When punches land on “A Thousand Blows,” it’s with emphasis. Hulu’s new 19th-century drama is a blood-soaked look at the evolution of boxing, from the creator of “Peaky Blinders,” Steven Knight. The show is a brutally good time, diving not just into bare-knuckle brawls and gloved bouts, but also the inner workings of an all-female gang of miscreants known as the Forty Elephants.
There are dozens of fights over the course of Season 1, with stars Malachi Kirby and Stephen Graham mowing down scores of costars as well as each other. While Graham is no stranger to onscreen combat thanks to his roles in projects like “Gangs of New York,” “Snatch,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and the aforementioned “Peaky Blinders,” Kirby is newer to the knockout game, having never boxed onscreen or off.
“There was a lot for me to learn in a very short space of time, but it worked in my favor,” Kirby says, noting that his character, Hezekiah, is also a novice when he steps into the ring. The show teamed him with pros like boxer Jamal Akay, who Kirby says taught him “not just how to fight, but the foundations of boxing—how to respect the sport and how to respect whatever opponent is in front of me.”
The show also enlisted stunt coordinator Derek Lea, who’s worked on films such as “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Black Widow” and is a certified expert in judo, motocross, high board and springboard diving, horseback riding, and trampolining. (To join the British Stunt Register, Lea explains, you have to have “instructor level” training in at least six disciplines.)
Teaching an actor to box is about more than just learning jabs and uppercuts. First, Lea says, he’ll invite an actor to the gym to warm up and chat. “That way, I get a chance to see how they move,” he says. “Then we’ll chat about how someone sees their character. Is he aggressive? Is he smart? Is he intelligent? Is he fast? Is it his footwork? Then we start seeing what kind of punches they can throw and it’s on from there. You’re really teaching actors from the word ‘go.’ ”
While Lea says he’s careful not to overload performers with fight choreo or boxing technique from the jump, he might only have weeks or months to teach someone to convincingly fight onscreen. “We just concentrate on whatever fight is coming up next,” he says, noting that the fights must be blocked, then choreographed, then spiced up with a bit of acting.
Know your role, not just the physicality.
Though Kirby says he was keen to “get [his] ‘Creed’ on” when he was cast as Hezekiah, the reality is that most fighters in the 1800s weren’t exactly spending their spare time getting swole. Instead, he did mainly cardio work, as well as workouts that involved using what was around him, from his own body weight to trees in Jamaica, where he spent some time preparing for the role.
He also had to spend time unlearning what he thought he knew about boxing, since what we see on TV today isn’t what the sport once was. Instead, Kirby had to learn the ins and outs of bare-knuckle fighting and what boxing was like before the introduction of gloves or Queensbury rules. “It’s something closer to wrestling,” he explains, “but with punches, biting, and headbutts.”
Most important, Kirby says, was the energy he spent thinking about his character’s motivations to fight and how they change over time. Throwing a punch is one thing, but emotionally selling it within the story is another. For instance, the reason why a fresh-off-the-boat Hezekiah hops into the ring on Episode 1 is vastly different from why a more seasoned Hezekiah seeks out a bout in a posh London club a few episodes later. “The reasons change his fighting style and they change his level of desperation or what he’s willing to do to win,” Kirby notes.
Stage Combat Basics: An Actor's Guide to Fight ChoreographyChoreo is key.
Toward the beginning of the season, Kirby’s Hezekiah and Graham’s Sugar have a knockdown, drag-out fight that sets the tone for their subsequently tense relationship. It’s a no-holds-barred bloodbath complete with biting and cheap shots, but while it looks very natural, Kirby says it was anything but.
“I can’t tell you how many times we rehearsed that fight,” the actor explains. “We came together between takes and after shoots. They built a boxing ring for us [that was] separate from the actual set where we could just train and practice, and so we were going over and over and over it.”
All that practice made the fight into what was essentially a dance, with Kirby saying the pair could have done the whole fight blindfolded. Developing that muscle memory made all the difference, because, as Kirby explains, “It gave us the confidence to be able to dodge and punch and really commit because we knew what was coming.”
How to Convincingly Slap Your CostarPull your punches.
A truly convincing onscreen fight is all about the reactions. Lea says he teaches every actor to “pull a punch,” which involves “being aggressive with a punch but then slowing it down right at the last minute in order to make minimum contact.” If an actor is hitting another actor’s body, they can make a bit of contact, but if you’re aiming for someone’s face, then you’ll generally throw a punch so that even at your fullest reach, your fist will still be about six inches away from your scene partner’s mug.
Still, Lea says, “If the other actor folds over into that punch and reacts to it, it looks like you’ve hit them really hard.”
Most onscreen fights are shot over each boxer’s shoulder and then coupled with reactions in the edit to seem real. While pulling or taking convincingly can require some practice, actors can worry a bit less about their technique if they’re working with skilled stunt coordinators or cinematographers, who know how to make a fight read on the screen.
Lea, for instance, says to “never go past 70%” speed in a rehearsal, since rehearsing something at 100% over and over tends to make it look fake on camera. That might sound like a painstaking process, but it’s all in service of the storytelling. As Lea explains, “When I can get someone to act and not just concentrate on the punches, that’s when it all becomes real.”