Beth Riesgraf

Leverage: Redemption is back and Beth Riesgraf walked up through her stint in the directors chair. The Parker actress joined That Hashtag Show to discuss “The Shakedown in Clone-Town Job.” Riesgraf talked about directing Gina Bellman and Christian Kane’s small-town caper. It turns out Leverage: Redemption is really a team effort and a strong supporting cast makes the final product sing as a director.

“The Shakedown in Clone-Town Job” thrives on it’s small town setting and some fun guest stars! Check out what the actor/director had to say right here:

“We have all these beautiful new locations to find and light. That was really exciting, just to create the look of the episode,” Riesgraf revealed. To feel like we’re somewhere else in this small town. Our production designer Randall Groves and our director of Photography Dave Connell just crushed it. It was so fun!”

She added, “I think I had the most fun with the guest cast in this one. I had Cedric Yarborough, I had Carl Palmer, I had Craig Frank. I had all of these people in a montage to work with!”  

Leverage: Redemption Season 3’s Biggest Stunt

A big strength for Riesgraf heading into this episode is her comfort with the entire case. Leverage: Redemption brings back familiar faces like Christian Kane. The actor gets a pretty impressive fight sequence in this week’s episode. The director walked me through the ideation for her version of Oldboy’s “corridor shot.”

“We’ve got motorcycles, we’ve got BMX bikes, we’ve got all this stuff happening,” She began. “How amazing would it be to do a long tracking shot of this fight?’ We’ve never done that before. A big reason is it’s exhausting for those stunt performers and Christian [Kane.] You need ‘movie magic’ because you can’t reveal all of the hits in a certain way.” I was really inspired by the South Korean film, Oldboy. It’s called ‘The Corridor Shot’ in that. I said I was going to pay homage to that sequence.”

Riesgraf continues, “My goal was, as soon as we set up the tracking shot, I wanted to track all through this shot as he’s fighting and barrelling through all these guys and bikes. I thought, this is so badass. We pulled it off, and it was just so great and exciting. People were cheering and so happy. We haven’t done anything quite like that for the fights before! It was really exciting.”

What’s Is The Crew Up Against In Season 3?

Prime Video has a fresh synopsis for the fan-favorite: “In Season 3 the team pits themselves against a power broker stealing the clean water under people’s feet and turning it into dirty money, fight against a mayor who’s literally the judge and jury of his small town, outrun a mark who’s finally caught up with them mid-con, outhustle a pool hustler with a side business in international extortion, and bring down an industrialist exploiting child labor.

“All this while dodging an intricate plan of vengeance from a past enemy and working through the fallout of their new personal relationships.  But no matter what, when someone needs help, they provide … Leverage.”

That Hashtag Show has more great interviews with all of your favorite creatives right here.