How Hazal Nehir leapt from backyard training to a Hollywood awards ceremony
How did you get involved with 6 Underground?
How many different locations were you needed at during the shoot?
We went to Florence, Rome and Taranto in Italy, as well as Budapest in Hungary. The filming went on for a few months and the last part of the shoot I was in Rome for a month. I really enjoyed the Rome part because we had been there for a month - I felt more comfortable in the job and I had got used to everything. During the weekends, we were going out training.
Hazal Nehir
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
Did you have loads of time to prepare each scene?
A couple of days before each scene, we went to the spot check to give us an idea of what we wanted to do and organise the lines. It took us about 40 minutes to one hour to prepare each scene before we started shooting. We had to do about six or seven takes for every jump.
Who was your main stunt coordinator on the set?
We had a stunt coordinator called Andy Cheng, who checked the safety, but Storror organised the parkour set-ups. It is easier for us when somebody who really knows parkour organises it. Storror found me jumps as well as finding my own lines and jumps. There were huge sets with hundreds of people watching me and it was hard to get used to that feeling.
I didn't realise that I had to talk when Michael Bay came up to me. I didn't know what to say!
What was your own personal experience of working with Michael Bay?
My English wasn't really good; I didn't know what to do and Michael Bay was talking really fast and loud in front of me. In the morning during one of the Rome days, I found out that I had to act. I didn't realise that I had to talk when Michael Bay came up to me. I didn't know what to say! It was just one sentence, but it was really embarrassing, and he was trying to correct me. Parkour parts are easier than acting parts because I know how to do parkour. I’m really happy that I was involved with that project, though, even if the shooting was tough.
What was the most difficult scene to pull off?
In Budapest, we had to sprint uphill doing parkour six or seven times jumping on walls and obstacles - physically that was really tough. I did a roof gap too - my first one - even though I had not got used to heights. The Storror guys asked me if I wanted to check the jump 10 storeys up and I was like, "OK, it looks good. I want to do it!" It was also really helpful for me mentally to overcome the fear. We didn't practice with safety harnesses as it is really hard for us to do our moves with those on. They trusted me, so it was cool.
6 min
Take the tour of Hazal Nehir's backyard parkour proving ground
Pay a visit to Turkey for a personal tour of the backyard set-up of parkour star Hazal Nehir.
What was the biggest takeaway from your time on set?
Storror are one of the best teams in the world and I learnt about their mindset and training. I have also worked with Storror on a Cisco advert in Korea, which was also really cool.