John Wick Director Criticizes Use Of Real Weapons On Set (And Reveals Why He'll Never Use Them)

gamerant.com:

John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski knows a thing or two about action movies. After working for nearly two decades in Hollywood, the stuntman-turned-filmmaker is ready to spill the beans on how guns are handled on set and why Alec Baldwin's Rust nightmare could have been avoided.

Stahelski has been the man behind the camera in all four John Wick movies, but he is also famous for taking part in 1994’s The Crow, where another gun accident took the life of Brandon Lee, son of noted martial arts icon Bruce Lee. That experience profoundly impacted Stahelski, who served as Lee's stunt double and whose footage ended up being used to finish the movie with the late actor’s face replacing his using CGI.

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Stahelski knows how dangerous firearms can be, so The Hollywood Reporter asked him to share his opinion on the Rust tragedy. “What happened on Rust … I wasn’t there, but the accidents that I’ve been around, seen, or been part of have always been human error. It’s never mechanical,” Stahelski said. The director referred to his early days, when movies would use blank bullets, which were still deadly, and how electronic and plug guns have been invented, which make it “impossible for anything to come out of the barrel and total CG. That’s the way we do it.”

When asked why this type of gun is not used as the standard, Stahelski doesn’t hold back. “There’s no reason to have a live firearm on set,” he said, and if CGI has evolved so much, “We have the technology to do the same with firearms.” He also offered his theory on why Hollywood doesn’t make the change, arguing the film industry has been using real guns for so long that the move would kill prop houses and