Action man Richard Norton switches from acting to training others to fight in films
MELBOURNE-based martial arts expert Richard Norton has swapped his acting career to train some of the world’s biggest names to fight in films.
Fiona Byrne
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MELBOURNE-based martial arts expert Richard Norton has swapped his acting career to train some of the world’s biggest names to fight in films.
Norton, 68, had a distinguished 30-year career in action films before he made the transition into fight training and choreography.
In recent years, he has worked with the likes of Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, Charlie Hunnam, Will Smith, Ben Affleck and Scarlett Johansson.
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“I did 60 movies in the ’80s and ’90s, but the older you get the less roles there are unless you are playing someone’s dad or an ageing gangster, and I get that,” Norton said.
“I was lucky enough to learn what it is like behind the camera and that is where my main career is now.
“The last five years have been crazy since Mad Max: Fury Road. Who knows what will be next? It is an exciting little journey.”
Norton recently returned to Melbourne, where he is based with his wife Judy Green, after working with Hunnam and Affleck in Hawaii on the film Triple Frontier.
He was also a fight co-ordinator on the hits Suicide Squad, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Ghost in the Shell.
“My job is to train the actors up, choreograph the fights and then teach the actors how to perform the fights and make sure they look good on set,” Norton said.
“I just give them the tools …. I teach them the skill set they need to perform certain fights, so then when I get to choreograph the fights they already know how to execute the moves. I always say, ‘What you do and what you put on celluloid is there forever’.
“There was nobody more committed than Margot Robbie. And the level of excellence someone like Scarlett expects from themselves is second to none.”
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