into stuff like 'The Bondsman,' you have a lot more creative freedom to design stuff like that because we've got our storyboard artist. Many times, I will pull from comic books, like the imagery created by all these generations of guys, who clearly had their finger on the pulse of what looked good for action. We all use that; all the solid stunt guys are in that world. We're drawing from our experience in comic books. It was a bit different because we had a blank slate to draw from when it came to 'The Bondsman,' but it adds to the fun by being able to help our directors draw almost unknowingly on comic books to help design their look.

The Bondsman, which also stars Jennifer Nettles, Beth Grant, Damon Herriman, Maxwell Jenkins, Jolene Purdy, andDenitra Isler, is available to stream on Prime Video.

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