Matthew Vaughn: ‘Ralph Fiennes is a natural with action sequences’

Matthew Vaughn has praised Ralph Fiennes for acing the action sequences in The King’s Man.

In the prequel to Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Golden Circle, the veteran British actor plays the Duke of Oxford, a gentleman warrior who helps guide his son Conrad through the world of espionage.

With the exception of some wand-wielding scenes in the Harry Potter franchise, the 56-year-old is best known for starring in intimate dramas than blockbusters, but Vaughn has insisted Fiennes is so fit he was more than capable of handling the action scenes.

“He’s fit as f**k… He’s been doing yoga two hours every day for 35 years,” the director said to Empireonline.com. “There’s one scene, which is a homage to a Jackie Chan moment, where we put a safety harness and a winch on him. After we shot it, the safety guy said, ‘He didn’t even use the winch.’ Ralph did it himself.”

The Kick-Ass filmmaker added that Fiennes was “like a duck to water for the action,” and explained that he had practice with sword fighting scenes because he was well-versed with those in the theatre.

Elsewhere in the chat, Vaughn noted that he cast The English Patient actor in The King’s Man because he’d been hoping to work with him for years and thought he would have made a great James Bond when he was younger.

“Ralph is a brilliant actor. And his secret weapon, and I don’t think enough people appreciate it, is that he’s very f**king funny. He had no problem going into the murkiness of Kingsman quite happily. He can do it all,” he gushed.
The King’s Man, which also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Gemma Arterton and Djimon Hounsou, is set for release in February 2020.