Macbeth

How did you get in to fight directing?

I went to drama school, I wanted to be an actress and part of your training is in stage fighting and I was spotted quite early as being somewhat unusual when the instructor said, “You look very feminine but you fight like a man!" While I was still at drama school, people were asking me to teach them how to arrange fights and my fight instructor warned me that I shouldn't be doing that unless I was a trained fight director. He said there had never been a female fight director. I thought “Ooh, that’s interesting,” but obviously at the time I wanted to act so I carried on, but then I decided it wasn’t really for me so side-stepped into fight directing.

There are a lot of different skills you have to have to be a fight director. When I was training, you had to have the highest certificate in stage fighting possible; you had to have modern day fencing qualifications in foil, epée and sabre; you had to be a fencing coach as well, and I even took part in a fencing competition with people of international ranking. I was an apprentice to a fight director for four years, I had to have my equity card, a martial arts to brown belt level (I did jujitsu), fencing qualifications and a first aid certificate. So you’re attempting quite a high level! Then when I’d done all of that I had to sit a two week assessment course, in which the fight directors who already exist set me things to do to decide whether they thought I was good enough to join them or not. I got through all that, and finally got on the register of equity fight directors.

Currently, there is only one other female fight director, who came up not long after I became a fight director, and I think there’s another female in training now. If anyone, male or female, asks me about being a fight director, I’d advise them not to be a fight director if they want to actually fight – be a stunt man instead. If your interest is really in choreography and in the psychology of fighting, then yes, you probably want to be a fight director. But if your interest is in doing the action yourself, forget it, because as a fight director you just don’t get to actually fight.