How Stunt Expert and ‘Runner’ Director Scott Waugh Pulled Off Explosive Set Pieces With Alan Ritchson: ‘Find the Heart’ and Create ‘A Beautiful Spectacle’

Scott Waugh thinks about big set pieces differently than other filmmakers.

Waugh began his career as a stunt performer at 12 years old, following in the footsteps of his father, career Hollywood stuntman Fred Waugh. Gaining enough prestige and respect in the industry himself to become the president of the elite organization Stunts Unlimited, Scott retired at 30 in order to direct.

Since then, Scott has helmed several high-profile and high-octane movies, like 2012’s “Act of Valor,” 2014’s “Need for Speed” and 2023’s “Expend4bles,” and wrangled some larger-than-life personalities, like Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jackie Chan and John Cena.

Industrywide, former stuntmen have also made a name for themselves as capable action directors, from “John Wick” helmer Chad Stahelski and “The Fall Guy” director David Leitch to “Extraction” filmmaker Sam Hargrave.

Scott’s latest feature is “Runner,” in theaters Friday via Angel Studios. In it, “Reacher” star Alan Ritchson plays a former soldier named Hank who must work with Ben (Owen Wilson) to deliver an organ to a girl in need. Unfortunately, a cartel gets involved, and plenty of action sparks from there.

The director spoke with Variety about how he breaks down action in his movies, given his background as a stunt performer.

Scott Waugh on the set of “Runner”

Vince Valitutti / Courtesy of Angel Studios

Scripted stunts are just the beginning.

“When I read screenplays with action set pieces, I kind of blow through them, because I like to reverse engineer them. I know what the ins and outs are, story-wise, and, more importantly, what’s going on emotionally with the characters through the action. So what I do is I get to location scout first, because the location is so paramount to action that you need to find a really interesting location that can re-engineer and make something more exciting than what’s on the page, rather than trying to put a round peg into a square hole. Sometimes writers write a really incredible, elaborate action set piece that takes place in a subway, and you have no idea how you’re ever going to get the rights to be in a subway. So you say, “What else can we do that confines the set piece, but also adds a whole new dimension to it?’ With ‘Runner,’ I went down four weeks before anybody got to Australia. All I did was, by myself, look for locations, trying to find locations that would be really interesting and then taking pictures and sending those to my writers to say, ‘look what I found instead of this,’ or ‘look at this street that I found.’ Then we really start to workshop that idea around the new location.”

Identify the emotion behind the action.

After they write, it’s really more about me and the stunt coordinator designing and choreographing and saying, ‘What are the emotional beats of the action?’ We want to see him lose the case with the liver in it. The bad guy gets the case. They’re getting closer to the case, and then they’re farther apart from the case, and we’re designing around the most important thing in the action set piece — instead of just beating the heck out of each other. There’s a purpose for it. I think once you find the purpose of the action, then the story starts to write itself. And then you’re just trying to find more unique ways to tell that story in action so it doesn’t feel redundant.

Scott and his father Frank Waugh

Courtesy of Scott Waugh

Consider what training the characters would have.

“Every time I’m talking to my actors, it’s always about your character and what is your character doing in this. I always start there. Owen’s character, Ben Bishop, is not a Navy SEAL. He’s been divorced three times and just likes delivering these organs. So when a big fight breaks out, what would that character do? Get on the ground and get the hell out of there, right? Crawl! So we would talk about that and I’d say, ‘OK, now let’s make sure it’s safe for you, and I want to make sure there aren’t stunt guys piling on you, but you need to be crawling through the melee to try to get the case.’ That approach is the approach I take with all my actors. ‘Let’s start with character. What would your character be doing right now, and what are his physical capabilities?’ Sometimes they’re not as heroic as Hank.”

Respect the actors doing the work.

“What’s really fascinating with me when I’m talking with action icons is there’s a respect that comes. I give them respect, but they also know this kid’s been doing it for his whole life. So I can do things and put them in a place that might feel dangerous, but I can show them how to do so that it’s safe and still looks great. When I’m working with actors, even the older ones like Sly, I respect them. But he also goes, ‘What do you think, kid?’ He knows I’ve lived it, so I’m never going to do something or ask him to do something that I wouldn’t do myself.”

Watch the trailer for “Runner” below.