It’s a common nightmare scenario: You’re alone—walking home at night, maybe, or waiting to meet someone at a bar—and someone approaches you, intending harm. They’re bigger than you, and you’ve (maybe, probably) never been in a fight before. What do you do?
Turns out, even experienced brawlers worry about being assaulted. Cara Marie Chooljian, a seasoned Hollywood stunt performer, often wonders how she would react—and she knows jujitsu. And kickboxing. And judo. “When I’m out, I think about this stuff,” she says. “A, because of my work, and B, because I want to keep myself safe.”
For her latest movie, the John Wick spinoff Ballerina, Chooljian had to fight like someone who has been trained to kill since childhood: She was the stunt double for Eve (played by Ana de Armas), an assassin who is trying to avenge her father’s death. Cue scenes involving shoot-outs, hand-to-hand combat, and even a flamethrower battle. The movie also required de Armas and Chooljian, both about 5’6″, to go toe-to-toe with John Wick himself, played by 6-foot-tall Keanu Reeves.
Choreographing fights between the two, then, proved to be an amped-up version of what anyone might do when faced with someone bigger or stronger. “What was fun for the film was thinking, ‘How would I win?’” says Chooljian. “We wanted to make it as real as possible, because the reality is that if I’m fighting a giant man, I’m not going to be able to just hit him in the face and win.”
But what about the rest of us, the people who aren’t trained in combat? WIRED asked Chooljian for some tips on what the average person could do to defend themselves in a hand-to-hand fight they can’t escape.
Drop to Your Butt (Seriously)
It might sound ridiculous, but falling down right away can throw your attacker off-guard. “If someone’s going to fight you, and then all of a sudden you sit on the ground,” she says, “they’re going to be like, ‘What the fuck?’” She recommends a favorite move from her jiujitsu training: Flop down fast, right at their feet; hook your hands behind their ankles, rock back slightly, and use both of your feet to kick them on their hip bones, knocking them flat. You can also just pull their ankles toward you to topple them; but if you can kick, your chances of getting them down greatly improve.
Get on Top
If you’re able to sweep your assailant off their feet, hopefully they’ve hit their head on the way down. Use that moment to climb on top of them, and then get to work, beating them with your elbows. (In a fight against someone much larger than you, your smaller fists aren’t going to be as effective.)
Death by a Thousand Cuts (or Scratches or Whatever)
Ultimately, you’re trying to wear your assailant out until you can get away or help comes—or, ideally, they give up. Chooljian says use whatever tactics you can. Gouge them in the eyes, scratch them in the face, knee them in the groin. “One of my favorites is the fish hook,” she says, demonstrating by pulling the side of her mouth with her finger. “Anything that could really start to beat them down.”
Use Your Legs
If falling on your ass doesn’t get the results you wanted, you have other options. If you get pinned down on an elevated surface like a table, as Eve does in Ballerina, you can use the leverage and proximity of your attacker to your advantage. Get them in what the stunt world calls a “triangle.” You know the move; you’ve probably seen it before in movies. To execute, lift your hips, wrap one leg behind the person’s neck, then wrap your other leg around it, locking your knee around your ankle. Then squeeze. “So his head is between my legs, choking him out,” Chooljian says.
Anything Can Be a Weapon if You Hold It Right
Throughout any fight, always look around for tools that can help you. The cord on a curling iron? That’ll do. A candlestick? Why not? It worked in Clue. “If I’m in a bar and I’m not trusting a situation, the first thing I’m probably going to grab is a bottle,” Chooljian says.
If All Else Fails, Go for the Groin
It’s the one move that Chooljian says is her go-to when facing bigger, stronger dudes: You kick ’em in the nuts. “It’s cliché, but you know what? It works.”
