While filming the new Guy Ritchie movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a problem arose when it came time for Reacher star Alan Ritchson to throw down in a fight scene: No one on set looked big enough to overpower him. It’s an understandable problem because, c’mon, have you seen the guy?

LIONSGATE

In a new interview on his stunt work for the film, Ritchson revealed that he threw everything into his character and real-life war hero Anders Lassen.

That was especially true for the action sequences as the Reacher star wanted to make sure it was very clear that Lassen hated Nazis for destroying his family and that he would relish the opportunity to take down as many as he possibly could. However, when it came time for Ritchson to have a worthy opponent, that was easier said than done.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

“There was a moment where we were trying to have a guy come out of a doorway and take me down, and nobody was big enough or experienced enough to do it well,” he admits with a laugh. So he convinced his own body double [Ryan] Tarran to “put on a sailor costume and beat the crap out of me” instead.

“By the end of that fight, he and I were high-fiving because we got all the things we wanted. We got all the kills that we wanted, it was super stylish and cool, and we even got to ax a couple Nazis. That was a proud day where we just dreamed that up on the fly and it worked.”

According to Ritchson, he got so gung-ho about pitching action sequences that Ritchie got “almost angry” with him, until he pulled off a stunt sequence that was so good it ended up in the movie and the trailer.

“When you think of the action of this movie, that’s what you think of, that scene,” Ritchson said. “It’s hyper-aggressive, but it’s action-filled with a different kind of purpose than a lot of the action movies we get. I don’t think there’s a greater motivation than what Anders Lassen was fighting for.”

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare storms into theaters on April 19.