‘The King’s Man’ director had no sympathy for on-set injuries

Shooting blockbuster action movies isn’t supposed to be easy, and while there are stringent health and safety protocols in place to ensure the talent are as safe as they can possibly be, bumps and bruises are part of the job.

Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man may have split opinion down the middle by garnering a 43% critical score and 77% user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but for the most part everyone seems to agree that the stylish and kinetic action scenes are the highlight of an otherwise polarizing prequel.

Unfortunately, the third installment in the rapidly-expanding Kingsman universe flopped at the box office after being counter-programmed into oblivion by Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections, but more content is forthcoming nonetheless.

In an interview with SlashFilm, star Harris Dickinson revealed that even though he suffered for his art while filming the spectacular set pieces, he didn’t get a shred of sympathy from his director.

“The fight I had to in No Man’s Land was in the dark and everyone had to stay quiet, it was this standoff between the Germans and the British troops… Matthew made a decision to put us all in kilts, as certain regiments actually did… I later learned they actually fought in kilts and leg warmers… Doing a fight scene in that, you kind of can’t take yourself too seriously because of what you’re wearing.

It’s impossible to sort of walk around with a stiff upper lip in that sense. So, that was tough because my knees got scraped to pieces and I remember sending Matthew a picture at the end of that couple of weeks with my blistered knees and… almost like carpet burn, and the ripped skin off my knees. And I remember sending him a picture looking for a bit of sympathy, and he was just like, ‘Ah, yeah. Well, you know, welcome to The Kingsman.’”

You’ve got to admire Vaughn’s honesty, which is a completely fair opinion when you remember that the entire Kingsman operation is built on a solid blend of irreverence and spectacle, something The King’s Man brings to the table in spades, even though the two elements are often working in direct opposition to each other.