‘Love Hurts’ director Jonathan Eusebio balances humor and violence

Featuring a murderers’ row of supporting cast members like Marshawn Lynch and Sean Austin, Love Hurts puts all of its characters through the wringer, and its mix of earnest sentiment and dynamic action is exactly what appealed to Eusebio’s sensibilities. “What I tried to do was have an emotional journey throughout the movie and have this natural crescendo when it came to the fight scenes,” he shared. Eusebio spoke with JoySauce about how the characters informed the film’s fight scenes, how he balances the romantic and action elements and his transition from doing stunt work to sitting in the director’s chair.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length, and contains mild spoilers for Love Hurts.

Zachary Lee: At my theater, there was an equal amount of gasps and laughter, which I think speaks to the ways you tried to balance the humor and brutal violence. How did you balance those differing tones?
Jonathan Eusebio: Since I came from a stunt background, every time I designed something with a high level of octane action, I wanted to juxtapose it with moments of levity. That’s always been instilled in my sensibility of telling a story. I like to subvert expectations and how a lot of these contradicting emotions take place.

ZL: You shared when working on Hitman: Agent 47 that when it comes to depicting action, what works for reality doesn’t always work for film. There has to be this process of taking realistic choreography but translating it cinematically. How did that influence your approach to action here?
JE: It is an interesting study of contrasts. In real fighting, you’re taught to be tight and not telegraph anything. When you’re going at another opponent, you’re trying to stop their energy, whereas, with movie fighting, it’s the opposite; it’s much more like a dance, where there’s a sort of flow, and the fighters are complimenting each other. We can use wide angles and want there to be a lot of space for people to work and bounce off of each other. In movie making, I want to make sure that people can see the emotions on the face as well. It’s fun to play with tone in movie fights as well, and with Love Hurts, we often swap between comedy and grit. 

What I tried to do was have an emotional journey throughout the whole movie and have this natural crescendo. The fights at the beginning are a bit more steady and playful. Marvin is just trying to escape, but by the time we get to the fights at the end, it’s more chaotic. We use handheld cameras, so the choreography feels a little more visceral.

ZL: Having done stunt work for so long and being well-versed in the language of cinematic action, what goes into structuring a fight when you are given free rein? I’m sure there are lots of directions you can go in. I never thought I’d see a fight from the perspective of a microwave, but your film delivered on that front.
JE: [Laughs] I give the props to my stunt team; I’ve been working with them since Hitman: Agent 47. We have a language with each other that comes from the years we’ve spent building together. We eat, train, and watch the same movies together, so our sensibilities are very similar.

The fact that the action is so varied speaks to the variety of our backgrounds, too. When you look at the characters in the film, they all have different fighting styles, and my team and I thought about the personalities of the characters and how their action fits their personality.

ZL: I noted that Ariana’s character seems quite happy to use a Taser, but Ke doesn’t use any sort of weapon.
JE: I tried to have the more chivalrous characters use non-lethal methods. If you watch and pay attention, you’ll see that this choice affects the way they fight. Then you have someone like Daniel Wu’s character who uses everything from a boba straw to a baseball bat to kill people.

ZL: Feel free to tell me if I’m reading into this, but it’s not lost on me that the film, starring two people of color in the leading roles, reckons with the frailty of the American dream, how, at the start, Marvin feels like he’s “made it,” only for his past to shatter the peace he’s built. It’s made me think a lot about how people in this country, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, often have to fight to retain their peace, but it can be taken at any moment.
JE: Growing up as an Asian American in the U.S., I watched a lot of Golden Harvest productions and Shaw Brothers films. I’m proud of the fact that we have a very diverse cast; I picked people who I thought would embody the characters the best. I grew up around different types of people and know the power of having different voices when you’re making something, and I wanted this film to reflect that. My sensibility for action is from Eastern action cinema, but my default for storytelling is from the West, where I grew up. The film is a unique combination of both of these sensibilities.

I’m proud of the fact that we have a very diverse cast; I picked people who I thought would embody the characters the best. I grew up around different types of people and know the power of having different voices when you’re making something, and I wanted this film to reflect that.

ZL: You have the action choreography down, but I read you also took classes with a dramaturg to grow your skills as a director. What was that experience like?
JE: As a second unit director, it’s different because the rules of a given world are gifted to me, and I'm following the parameters presented. In that work, especially for stunts, I’m telling the performers where to go and tell them how to react and move. It’s almost like result directing, but I can’t apply that when I’m the director of a film; what I just outlined is the opposite of an actor's process. An actor's process is more internal. Since I came from a stunt background, I wanted to lean into this interior process and learn what it means to steward and be in charge of all these emotional performances, in addition to the physical ones. 

ZL: You graduated as a bio major from UC Irvine before pivoting to this stunt work vocation.
JE: My parents were nurses, and growing up, there was a real emphasis on science, getting your education, putting your head down, and working hard. Filmmaking is the complete opposite; you have to put yourself out there.