'Free Guy' Stunt Coordinator Chris O'Hara Talks Working on the 'Wackiest, Silliest' Movie of the Year (Exclusive)

By Stephen Andrew

Free Guy has been one of the most talked-about and beloved movies of 2021, earning nearly $120 million at the box office and landing at number one on many Top 10 lists. Recently, the film's supervising stunt coordinator and second unit director Chris O'Hara sat down with PopCulture.com and talked about what it was like to work on the "wackiest, silliest" movie of the year. "I mean, what you see on the screen was a bunch of adults in the film industry just coming up with the wackiest, silliest stuff we could think of, and trying to put it onscreen," O'Hara said. "There was no real limit to what we could achieve because it was that fictional kind of video game world."

In Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, a non-player character (NPC) who resides in Free City, which is an open-world video game. The film is an incredible blend of video-game-style action and absurd comedy, which has made it a fan-favorite since it opened in theaters in August. Speaking about working with the film's director Shawn Levy, O'Hara praised Levy's "energy" and added, "I can honestly say it's probably one of the best filmmaking experiences I've had in my career so far." For O'Hara to say something like this is a huge compliment. Over the course of his career, he has worked on a number of major movies such as Venom, Jurassic World, and The Avengers.

"When I read the script originally, it was just something that was new and fresh, and something I had never seen before," O'Hara shared. "And so, going into something like that, it was really exciting to be a part of it. And to work with Swen, our visual effects producer, or supervisor, and Shawn, it was great." He went on to say, "I had a great team underneath me that really helped out, and helped formulate a lot of the scenes in Sean's eyes. O'Hara added that "every step of the way, I cannot stress how awesome it was."

Finally, O'Hara offered some insight into the big safe house fight in Free Guy, which he says was, "from a shooting standpoint," the most "difficult" sequence to film. "The set we designed was just a beautiful set, and so walking on the ground, we wanted to keep it pristine and reflect all the lights off the ground," O'Hara explained. "And so, I think for the first... I don't know, probably 90% of what we shot, we were all trying to be really, really good. Everybody was wearing booties on their feet, so that you wouldn't mess up the floor."

"I think it all paid off, because the set was beautiful," O'Hara later continued. He then quipped, "And definitely it was worth all of the nuances of putting the booties on." Free Guy is out now on Digital, as well as being available on 4k, Blu-ray, and DVD.

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