Colin Firth warned the stuntman on ‘The Kingsman: Secret Service’ he had "never thrown a punch" and his legs were for getting "to and from the car".
The 55-year-old actor played secret service agent Harry Hart, who was forced to defend himself by embarking on a one-man killing spree in a church in the action spy-thriller, and felt compelled to warn professional martial arts teacher Damien Walter to "be patient" with him, because he’d never been in a real fight before.
Damien – who worked opposite Daniel Craig on ‘Skyfall’ and Michael Fassbender on the forthcoming ‘Assasin’s Creed’ movie – exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "Colin Firth was great, I spent three months with him teaching him the fight in the church. We spent two to three hours a day every day, for three months.
"The funny thing with that was when he came in [on the first day] he said, ‘I’ve never thrown a punch in my life, never done anything with my legs, my legs are for getting me to and from my car, and that’s it.’ And I said, ‘OK’. So we literally started from scratch. He said ‘Be patient with me’."
And Damien – who has since performed a back flip over a speeding race car, ahead of the annual Formula E event which took place at ePrix in Paris last month – was able to fully prepare Colin for the intense scene, by taking it "step by step".
He added: "We were told it’s going to be as violent as possible so make it as violent as you can. So the way we choreographed it, we literally did make it as violent as possible… So we took it step by step By the end of it he was quite into it. It’s about teaching people in the right way. If you can break something down enough they’ll get it."
However, Colin wasn’t completely telling the truth, as he once lunged at Hugh Grant when he fought for the affections of Renée Zellweger in ‘Bridget Jones Diary’, but the scuffle ended with them both falling into a fountain.
The Formula E season concludes in London with a double-header in Battersea Park on 2nd and 3rd July. For more information go to www.fiaformulae.com
Colin Firth had first fight on Kingsman
