There’s lots of action in director Guy Ritchie‘s re-imagined version of Arthur Conan Doyle‘s classic character ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, Jude Law as his loyal sidekick Watson and Rachel McAdams as Sherlock’s love interest.
“The original books are filled with adventure and twists and turns and incredibly dark criminals in a dark and exciting London,” Jude tells our own Kevin Frazier. “Watson would be more like the old fashioned pugilist boxer, trained probably by the military, and Holmes would have acquired a different group of martial arts perhaps from his studies around the world, and that kept it exciting, kept it fresh every time we had a new fight — and then by the end it just got down and dirty.”
So down and dirty, in fact, that Robert required stitches. “We had some big fight sequence in a shipyard,” explains Robert. “I think we had done too many moves in a row, [my opponent's] supposed to come up on top, and I’m supposed to block, whatever — anyway, I got some stitches.” He adds that he dished out a bit of pain himself, though not intentionally.
“Guy Ritchie told me to keep hitting him and hitting him harder until I just said, ‘I won’t do it, I won’t do this again.’ And the guy’s swelling up and he says, ‘I’m alright, son,’ and I said, ‘I know you’re alright, but I don’t feel good about it.’ I don’t want just a license to ill. … I should probably send him a bottle of wine or something.”
“I wasn’t that shocked [to hear that Robert got stitches] because he gives so much, like he goes 110 percent,” says Rachel. “When I heard he got punched in the face I thought he probably asked for it: ‘That doesn’t look real, punch me again.’”
In between fights and other scenes, Rachel reports that Robert spent some lunch breaks entertaining the crew with his Lincoln Osiris character from ‘Tropic Thunder.’
“It’s quite amazing to watch actually,” she says. “He would flip into his character in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ but he’s as Sherlock Holmes, and then the Australian underneath. We were just cracking up, he was so good at it. He can do anything.”
“Yes, I entertained the troops; I was a one-man USO,” confirms Robert. “Lunch time was a crazy time.”
Robert adds that the American and British crews complemented each other well. “I think the British contingency of the film was really demonstrative to us of the civilized, proper and enjoyable way to make a film on their turf. And then I think a couple of us yanks brought a bit of fun and naturalism and not taking ourselves too seriously in it as well, and I think it was just a really nice allied invasion.”
Watch ET for more with the stars of ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ in theaters nationwide Christmas Day! [SOURCE]
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