If you didn’t see Charlize Theron in 2017’s Atomic Blonde, you definitely need to. It was arguably one of the most intense action films of the year, and one of the most physically demanding on the film’s lead Charlize Theron. If you thought Atomic Blonde would shock you with killer-intense stunts performed by a light-haired Charlize lookalike, you've got it all wrong. Charlize sold her role as Agent Lorraine Broughton by taking on the fatal kicks and punches herself. Charlize Theron stars in the film as Lorraine Broughton, the titular atomic blonde, a hardened cipher of an MI6 agent. She’s a walking weapon, with advanced combat skills and a good eye for. Badass women continue taking names this summer as Charlize Theron 's action spy-thriller, 'Atomic Blonde,' hits theaters on Friday. Charlize Theron is bringing new meaning to the phrase 'fight like a girl,' by doing all her own stunts in the upcoming film, Atomic Blonde. In a new behind-the-scenes video, the Oscar-winning.

Reporter turns stuntman in Atomic Blonde stunt training

News.com.au US correspondent James Law prepares to take on the stuntmen from Atomic Blonde.Source:Supplied

Movie Atomic Blonde

IT’S not often that I turn up to work in my trackie-daks. But I’ve been told to wear “loose, comfortable clothing” for today’s assignment and, once I cop a look at the burly men I will be going toe-to-toe with, I am not going to argue.

I have been sent to the 87Eleven gym, found in a nondescript warehouse in Los Angeles, where I’ve been convinced that I will be turned into an action star after only an hour’s practice.

I am a less-than-coordinated man, so I’m less than convinced anyone would believe that it’s me beating up these four musclebound men.

87Eleven Action Design is described as a “one-stop school for action movie stars”. Its team members have acted as stunt doubles for Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games movies, and helped revive Keanu Reeves’ career by turning him into a fighting machine for John Wick.

Charlize Theron kicks butt as a lethal MI6 assassin in Atomic Blonde.Source:Supplied

Most recently, they worked intensively with Charlize Theron for her kick-arse spy thriller Atomic Blonde, which is out today on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD and on demand.

Charlize Theron Atomic Blonde Netflix

The South African beauty spent three hours in the gym each day for nearly two months to hone the moves she would need to transform into a deadly secret agent for the movie.

While the weight benches and boxing gloves imply that I’m in an everyday gym, the fake handguns and prosthetic severed arms prove I’m somewhere entirely different.

Charlize Theron Atomic Blonde Hair

After meeting the stunt team, I am invited onto the gym’s sprung floor to learn a routine that seems impossible to pull off. First, shoot two men dead. Second, kick another aggressor in the crotch. Third, throw him to the ground. Fourth, cop a headbutt from another goon before smashing him in the shin with a crate.

Oh, and the piece de resistance? Knock out the last man standing by smashing a glass bottle over his head, then walk away unscathed. No problem.

News.com.au’s James Law tries to hide the fact that he’s packing it as he prepares to take on a horde of stuntmen.Source:Supplied

But as the stunt team walk me through each stage of the action, the sequence starts to make sense.

And as I rehearse each move, the secrets behind movie stunts are slowly revealed.

The kick in the crotch? If you aim for the inner thigh and the recipient sells it as being excruciatingly painful, the audience will think you’ve struck him right where it hurts.

Averting a left hook.Source:Supplied

A smash across the face with a crate? Well, if the camera is watching at the right angle and the stuntman groans loud enough, the audience will assume you’ve made contact with his jaw.

Getting thrown over another guy’s shoulder? While the throw is fast, a good stuntman will actually place his colleague onto the mat with all the grace of a ballroom dancer.

What lifts these sequences from choreography to a bruising melee are the stuntmen themselves.

Uh oh. Here comes a headbutt.Source:Supplied

While they often act as Hollywood stars’ doubles, these stuntmen are stellar actors in their own right, using their body movements and well-timed grunts and groans to make the scenes real.

And don’t be fooled into thinking what they do is all sleight of hand. One stuntman drilled me until I gave him a forceful kick in the inner thigh — no higher — and another wouldn’t let us shoot the scene until he was convinced I would smash a glass bottle over his head with force. Templates for after effects free.

(The glass bottle, as it turns out, is made of sugar. It’s so fragile that it will smash to smithereens in your hand if you don’t hold it right.)

James Law prepares to do some damage with a glass bottle.Source:Supplied

Atomic Blonde is jam-packed with ambitious fight scenes, which the 87Eleven team designed. One of the most memorable is the brutal seven-minute stairwell sequence where Theron vanquishes foe after foe in what looks to the audience like one long take.

“She worked extremely hard,” the movie’s stunt co-ordinator Sam Hargraves told news.com.au of the Oscar winner.

Charlize Theron worked hard to appear in all the fight scenes.Source:Supplied

“Maybe Keanu [Reeves], but not a lot of actors in the business train as hard as she did for this role and that was what allowed a lot of this action to live and breathe the way it did and it allowed Dave to shoot it how he wanted to, which is extended takes and you could hang on the actor doing it.

“You didn’t have to cut away to a double or go in tight or use editing techniques to hide her inadequacies. You could just let it live and she made it not just live but come alive in a very exciting way — but that was because of the training she put in in the gym.

“There’s times where you have to use a stunt double, but she wanted to do everything.

“She was fully committed to that character and it shows in the movie. She just sells it, 100 per cent.”

Atomic Blonde's Stunt co-ordinator Sam Hargrave's speaks with James Law

And, so came the time for me to follow in Charlize’s footsteps.

Charlize Theron Atomic Blonde Scene

After a final rehearsal, Hargraves himself got behind the camera to shoot my final fight scene.

When he yelled “action”, I sprung into action, picking off two men with my Glock, swerving away from a left hook, throwing a man to the ground and getting smashed up against some cardboard boxes. And there’s little more satisfying in this world then smashing a glass bottle over another man’s skull.

He had it coming.Source:Supplied

Atomic Blonde Sequel

And here’s the proof that these experts can turn anyone into a stuntman. When the shoot was over, I was begging to go again.

Atomic Blonde is out on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD and on demand today.

Don’t mess with the Atomic Blonde.Source:Supplied

If you thought Atomic Blonde would shock you with killer-intense stunts performed by a light-haired Charlize lookalike, you've got it all wrong. Charlize sold her role as Agent Lorraine Broughton by taking on the fatal kicks and punches herself. 'The entire stunt team was very pleasantly surprised at her overall physical ability,' stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave told People. 'She was extremely tough; she did 95 percent of all of her own fighting.'

So how did she get her body into heart-crushing shape? The seemingly ageless 41-year-old trained with eight trainers (in the same facility that Keanu Reeves was prepping in for John Wick 2). Six weeks before filming began, she broke a sweat for about two to three hours everyday doing martial arts workouts.

In addition to kicking butt in the gym, and cracking two teeth in the process, Theron was diligent with her diet. 'During training she was very strict with her diet, very strict with her training regimen, and she was trying to stay lean and fighting fit because she had so much action,' Hargrave said. 'And she had a lot of scenes where she was wearing very little so she wanted to be in the best shape possible and she trained very hard for that.' Trying to get shredded like Charlize? Don't miss these 30 Breakfast Secrets For Weight Loss.