Tina Kakadelis
The family at the center of The Righteous Gemstones is, without a doubt, dysfunctional. The series follows the Gemstone family of televangelists and their increasingly unhinged hijinks in the name of God, money, and fame. Behind every one of the Gemstones’ increasingly dangerous stunts in Seasons 3 and 4 is Stunt Coordinator Cory DeMeyers. Before he was working with jet packs and staging Civil War battles, DeMeyers’ parkour background led him to his first film/TV role on 1000 Ways to Die. In the decade-and-a-half since, DeMeyers has racked up over 100 credits and transitioned to more stunt coordinator roles. Thinking back to his first day back on 1000 Ways to Die, DeMeyers ruminates on what he wishes he would’ve known at the beginning of his career.
“I think it’s important to recognize that the work you put in at the beginning, even if you’re not seeing the fruits of your labor immediately, is going to pay off tenfold in the long run,” says DeMeyers. “It really does pay dividends if you stick it out, you know? Our business is so interesting, but it’s a numbers game. The more auditions you go to, the more opportunities you have to book something. The more you’re training, the more opportunities you have to book something. It sounds so silly, but you also have to outlast your competition. There are so many people who want to work in this business, but not everybody has the heart to stick it out until it works.”
After spending many years solely as a stunt performer, the natural thing to consider would be the role of stunt coordinator. In 2013, DeMeyers had the opportunity to work on some reshoots for Zack Snyder’s 300: Rise of an Empire. It was on that set that he got to watch legendary stunt coordinator Damon Caro as the second unit director. DeMeyers wasn’t thinking about a career in filmmaking, he was thinking about the next gig and the next cool stunt. It was on Snyder’s set that DeMeyers started thinking about the long-term career.
“I understood that being a performer, you could do that for a very long time, but it doesn’t necessarily last forever. If there’s an injury or an ailment that prevents you from doing certain things, it could inhibit your capacity to work,” says DeMeyers. “I started paying attention to what these coordinators are doing and how they’re interacting with their team and the creatives. I started filing that information away for later.”
“Kevin Scott took me under his wing on a movie called Project Power with Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I had done Mile 22 with him. I doubled this Russian assassin at the opening of the movie. I did a fire burn, I jumped out of a second-story window, I got blown up, and I did another high fall. We really just hit it off,” recounts DeMeyers. “Kevin had Project Power coming up and said, hey, I could use you on this thing, probably five weeks of work, and there’s a character you could play. Maybe you can help me build fights.”
“I worked with him and the team we had on that movie to build all the fights during principal photography. He would take me to every production meeting and tell me to pay attention and take notes. He would take me to every single scout,” describes DeMeyers. “He really held my hand through the process and prepped me to grow.”
As the two started working together more, DeMeyers began gaining confidence in the role of stunt coordinator. All of the opportunities and connections led to joining Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones as stunt coordinator. His work on that season led to his first Emmy nomination, and he’s nominated again for Season 4. Unlike other projects he has worked on, The Righteous Gemstones is unique in that the characters aren’t supposed to be competent. The stunts in this show are not the flashy, athletic action sequences seen in some of DeMeyers’ other projects, like Rebel Ridge. Things are purposefully going very wrong here, but it’s DeMeyers’ job to make sure this dysfunction is safe and serves the larger narrative purpose.
“I don’t think it’s more difficult to make things look bad. I think some fight coordinators and stunt professionals have a hard time not doing the flashy stuff, the stuff that we consider the cool stuff. It always goes back to the story,” says DeMeyers. “I consider myself a filmmaker, not just a stunt man or a stunt coordinator. I love film, and it’s story first. I always approach fight choreography or an action design from the place of, what are we doing in the stunt department to develop the characters?”
“Is it realistic within their wheelhouse of abilities and knowledge, and is it advancing the story forward? For me, it’s never wanting to do the best action. It’s literally wanting to tell the best story. If that means we have to dumb the action down or get rid of a stunt to do that, I’d rather do that because we all want to work on a great show.”
Episode 1 of Season 4 of The Righteous Gemstones takes the audience back in time to the Civil War where the Gemstone family business of scams began. The episode follows Elijah Gemstone (Bradley Cooper) as he wanders through the war, his life only spared because he killed, robbed, and stole the identity of a chaplain. The premiere episode features wartime action that The Righteous Gemstones hasn’t seen before, and it all began on DeMeyers’ kitchen counter.
“I bought these toy soldiers and I got fences from Richard Wright, our production designer. Little tiny wooden fences, fake trees, and carriages. I literally laid that battlefield out on my kitchen counter,” laughs DeMeyers. “I took photos first, put it in my iPad, and sketched where the dolly track would go, where the explosions would happen, where each of the stunts would happen. On Danny McBride’s sign off, we could start taking it to all the other departments.”
“I shot video previews on my iPhone, on my kitchen counter with all the Army men. It looked like something out of Toy Story in real life. I taped them down to paper because we wanted to show movement. My buddy had taped dental floss to the papers, and we were pulling them across the counter as the camera was countering.”
“We turned that into a digital previs that I helped do with one of the VFX artists we brought in,” continues DeMeyers. “Finally, we got to run a week of rehearsal with our team, camera, and with some of our wranglers on the horses. We were able to shoot a rehearsal on Friday, take it to the first unit so Danny could look at it and give any additional notes. We started shooting the Civil War battles Monday and Tuesday of the following week.”
For as long as filmmaking has existed, stunts have been part of the journey, but it’s only in recent years that those responsible are being given the recognition they wholeheartedly deserve. DeMeyers now has two Emmy nominations and will be in attendance for the ceremony on September 14. When asked about potentially taking the stage to accept the award, DeMeyers spoke about how meaningful it is that the vote comes from his peers.
“It would be so cool to be able to go up on that stage and accept an award just so I could thank all the people who have supported me,” DeMeyers says. “It’s not about the award itself. It’s about being able to publicly recognize everybody who’s had my back for the last 15, almost 16 years. At its core, I’m very grateful, because it’s that validation that my peer group appreciates the work I’m doing, and it gives me a little motivation to push harder and keep moving forward to continue to fuel the fire.”
