Cory DeMeyers, the Emmy-nominated supervising stunt coordinator behind The Righteous Gemstones, had a variety of ridiculous scenarios to tackle on season three of the HBO comedy about a deeply dysfunctional family that runs a Southern megachurch. There was a brawl in which one actor was fully nude. There was an elaborate car chase. But perhaps the wildest scene of all involved a monster truck called The Redeemer built specifically for the occasion. A monster truck is not to be messed with.
“You have to constantly remind even the stunt performers and the crew that, ‘Yes, everything’s going great, everything’s working the way we want it to, but let’s not get too comfortable because this is a 12,000-pound killing machine that we’re working with on set and we have to respect it and what it does,’ ” says DeMeyers.
Gemstones picked up two nominations for stunts: one for DeMeyers for outstanding stunt coordination for comedy programming and another for outstanding stunt performance for the episode “Burn for Burn, Wound for Wound, Stripe for Stripe.”
In the episode, the Gemstone children Jesse, Kelvin and Judy — played, respectively, by creator Danny McBride, Adam DeVine and Edi Patterson — have been kidnapped by the militia run by their ex-uncle (Steve Zahn). Jesse’s son Gideon (Skyler Gisondo) eventually aids in their escape in a deus ex monster truck scenario, destroying the compound with The Redeemer while his dad and siblings flee with their aunt (Kristen Johnston).
This particular monster truck was custom built for the show, DeMeyers explains, so when looking for the right driver for the scene, he went straight to one of the experts. Ryan Disharoon, now also Emmy-nominated, is a professional monster truck driver who helped construct The Redeemer. DeMeyers recruited him to drive.
“As a stunt coordinator, one of the things we do is help mitigate risk,” DeMeyers says. “We do that by getting the best people for the job and putting real plans in place for the action, and there’s no one better to drive the monster truck than the guy who built it and is doing this every weekend around the country and around the world.”
Driving on a farm in a Charleston, South Carolina, suburb is much different from driving in an arena because the pilot has less visibility from behind the super-high wheel. Meanwhile, the Gemstones crew had to safely involve stunt players and background actors to make the mayhem believable. As for the smashing that The Redeemer does, like plowing through an outhouse and a windmill? They had only one take to get that right.
While safety is a huge concern, the Gemstones set also allows for spontaneous moments of inspiration. Later in the episode, Jesse attempts to do a Starsky & Hutch-style slide over the hood of a car when he’s escaping. The idea started with McBride, and then his double, Mike Endoso, came up with a “really funny fall” in which Jesse crashes to the ground.
“He did one and Danny had a huge belly laugh, and immediately was like, ‘Yep, that’s what we’re doing,’ ” DeMeyers says.
Jokes are obviously central to much of the action in Gemstones, but, in addition to making the material funny, DeMeyers is constantly looking to enhance what’s on the page, which is often written as hyperrealistic to contrast with the humor. For instance, in the second episode of the season, he added what’s called a “sidewinder” to a chase scene, which is “when you hit the front end of a vehicle with another vehicle” at a specific point, making one of the cars spin.
While director Jody Hill originally wanted a car to T-bone a dump truck, DeMeyers says that would have been too dangerous. He suggested the sidewinder alternative, and it went off without a hitch even as a storm rolled into town. “It was the last shot of the day and we nailed it,” he says. “Everybody was stoked with that.”
Gemstones gives DeMeyers and his team an opportunity to do stunts that you don’t necessarily see in other comedies, in part because the Gemstones themselves are so wealthy. “Their quote-unquote funds as a family are unlimited, and it allows for very ridiculous situations to be created,” he says. “I think the variety of stunts we get to do on the show is probably my favorite thing about being the coordinator.”
On top of the creative outlet that the series gives DeMeyers, McBride and his company Rough House Pictures have created a real-life family environment in South Carolina, where they shoot.
“If I could work with these guys over the rest of my career on and off, I would love that because they’re just so welcoming,” DeMeyers says.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
