Stuntman-turned-director David Leitch (one-half of the directorial team behind John Wick) debuted Atomic Blonde, his solo $30 million action movie starring the singular Charlize Theron, this past weekend. The film didn't set the movie world on fire in terms of box office receipts, but Leitch and his two decades in the stunt world gave us a slew of action pieces that felt completely fresh. Specifically, a brutal seven-minute fight scene in a ramshackle East Berlin apartment building that appears as if he shot it in one long, exhausting take.

What It's Really Like to Get Your Ass Kicked by Charlize Theron, According to James McAvoy "A privilege and an honor," her Atomic Blonde costar says.

Leitch, who is currently in Vancouver directing Deadpool 2 with Ryan Reynolds, gave us the details on just how he made that scene work. Read on to find out how Theron battled a handful of baddies in that one scene you're still talking about.

GQ: This 10-minute sequence was something you had stashed in your arsenal for some time. What was it exactly that you'd been itching to do?

For the longest time, as a stunt coordinator and a fight choreographer, I had been presenting this idea of, "Let's do a fight-driven action oner in the style of Children of Men." When you look at [Alfonso Cuarón's iconic street scene], they've executed all these great stitches [when two scenes are secretly stitched together to make it seem like one] and it's this beautiful work. The action is going on behind the characters, and that was important for the story because that was the backdrop. I wanted to do one where the characters are immersed in action. But it's a hard sell. It takes a lot of commitment. The logistics are not easy. You can't change things in editorial. So it's always a big ask. When it was my own movie, it became a lot easier to say, This is the bold choice we want to make, so let's do it.

How did Charlize respond when you presented it to her?

She was really positive. I knew she could do it, and that was part of the reason I wanted to do it. You sometimes have an actor that can't hold the 12 or 14 moves I need to capture in a row, or won't be compelling enough with the drama in those moments. But I wasn't worried with her. She can hold the frame for a long time, be compelling as an actor and be physical and emotional. It was the perfect opportunity.

Is it her training as a ballet dancer what gives her those abilities?

It is. Fight choreography has far more in common with dance choreography than it does with actual martial arts. You learn martial arts techniques but those are just the movements for the choreography. You're working with a partner in choreography. You're working on timing. Having the dance background was invaluable.

How long did it take to film the stairwell part of the scene?

We spent four days filming in stairwell. It involved using a lot of old-school camera tricks—pans, wipes, body-crossings—that allowed us editorially to have breaks, to choose between takes, but so it would never feel like we cut out. But the pieces we stitched together were really long, some as long as two minutes.

She's deteriorating through the scene—getting her ass kicked as much as she's kicking ass. How did you calibrate that?

There was a mandate from her. She wanted the action in the movie to be visceral and real and have consequences, and it matched what I was trying to do with the action. I wanted to show consequential action. You fight long, you get tired. You get hit in the face, you get a black eye. There's blood in your mouth. Special effects make-up would come in and we had it all broken out, the different levels of damage for each stitch. We were constantly adding as we progressed. We shot the fight in continuity.