Paul Kennington operates behind the action, providing humorous stunt work in Apple+’s Slow Horses. He’s provided Slow Horses stunts since season 2 and, in this interview with The Contending, gives his observations on what that longevity allows him to accomplish. He describes many of the biggest scenes this year and shares how the board game Mousetrap inspired one of the most shocking moments of the season.
The Contending: The season starts out with an intense public shooting. What was that like to set up?
Paul Kennington: I sat down with Will Smith and the director Saul Metzstein and we broke down where we were going with the action. Saul had a really good concept of what he was feeling. We just really work well together. As always, there are constraints of what stunts can and can’t be done physically as well as financially. Yusuf Chaudhri was my main stunt performer as the assassin, and he did a great job and we had plenty of rehearsal time, which just made things run smoothly.
The Contending: One of my favorite scenes this season was Jackson Lamb giving that speech about being tortured, keeping people enraptured while subtly letting his team know how to help them escape, and we get this quick action sequence. How did you guys get that timing just so great?
Paul Kennington: Again, having a lot of time to rehearse was key because we could literally break down the elements of the scene. So we were able to make the transitions look flawless in the edit while Gary Oldman is building up the tension while initiating his plan. Then just a little bit of humor at the end of that sequence, and then leaving you wondering was that real or not the story he is telling. It leaves you hanging.
The Contending: You have been working on Slow Horses since Season 2. Is there anything about this show that’s distinct from some of the other work you’ve been doing?
Paul Kennington: I think that the nice thing about being on the show for so long is I’ve gained the confidence of all the cast. So I can get more out of them and they have become more confident in their abilities to do more. Like when we did that fight in the skate park, that was one of my favorite pieces of work I have done in a long time. It was quite nice to use the bowl of the skate park to make our way along the fight. So working with Aimee-Ffion Edwards, her double, and Yusuf, we blocked it out all and Aimee was great, and it was nearly all her, all the way through, and created that really nice sequence.
The Contending: Slow Horses is known for having its big action moments, and then something ridiculous at the end of that. Does that change the way you approach the stunt work in any way?
Paul Kennington: Funny enough, no. I try to put it in as much as the script asks for after visualizing it and taking into account any constraints as a show we may have. It helps that everyone else on the show is so great–the production team, cinematography, was still getting the feeling of people’s characters. But as it’s gone on and the characters and storylines have grown with them and they also get themselves in some ridiculous situations and can get quite black at times as well.
The Contending: Jack Lowden’s character River probably gets it the most because he wants to be Bond, and then he has to end up having the most ridiculous things happen. I was thinking of Season 4, when he’s daringly escaping the house, and then falls through the roof. Is it fun to do those things with Jack?
Paul Kennington: Yes, and while I always have doubles, that was Jack falling all the way through the roof. It was a great set-up where River turns around and sticks his two fingers up at the guys in the window, thinking he got away, and then he falls through. Then in the escape, if it had been Bond, he would have been in a Ducati roaring down the street. But Jack was on that ridiculous moped that wasn’t even 50cc, with that dog chasing him.
The Contending: The one sequence that I think everyone was talking about this season was the Rube Goldberg-like movement of the paint coming down off the scaffolding. What was that like to construct?
Paul Kennington: We worked really tight with the special effects department, and Saul and we ended up thinking about that board game Mousetrap, where you hit one thing and that would fall down, and then eventually the diver would jump off and catch the mouse. So for us it was creating the physicality of where the journey would go while knowing it would end with a pot of paint. That moment with Jack not only covered in paint but pink paint makes me laugh. Within the shows there are always some really nice beats. I think that is the clever thing about it that there is action and then there is a bit of drama. We have scenes like the paint but then there is Jack with his grandfather and the sadness of that. I think there is a really nice rollercoaster of emotions through the show.
Also I think that’s also how it’s taken time to become really popular, and that the show has grown over time with the characters and the drama of it all, and not just smash action all the time type of series.
The Contending: With this season in particular, was there anything that was different, or that really stood out to you?
Paul Kennington: No, but it was interesting because a lot of the actors were foreign performers so getting to know them and getting comfortable with what we were asking them to do was a big part of this year. It was just getting their confidence to not be overperforming and giving me what I needed.
The Contending: Final thoughts?
Paul Kennington: It’s very nice of you to ask me. I was thinking where this is going, because I’m only a small cog in a very big machine creating this show. There is so much detail that makes this all come together. One thing that stays with me is how Danny Cohen, our cinematographer, helps create the mood. We do a lot of work at night in the streets and it is quite atmospheric with the reflections of the lights and that just adds to everything. The nice thing about the show for me is that I have the opportunity to create some big action elements without overpowering the writing and the comedy.
The Contending: That makes me think of season 3 with the big shootout, but the show never took away from what the characters were saying and doing; it just melded together.
Paul Kennington: We went through thousands of bullet shells; they were of course all blanks or airsofts. But we just kept shooting and shooting so the armorer had a fun day.
