Studio A Douglas Wick- Lucy Fisher, Allied Stars, Columbia Pictures, Douglas Wick-Lucy Fisher, Red Wagon Productions, Revolution Studios, Universal Pictures
Ultimately, it only increased his ferocity. “Jason has a great deal of dexterity with his hook,” said Palmisano. “He’s like the Mix Master of cutting edges coming at you when he makes the moves. Trying to rehearse him, about three moves into it, you just want to drop the sword and run outside and wait for it to be safe again.”
Wendy and the Lost Boys were less threatening, but all received serious training. “We’d bring the Lost Boys into the rehearsal stage with 10 fully-grown adult stuntmen,” said Palmisano, “and hand them all metal swords and say, ‘Here, attack those guys!’ For months, we’d do practice and play routines and each boy found something that he really liked to do the best, and we’d work that into their fight scenes.”
Actor Bruce Spence, who plays the pirate Cookson, dueled with Wendy. “The crew here are great swordsmen and now when I observe people like Errol Flynn, I’m thinking, ‘Tsk, tsk, is that really all you can do, Errol?’ Of course, fighting Wendy is a little different than fighting Errol Flynn, but when Wendy is up against it and has to get her courage, it’s a moment I really enjoy. She has to move from being the little girl she was to being more grown-up and take control.”
Accidents? A few. “Sometimes you get hit fencing and it hurts,” Sumpter reported matter-of-factly.
“Yes, we’ve gone wrong a few times sword-fighting, Jeremy and I,” Isaacs concurred.
But both actors were always ready for more. “Jason and Jeremy trained very hard to be the guys actually performing the stunts and we’re very proud of them for that,” said Palmisano.
“As a 30-year veteran of the stunt field,” he reflected, “I think there’s a little Peter Pan in all stuntmen. We don’t live in Neverland, but we really don’t have to grow up. We still get to play with boys’ toys, they’re just bigger than usual.”
Still, Sumpter’s fearlessness surprised even this seasoned risk-taker. “I was always the first kid in the neighborhood to jump off the bridge into the water, but I always went down and looked in the water first. Jeremy might just jump.
“Casting him was a sharp move. He is a pied piper of kids. Even around the studio lot you’ll find them all kind of running around after him.”
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