I don't know where I am.
I have nowhere to go back to, so please, please help me.
Burnham and Book make a pact
to help each other out temporarily,
and the plan is they go their separate ways afterwards.
He's not a fan of Michael Burnham when they first meet.
I mean, they fight.
It's a big old friggin' fight sequence.
Which was amazing to shoot, by the way.
Chris McGuire is our Stunt Coordinator, stunt captain,
and what I love about Chris is how he collaborates
and his enthusiasm and his excitement.
Chris, like myself, is always driven
by the narrative of the story.
He always wants to incorporate character elements
within the fight sequences, so that they're real
and feel organic for us, as actors.
My favorite part is to work with the cast
and figure out what they would and wouldn't do.
I know each and every one of these characters
and the cast who play them.
When they show up to our first rehearsal,
they'll tell me what it is that they want to try
to accomplish in the scene, and then we make it happen.
We give them the tools so that they can do it safely,
and so that they can totally express themselves as actors.
Iceland was incredible.
It was the first time I was able to choreograph
a chase sequence that took place on an alien planet,
where I didn't have to try to visualize what we were seeing,
because ordinarily we're looking into green screen
or the cast are looking into green screen.
The vista was there, the rock formations were there,
the glacier-molded landscapes were all there.
So, Tunde and I, with my iPhone, would run the sequence,
and he would be the actors and he'd say,
"This is what I want to see."
And so then we just used the terrain
and this outcropping of rock and whatnot
and just built the action right there.
It was pretty incredible.
You're about to be really mad!
I love how Chris was very supportive
and just gave us the room to create.
He's a wonderful, wonderful guy to collaborate with.
And our stunt doubles, as well.
I have to shout out our stunt doubles
'cause they are amazing.
My stunt double, Bauston Camilleri,
has saved my life many a time. So, between him
and our Stunt Coordinator, Chris, they're aces
at getting these things choreographed out,
so they look real and staging them so that we're safe,
always safe.
Safety first.
From the moment I read the script,
I immediately think about
which departments are going to be impacted by stunts,
from the art department,
reinforcing walls for our stunt performers to slam into,
stunt foam on the floors, the walls,
and sometimes the ceiling, to the costume department.
Gersha and her team build these super cool,
elaborate costumes, and so we try to build the action
to accommodate that as well.
We had to build a fight sequence
that involved having Georgiou completely unarmed,
surrounded by several heavily armed regulators
with their weapons up.
The challenge is to choreograph it in a way
that it's believable. That the audience isn't saying,
"Well, he could have shot her right here."
And I think we did that.
I'm off to the side,
watching Michelle really do most of the kicking,
and her kicks go, they go everywhere.
She has no joints.
I think they're just like elastic in there.
When we choreograph and do walkthroughs,
she literally walks it.
You don't see Michelle explode into action
'til the camera rolls.
Three, two, one, action.
I remember that day specifically
because we did a ton of prep, a ton of work,
to build the fight, rehearsed it,
and then rolled the camera.
We shot the first master and it was unbelievable.
I believed it.