Production Companies Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, DC Comics (Vertigo), Lonely Film Productions GmbH & Co. KG., Donners' Company, Branded Entertainment/Batfilm Productions, Weed Road Pictures, 3 Art Entertainment, Di Bonaventura Pictures
The climactic confrontation in the hydrotherapy room at Ravenscar Hospital between Constantine and Chaz against a multitude of demon half-breeds was a colossal undertaking for cast and crew alike. Beginning at 3:00 AM, stunt men and women reported to the set for their makeup and prosthetics.
Additionally, a roomful of actors portraying half-breeds were prepared for the moment when their counterfeit visages would melt away to reveal their demon features.
Regarding the progression of Constantine’s terminal lung cancer, Neill notes that the low-lighted sets “cast a kind of pale yellow-green tone onto the walls, which adds to the makeup in making him appear very sallow and ill.” Exercising restraint throughout, Neill avoided “making Keanu look too terrible in the beginning because we’d have no place to go, so I just tried to keep him slightly on the unhealthy side.” Towards the end, “not only because of the illness but also the pounding he takes from all these fights, we start seeing a bit more degeneration, more trauma and fatigue, so there are slight changes in his makeup.”
“A demon just attacked me on Figueroa, right out in the open.” – John Constantine
“One of the story’s motifs is about knocking the hero down and seeing if he can get back up,” Reeves offers wryly, on the physical aspects of the role. “Each time, you can feel Constantine thinking ‘OK, right, here we go again.’ Throughout the film I get choked, throttled, smashed and generally kicked around. It’s really been good fun.”
Constantine reunites Reeves with renowned stunt coordinator R. A. Rondell, who worked extensively with him on the groundbreaking action sequences for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and who goes as far back as 1991 with him on Point Break. The level of trust and admiration Reeves feels for Rondell and his team cannot be overstated. Conversely, says Rondell, citing the actor’s natural athleticism and killer work ethic, “Keanu’s level of participation is very high and very consistent. For a stunt coordinator, that’s a godsend. We pretty much take it to the limit with him in terms of what we can do with an actor.”
The more action he can authentically execute on screen, Reeves feels, the better the overall performance. “Instead of having to cut away it allows me to stay close in the situations of peril, and it helps the audience stay and hopefully feel and connect with the character.”
For John Constantine, peril lurks behind every door: from violent exorcisms to old-fashioned fist fights with demons, not to mention being blown clear across the room and upside down like a cotton ball from a puff of Gabriel’s powerful breath.
The film’s single most complex and kinetic fight sequence is a battle pitting Constantine and Chaz against a legion of half-breed demons in a room at the Ravenscar Hospital. Already a logistical puzzle for stunts and wire work because of low ceilings and tight space, it was made all the more challenging because of the number of combatants involved, and because Francis Lawrence wanted to film it in one continuous shot – a stylistic choice Rondell was the first to support. “We were going for an even flow, a nice cadence without breaking up the action,” he says. Ultimately the shot involved nearly a dozen stunt actors flying through the air while others lunged and fought simultaneously below them and Lawrence got the uninterrupted current he envisioned.
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