The problem: Nelson had mastered the quick draw but couldn’t cock the hammer on his pistol fast enough to capture the motion in one smooth take. The stunt: The second of two street shoot-outs between Nelson’s Buster Scruggs includes a challenger to his quick-draw reputation - which means his draw needs to be even quicker. Taking time between shooting on the latter to talk, Dillon walked us through ten notable performers he’s worked with and stunts he’s helped pull off, plus discussed the ways gunplay informs character - and the cheats necessary to make inauthentic gunplay look real. The cagey Coens would be unlikely to admit to any such motivation, averse as they are to providing explanations in their interviews, and it’s ironic that the film depends on Dillon’s mastery of the quick draw and other feats of artillery heroics.ĭillon’s work on the first segment is a highlight of a career that includes work on Westworld, Looper, Godless, and the forthcoming Deadwood movie. Gunplay mastery is necessary for any Western here, the latter’s arguably used against itself, with nearly all of the film’s six segments showcasing a variety of situations in which the ready availability of firepower precipitates violence that simply wouldn’t occur otherwise. Once the Coens had made their choices, Dillon got to work with Nelson about a month and a half before production started. After reading the script, he made a video showing himself doing the tricks as described in the screenplay, offerings different options for each. This time, Dillon was with the production both before and during shooting. On Scruggs, Dillon only worked on the first segment, but it’s a doozy, with Tim Blake Nelson’s singing cowboy gunman quickly revealing himself to be a master of the Coens’ rapid-fire stylized dialogue - and a deadly, psychotically quick shot, a bad dude who’s not to be messed with. A self-described “freak Western enthusiast” and quick-draw champion, Dillon’s a busy man, with a résumé that includes participating in Old West–reenactment shoot-outs, crew work as a props master, and an increasingly formidable array of training on movies and TV shows sporting lots of firepower.ĭillon first worked for the Coens on Hail, Caesar!, training a pre- Solo: A Star Wars Story Alden Ehrenreich to play cowboy actor Hobie Doyle, but he wasn’t on set for production. If you watch the end credits of the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggscarefully, one credit pops out: “Gunslinger - Joey Rocketshoes Dillon.” It’s not hard to guess that “gunslinger” is a jokey credit for gun trainer, but you might be surprised to learn that “Rocketshoes” is not a nickname: Dillon legally changed his middle name after a teen stunt that involved tying tiny rockets to his shoes to run faster.
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