5 minutes with Greg Van Borssum
Written by Ben Stone
Martial artist, fight choreographer and stuntman Greg Van Borssum recently finished up work on upcoming Aussie action film Mad Max: Fury Road in Africa, along with his friend, action film star and Zen Do Kai chief instructor Soke Richard Norton, 8th Dan. Blitz caught up with Van Borssum for an insight into their African adventure.
When and how did the concept for Mad Max: Fury Road come about?
The concept for Fury Road came up quite a long time ago now. The original Mad Max story was really the baby of George Miller and Byron Kennedy. [Byron] and George were great mates and after making a few short films together, they decided to make Mad Max.
It was very courageous at the time, but that is George in a nutshell: he is always trying to take filmmaking to a new level, as in Mad Max, Babe, Happy Feet and now the new Mad Max Fury Road. If you think about those films, in their time they were all landmark films because they changed the way films were made.
Mad Max brought people inside the car chases, whereas before they had only been bystanders. Babe brought live talking animals to the screen, Happy Feet brought photo-real animation and life to the screen, and along the same lines we are hoping that
Fury Road brings the audience into an amazing action piece all based on character
and if we have done our job right, then it will be so.
What were the hold-ups and how did it finally get the green light after 10 years?
There were several hold ups with the film, the first being over 10 years ago. We were all set to go when the film was pulled
I believe the film was cancelled back then because of the dollar, the war and a number of other reasons due to us wanting to film in Africa.
Broken Hill was the next attempt. We were all set to go, then the rains came and the desert turned green. We were up there for stunt and vehicle testing, and it made life interesting on all the clay after the rains, thats for sure. My family came up there with me and it was beautiful. The people of Broken Hill were so accommodating and friendly, but the alteration in the landscape made filming impossible. It was the first time Id been to Broken Hill and the flora after the rain was brilliant I felt we were fortunate to be there at that time.
So the film was halted again as new locations were sourced and during that time we set about making Happy Feet 2.
Then came attempt three: Namibia. It was a big change of location, as the African country of Namibia, though coastal, is basically desert with strong winds. We got word from our scouts that the place we were going to stay at, Swakopmund, was beautiful. It is a coastal retreat for wealthy holidaymakers. Next thing we knew, it was locked in and we were starting our rehearsals [on 14 May 2012].
Can you tell us about some of the stunts and choreography you and Richard were involved with? Is there much hand-to-hand fighting in the film?
This film is going to do what the Bond franchise got from its decision to update its action and storylines. There is a heap of hand-to-hand, weapons work and eye-popping, amazing stunts. The great thing about Mad Max is that we have prided ourselves on making all our action real, not CG [computer-generated] action.
Richard and I worked long and hard with all the actors and doubles (Jacob Tomuri and Dayna Chiplin) to make everything feel real while being true to character. There were some very difficult fight sequences, as not only were they being performed on moving vehicles, they were using improvised weaponry and other things, which I cant discuss right now. But the scenes pushed us to the edge of creativity while keeping things based on the characters we were working with in the quirky world of Mad Max. It is road warfare in the end, and it had to have a certain brutality to it. This film is a whole new era for Mad Max and its combat.
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