BJJ has taken black belt Dave Camarillo on a wild journey. He’s gone from training top MMA fighters to training world-famous celebrities to now working on films.
In episode 75 of Eddie Bravo’s Look Into It podcast, Camarillo details what working on John Wick 4 was like. Read below to see what this experience was like for Dave.
Dave Camarillo’s Time Working on John Wick 4
When Eddie sat down with Dave, they talked about how he trained celebrities and his latest job as a stunt coordinator. Camarillo worked as a stunt coordinator for fourteen months on the set of John Wick: Chapter 4.
He explained just how hard it was to put together a multi-million dollar action movie.
“I was on that movie for 14 months, like from start to finish,” Camarillo said. “It was without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, by far.”
Every day for over twelve hours, Dave meticulously planned and coordinated scenes with the film crew. Every scene had to be perfect, and the fighting had to look as real as possible.
Throughout the shooting of the movie, Dave got killed a total of 13 times. Every death had to be more brutal than the last.
“You need to die, and I’m saying this over and over again: the most violent death you can think of.”
Working With Keanu Reeves
For those fourteen months of shooting, Dave Camarillo was the primary trainer and grappling instructor for Keanu Reeves. On top of planning scenes and shooting, Camarillo also had to rehearse and train Keanu for each scene.
“You have to come in and hit Keanu and make it look like you’re trying to kill him, but you can’t touch him,” Camarillo explained. “Because if he goes down, then the production goes down. You’re petting a cobra.”
Shooting the film made the two great friends, and Dave would like to work on more products with this team.
Martial Arts Open Doors
Martial arts, like BJJ, have a fantastic way of opening doors for people who didn’t know existed. In the case of Dave Camarillo, he’s gone from coaching fighters and celebrities to working on films.
We can expect to hear about Dave getting more opportunities to work on big-time action movies in the future.
Bobby is martial artist for almost 20 years with a BJJ black belt under Professor Sergio Miranda. He is also a karate black and former combat sports athlete, who loves all things grappling.