Stunt Coordinator Scott Rogers Talks a ‘Lot of Chaos’ Working on ‘The Matrix Resurrections,’ ‘John Wick 4,’ and ‘Batgirl’ (Exclusive)
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Scott Rogers is a stunt coordinator, stunt actor, and second unit director, who is at the very top of his field. His impressive filmography includes Spider-Man 2, Uncharted, Jackass: The Movie, The Matrix Resurrections, and the upcoming Batgirl. Rogers took the time to sit down with Showbiz Cheat Sheet to talk about his experiences working on some of his biggest recent projects, including Batgirl and Keanu Reeves-starring films The Matrix Resurrections and John Wick 4.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
How Scott Rogers entered the world of stuntwork
Rogers first discovered the world of stunts during his senior year in college at James Madison University in Virginia. He was a pole vaulter, who also took up working an internship at a television news production station. However, it wasn’t all that he hoped for it to be.
“After the internship, I realized I didn’t want to do that or actually work for a living,” Rogers said. “So, halfway through my senior year, right before I was getting ready to graduate, I actually saw an article on a stuntwoman that I desperately wish I knew who it was now. I probably have met her.”
Rogers continued: “I was just like, ‘Oh, I’ll go do that. That makes sense.’ Then, a year later, I moved to California. That was 1989, and here I am. It was actually sort of that simple. It was not an easy path, but decision-wise, it was that simple.”
He isn’t bothered that ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ didn’t earn Oscar nominations
Social media exploded into a frenzy when the Oscars 2022 nominations hit the Internet. One of the snubs included The Matrix Resurrections in the Visual Effects category. There isn’t a category for stuntwork, although many industry folks continue to question that omission year after year. However, Rogers doesn’t need a statue to validate his work.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to do Keanu’s last three movies,” Rogers said. “John Wick 3, Matrix, and then John Wick 4. The same thing, I did an interview about this exact subject after John Wick 3, which a lot of people felt our department, we’re the only on-screen craft that is not recognized by the Oscars. It personally doesn’t matter to me.”
Rogers continued: “Would I like to have a little gold statue on the corner of my desk to tell my grandkids about? Sure. But, is it really that important to me? Not really. It’s not why I do the job. It does not move me forward, personally.”
Scott Rogers breaks down the motorcycle chase in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and Lana Wachowski’s style
Showbiz’s Isaac Awards 2022 nominated the motorcycle chase sequence in The Matrix Resurrections for Best Action Sequence. Rogers explained what went into creating that scene, including filmmaker Lana Wachowski‘s directorial style.
“Lot of chaos,” Rogers said. “Lana [Wachowski], her style is different from most and it’s developed over time. So, I wasn’t part of the first three Matrix [movies]. I had some really good friends that were very heavily involved in the first three Matrixes, especially the Mr. Smith fight in Matrix 2. So, I knew quite a bit of the process, but now her process is very different. It’s more organic.”
Rogers continued: “That was a more planned out, very scheduled, very storyboarded, very mapped out sequence. This one was very not that. Very much more organic and you’d kind of show up. We prepped a number of gags. People’s cars sliding into people and yanking them back. People diving off of trucks and getting slapped back and stuck to the truck and the car crashes.”
“It’s a real honor to be part of the process with her and with Warner Bros. letting us just do, and San Francisco giving us free rein,” Rogers stated. “We had two picture helicopters, a camera helicopter, a drone, a Russian arm, camera bikes, biscuit rigs, and we just had so many things. Seventy stunt people, hundreds of extras.”
Rogers explained that it was a “real team effort” pulling it all off. Tim Trella worked on car stunts, while Kyle Weishaar took over the rooftop sequence. As a result, Rogers could work on other things. However, he noted that his style is also “very fluid and flexible.”
“It plays well in the Lana Wachowski moviemaking style, but also, right after Matrix, I did Uncharted and we just wrapped up John Wick 4 and all of those were very similar,” Rogers said. “Just thinking on your feet, changing.”
Lana Wachowski gave ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ stunt department ‘freedom to create’
Showbiz asked Rogers about the atmosphere more locally within the stunt department on The Matrix Resurrections. He explained that Wachowski gave him “a lot of freedom to create.” However, he noted that she still has a very particular vision in her mind
“She has her vision and you’re trying to ultimately support that vision,” Rogers said. “But, she does give you that room. When you have 100 people, you have 100 different ideas. Some of them are good and some of them are not as good. So, you end up trying to find a way to matriculate the information up the chain of command to her.”
Rogers further explained his role: “So, my job is not just to come up with the ideas and coordinate, but to facilitate. Then, to take the information from her down to the team, and then take the information from the team and present it back to her. You’re kind of a conduit.”
Rogers added: “If you do the job right, you can filter out the best ideas and present them. Also, take what are the most important aspects that the director is looking for and communicate them to the team. You’re sort of a filter, I guess, if you’re doing the job right.”
Scott Rogers explains what it means for him to become a part of ‘The Matrix’ franchise
The Matrix Resurrections is a return to one of the biggest franchises ever made. Rogers talked about what it personally meant to be a part of the series.
“Personally, the first Matrix is definitely top five, if not top three movies,” Rogers stated. “I don’t watch very many movies multiple times. I could watch that numerous times, and I have. So, just to be part of what I think is one of the best movies ever made.”
Rogers recalled that over his “30-something year career,” he worked with some of the biggest actors in the world, including Hugh Jackman and Reeves. He called both actors “really great guys,” but compared meeting actors like Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton to the experience of working on The Matrix Resurrections.
“Those people, to me, are like, ‘Oh, wow,'” Rogers said. “Matrix was sort of that. I was never going to work on Matrix. There was never going to be another one. I was never going to be a part of it. Then, weird things happen, twists happen, and here I am. It was very quick.”
However, The Matrix Resurrections brought Rogers on board last minute, not giving him much time to get his ducks in a row.
“Someone else had been hired and it wasn’t working out,” Rogers confirmed. “So, they brought me in sort of last minute. There was no time to think. Pretty much, prepped the movie in a month. We hit the ground running in January, I think the 2nd of 2020 … We had to do everything in one month.”
Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss had very different approaches to the rooftop jump
The scene in The Matrix Resurrections that finds Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss jumping off a rooftop shocked audiences around the world. Rogers explained that the actors don’t approach stunts in the same way, but it wouldn’t be possible without the production, studio, and the city of San Francisco working together to pull it off. After all, they had to jump off the AT&T building.
“Keanu’s more mechanical,” Rogers stated. “He’s more like, ‘Hey, this is the line and it’s a quarter-inch tech-12 line and it’s rated at 12,000 pounds.’ You could throw all these numbers at him and he’d be like, ‘Okay.’ He’d look at it and be like, ‘Oh, all right. Makes sense.'”
However, Moss had a very different journey to making that jump possible.
“She didn’t want none of that registered to her,” Rogers said. “To her, it was all about me. She was like, ‘If I can trust you, I can trust this. But, if I can’t trust you, I can’t trust that.’ It put a lot more weight on that, I won’t lie. It was one of the bigger things I’ve ever had to prepare. That was a struggle, not a bad struggle.”
Rogers explained that the “struggle” was simply putting in the work to make it happen. However, his daughter pulling off the jump helped calm Moss’ nerves.
“One of the things I was fortunate in, my daughter is Carrie-Anne’s size and happened to be in between jobs,” Rogers recalled. “She wanted to do the stuff. It also helped get the credibility with it all with Carrie-Anne, with the studio, with everybody, when my daughter was actually doing the jumps for testing and everything for Carrie-Anne.”
He knew that he needed Moss’ trust, so he put that into practice from the very beginning.
“The first day I met Carrie-Anne, we were doing some motorcycle stuff and I told the FX guys, ‘Hey, we need to build a stand. I want it to look really nice. I want it to be super stable,'” Rogers said. “Because everything I do from this point until then is going to be judged. Not because she’s looking at me in judgment, but everything had to be, ‘You’re safe with me.'”
Rogers added: “I knew it going in, so it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re just going to take my word for it and we’re going to do this.’ No. I had more respect for her than that.”
Scott Rogers recalls some of his favorite moments, including working with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss
Showbiz asked Rogers if he had a favorite moment working with folks like Reeves on the set. However, he explained that he doesn’t have one particular favorite moment. Rogers and Reeves worked together to pull off horse, motorcycle, and car stunts, including what he referred to as a “massive car sequence” for John Wick 4.
“We finished it, he looked at me, and said, ‘Man, you pulled it off,'” Rogers recalled. “There are moments like that that are cool. Carrie-Anne, when she jumped, she never even looked over the building. Never even looked over the edge. So, when she jump is over, she’s there for about a minute, and then they come back. You don’t know what you’re getting back.”
Rogers continued: “I didn’t know if she was going to come back blubbering, crying her eyes out, or freaking out or anything. So, that moment when we pulled it off, we did it. That day, we did it a dozen times. So, the sun’s up and it’s fairly euphoric that we pulled this s*** off. Nobody could believe it. There are moments like that. But, is there a favorite one? No. I’ve been fortunate to do this a lot.”
He explains what it’s like working with family on the set of ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and ‘John Wick 4’
Rogers has a wife and four kids, who all were on the set of The Matrix Resurrections. They each received various stunt credits for their work. His 17-year-old son had the opportunity to stand up on the rooftop to watch the jump and run in the crowds along with his mom.
Rogers’ oldest son, Zachry, has a utility stunts credit. Meanwhile, he explained, “when they jump off the box truck, he’s one of those that gets slammed into the box truck. When Carrie-Anne slides up to pick up Keanu on the motorcycle and those three guys get blasted back, one of those is my son, Cort.”
However, this isn’t the first time that Rogers brought his family on the set. Zachry and Ella’s first job was on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. He pointed to the scene where Spider-Man swoops in and saves two children as they walk into the street.
Rogers explained that having his family on the set “is great.” He travels for work often, so having them travel with him is a good thing. A couple of his kids even had the opportunity to be in John Wick 4.
“We just wrapped on John Wick 4 last summer and the two that are in college, basically their summer job was to get shot in the head by John Wick multiple times,” Rogers said with a laugh.
Scott Rogers calls ‘John Wick 4’ ‘bigger’ than ‘John Wick 3’
John Wick is one of the wildest modern action franchises around. Showbiz asked Rogers what he’s able to share about how much bigger John Wick 4 is than its predecessor. He confirmed, “It’s bigger than John Wick 3.” He praised filmmaker Chad Stahelski’s mythological knowledge and status as a movie buff, as well as his “relentlessness.”
“He’s not willing to just rest on his laurels and go, ‘All right, well you know, it’s the fourth one. I’m just going to leave the first three and cash the check,'” Rogers said. “No. I think he worked harder on this one than he did on the last ones.”
He explained how difficult it was working on John Wick 3 and 4.
“It’s hard,” Rogers said. “When you see Keanu, you see John Wick labored. That’s how it feels working the movie. You’re shooting nights, it’s generally in the cold, it’s all because the texture of the movie is that miserable situation (laughs). Most of the time, you’re in that situation.”
However, he noted that all of that hard work is “very rewarding.”
Rogers added: “Luckily, it’s Keanu Reeves, who is very gracious. The guy comes to work, he works hard, and he’s very gracious to the people around him. It’s a big movie.”
Keanu Reeves got ‘too good’ at driving on ‘John Wick’
Rogers explained that he always looks for the “hook” that drives his interest in the material that he’s working on. He talked about the scrappy nature of the John Wick films that drive how he approaches the film. However, Reeves got a little too good at pulling off the car stunts.
“We did all this driving stuff and Keanu became a really good driver,” Rogers said. “But, he became too good. I was like, ‘when John Wick falls down and he barely, painfully, gets up, that’s what we want to see.’ If he hopped up and just took off running, nobody wants to see that.”
Rogers continued: “So when we’re doing this driving and he got so good and it was so clean, I was like, ‘No. We don’t want that. Nobody wants to see John Wick as a professional driver.’ We want to see him barely making it, barely hanging on. Slamming into things, almost dying. That’s sort of the hook for John Wick.”
He can’t believe that the OG crew are still doing ‘Jackass’
Jackass Forever marks the fourth feature film installment of the main franchise. Rogers has a utility stunts credit on Jackass: The Movie and writing credit on Jackass Number Two. However, he wasn’t available for Jackass 3D. He hasn’t seen the latest sequel yet but is shocked that they’re still doing these demanding stunts.
“I can’t believe they’re still doing it,” Rogers said. “They’re maybe a hair younger than me, but basically my age, and I’m like, ‘I wouldn’t be doing that stuff now.’ I don’t do stunts anymore. But, they’re great guys.”
Rogers has nothing but positive comments regarding working with producer Spike Jonze, the cast, and crew.
“It’s a great environment,” Rogers stated. “They’re just trying to do fun things with their friends, basically. I did a bunch of Adam Sandler movies, and it’s different, but it’s also kind of the same. They’re making entertainment. They’re not making high-art. They’re making entertainment.”
Scott Rogers called ‘Batgirl’ the ‘anti-superhero movie’
At the time of the interview, Rogers was in Glasgow, Scotland filming Batgirl. He admitted that he isn’t a huge comic book buff, but he enjoys the “drama of comics.” Rogers said that the “hook” for Batgirl is that it’s the “anti-superhero movie,” because nobody has powers.
“For Batgirl, for me, the hook is this is the anti-superhero movie,” Rogers said. “Because nobody is a superhero. Nobody has been bitting by a spider, nobody has been in a vat of acid, or whatever. She has no superpower. So, you really dive into that.”
He explained that he had to implement creativity for the stunts for a “normal” character without powers. However, Rogers said that he likes the drama of that and used a scene in Batgirl as an example. Additionally, he said that there’s “very little CG” in the movie.
“We just did a fight with Leslie [Grace], she’s in the middle of a fight and then this thing happens and she has to turn from this vicious fight to this other character during this other moment and then back into the fight,” Rogers said. “So, the fight sets that up. The fight is not the important part. That’s just punching and kicking, or whatever that is. It’s that drama.”
Rogers pointed to some movies that don’t take the size of the performers into consideration for the stuntwork. However, he incorporates that into how the characters should fight.
“Like, 355, I haven’t seen, but if I see a 110-pound girl fight a 6’4” dude and have him drop, I don’t buy it,” Rogers said. “I go the other way. What are her strengths? She’s got her legs. If a 110-pound girl did a spinning roundhouse and hit me in the head, it’d drop me.”
Rogers concluded: “We all like Bourne because of the creative way he fights. The creative way he solves the problems. I took that approach to this. It’s fun. I much prefer it. It’s much like John Wick, much like Uncharted, like those. These are reality, ground-based stories that you’re really doing. The actors are doing the stuff. It’s super cool.”
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