‘Richard And Priyanka Had Natural Talent’: Citadel Stunt Master Don Theerathada On Action Scenes In The Series

Citadel stunt coordinator Don Theerathada explained that the process became easier as Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden worked really hard on the stunts and had a natural talent for them.

New Delhi: As Prime Video’s ‘Citadel’ races towards its finale on May 26, it has been making waves across the world, with one of the largest global audiences in the history of Prime Video tuning in weekly for the latest episodes of the action-packed spy series. ‘Citadel’ stars Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas in lead roles, with Stanley Tucci, Lesley Manville in pivotal roles, alongside - Osy Ikhile, Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Møller, and Caoilinn Springall playing important roles in the spy-action series.

With the high octane action-laden sequences being the talk of the industry, stunt coordinator DON THEERATHADA explains the process behind the making. He said, “[Showrunner] David Weil mentioned that he envisioned the action to be like No Country for Old Men —gritty and visceral—so we took that and went with it. But honestly, the biggest inspirations are dependent on the actors’ performances. It doesn’t matter what vision you have unless the actors can execute them. You have to see what they can do, and what they possibly can do. The minute you have them doing something that feels alien to them, it becomes forced, fake, and awkward, which is a big fail. 

He further adds, “We were lucky to have Richard and Priyanka, because they were game, worked really hard, and had natural talent giving them the ability to learn, move, and make these techniques look natural and not foreign to them.” 

Don shares, “For Citadel we had to figure out ways of “cheating" setups. For instance, in the skiing scenes, we needed some close-up shots of Richard, which are difficult to do when actual skiing. So I had to figure out a rig to make it look like he was skiing on stage. I previously worked on Aquaman, where we used a lot of these rigs to make everyone look like they were floating underwater. So I took that concept and used what we call a tuning fork and puppeteer-ed him so it gave him the floating motions of slaloming down a hill, allowing to get the focused close-up shot of him skiing.” 

The series is executive produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Scott Nemes for AGBO, with David Weil serving as showrunner and executive producer. Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg serve as executive producers for Midnight Radio. Newton Thomas Sigel and Patrick Moran also serve as executive producers.