Peacock’s John Wick spinoff, The Continental, has had a secret weapon lurking within the shadows. And within the third and closing episode of the restricted sequence, she was lastly unleashed.
That weapon is Ukrainian actress, mannequin, dancer, and contortionist Marina Mazepa, greatest referred to as the bodily performer behind the unforgettable Gabriel from James Wan’s Malignant. In The Continental, she’s Gretel, one half of the hard-to-miss murderer twins Hansel and Gretel. Their bowl cuts and expressionless faces have distinguished them as promisingly cool opponents for our protagonists from the beginning. We had seen Gretel casually doing the splits across the resort, however there weren’t many different hints to tip viewers off to Mazepa’s distinctive set of abilities or how they might be deployed.
That every one adjustments in one of many finale’s climactic fights, the place Gretel takes on Yen (Nhung Kate) on the rooftop of The Continental, delivering over-the-head scorpion kicks and bending her limbs in ways in which appear bodily unimaginable, in a scene paying homage to Day Shift’s contortionist vampires. It’s a reveal by design, motion director Larnell Stovall (who credit Day Shift director J.J. Perry as a mentor) advised Polygon.
“We held again on the contortion stuff as a lot as we may, as a result of I needed that to have its personal story,” Stovall says. “You didn’t know what she actually dropped at the desk till that combat scene. So I’m grateful [the writers] held her character again loads. After which impulsively, you’re like, Oh, shit, that is what she’s able to? However in the event you noticed that all through the entire time, there in all probability wouldn’t have been as many surprises.”
The combat begins 72 minutes into the 97-minute finale and lasts for 4 superb minutes, starting with a Western standoff as the 2 glare at one another on the roof of the resort earlier than discarding their respective weapons and silently agreeing to a close-quarters combat.
Out of the blue, the 2 cost at one another, as Yen goes for a takedown round Gretel’s waist, sending her to the bottom. This preventing model displays Nhung Kate’s MMA background — she has fought in cage matches, and trains together with her accomplice and fellow martial artist Johnny Trí Nguyễn (Da 5 Bloods) — and supplied an attention-grabbing alternative for Stovall and his workforce to juxtapose the 2 actors’ backgrounds as bodily performers.
Photograph: Katalin Vermes/Starz Leisure
“You’re taking every fighter individually, you’re employed with them, you discover what makes them who they’re as a fighter, and then you definately construct upon that,” Stovall says. “After getting that stable base, then you may carry them collectively. Now they will dance, since you ship the security components. You’ve created the story, they’ve agreed upon it. And now after they get collectively, it makes it loads simpler for them each to agree on the stream of it transferring ahead.”
Actors with an MMA background are a specific problem, as a result of they’re used to bodily contact, Stovall says.
“They’re not used to throwing actions to promote for a digital camera. They’re making an attempt to knock any individual out, they’re making an attempt to place ache on any individual,” Stovall says. “So our job is to carry that to the desk, however hold it as secure as attainable. As a result of, you realize, on the finish of the day, we’re pretending, and whenever you say ‘Minimize!’ and somebody’s able to go seize a salad and drink their water, they wish to do it comfortably. They don’t need a busted lip, or one thing damaged.”
After Yen tackles her opponent to the bottom, the taller Gretel is ready to make her approach again up once more, bringing the combat again to a standing place. Stovall and the Continental workforce successfully distinction Yen’s forceful actions with Gretel’s size, conserving Yen at a distance, main as much as an over-the-head scorpion kick that offers us our clearest style but of Mazepa’s contortionist talents.
Whereas Mazepa’s expertise as a contortionist added additional taste to the combat scene, Stovall says her background as a dancer helped simply as a lot.
“[A dancing background] means it’s simpler for that particular person 9 occasions out of 10 to recollect the choreography,” Stovall says. “However we have now to ensure they’re in a position to promote it as if it’s a combat. And that it doesn’t appear to be they’re doing a 3 rely, an eight rely of their head. So it’s nearly discovering that stability.”
After the scorpion kick, Yen will get Gretel again on the bottom once more and seemingly wins the combat — till Gretel twists all of her limbs and rises up like a horror monster again from the lifeless, pulling her legs totally over her heads as she stands up and cracks her neck, able to brawl.
From there, Mazepa’s abilities actually shine. Yen throws a kick that Gretel dodges by bending her head and neck seemingly all the way in which again, then grips her leg round Yen’s neck at what looks like an unimaginable angle. She kicks Yen within the face out of a backwards somersault, sending her opponent flying to the bottom earlier than creeping up, limbs seemingly in all places, able to ship the ending blow.
Picture: Starz Leisure
Nevertheless it’s not over, after all — Yen blocks Gretel’s knife together with her hand, breaking Gretel’s leg and unleashing a sequence of stabs within the rooftop pool, in a picture that might match proper in with most slasher films. Gretel makes her approach out of the pool, solely to seek out Yen’s explosive vest on her for a… flamable end. And so ends one of the best combat of Peacock’s The Continental.
Stovall says he fortunately had months to consider and plan out the combat. He requested his workforce to play up how the 2 characters (and performers) combat in methods which are distinctive to them.
“‘Don’t simply deal with kicks and punches,’” Stovall says he advised his workforce. “‘Don’t simply deal with the latest cool throw that everyone’s seen on YouTube, OK? Make it imply one thing by the point you do a throw. Make the throw be one thing that’s avoiding one thing, or if somebody’s in ache, let’s hold the ache constant.’”
Then got here one of the best half: working Mazepa and Nhung Kate into the scene.
“They added their very own taste, and so they liked it,” Stovall says. “From there it was only a matter of creating the dance easy [and] environment friendly. So by the point it was time to activate that viciousness, you believed it.
“Kate, she’s like a buzzsaw. When she goes, she goes. And Marina, who was form of sluggish and methodical the complete approach — it felt good for her to go, Hmm, let’s play. The love that went into it, the ache that went into it, as a result of these girls went at it. There was plenty of bodily contact. And I feel it wanted that.”
He in contrast the scene to arguably one of the best combat he’s ever directed: Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) vs. Raul “Dolor” Quinones (Marko Zaror) in Undisputed 3. It’s simple to see why; each are full tales advised by movement and physicality, each decelerate the motion in key moments to let the storytelling breathe, each distinction a smaller and stronger fighter with a taller one, and each comprise brutal preventing with attractive choreography. (Now, Undisputed 3 obtained almost 10 minutes for its showstopping combat in comparison with The Continental’s 4, however this was simply one among a number of spectacular finale fights for the Peacock restricted sequence.)
Picture: Starz Leisure
Gretel’s accomplice in crime, Hansel, additionally had his personal reveal of types within the third episode. The half was performed by Stovall’s good good friend Mark Musashi, a talented martial artist and practitioner of wushu. His creepy efficiency as Hansel was praised as “serial killer-like” by Stovall, who advised Musashi his character was principally a silent model of Jet Li’s Danny from Unleashed, who was educated into being basically an assault canine for the person that raised him, with none actual connection to different people.
“He was in a position to carry plenty of taste to it,” Stovall says. “It allowed me to sneak in some anime photographs, in the way in which he was filmed and designed. So you realize, hopefully some individuals catch that; that’s on goal.”
For Hansel, his arc within the present culminates in a terrific combat scene in The Continental’s Pool Corridor towards Miles (Hubert Level-Du Jour) and Lou (Jessica Allain).
Just like the Yen-versus-Gretel showdown, Hansel’s closing combat breaks new floor in making full use of the various skills on show within the forged. After all, the Gretel combat nonetheless has the sting, due to Mazepa’s contortionism, which brings a brand new jolt to the high-octane motion sequences. With strikes like that, it’s no shock her flip in Malignant was as indelible because it was. Malignant was the most effective surprises of 2021 in films. The Continental is among the greatest surprises of the 12 months in tv. Marina Mazepa, I can’t wait to see what you do subsequent.
All three episodes of The Continental: From the World of John Wick at the moment are streaming on Peacock.
