The Shield memories with Larnell Stovall

Larnell Stovall in The Shield. Second photo courtesy of Daniel Bernhardt.

When I wrote Life of Action II, as an obsessive fan of epic, groundbreaking TV drama, The Shield, I was self-indulgent enough to ask a couple of action names about their history within the series. Why write your own book if you can’t do whatever you want, right?

For anyone living under a rock, The Shield, created by Shawn Ryan, was FX’s landmark, Emmy winning series which aired from 2002-2008 and ran for a stunning seven seasons. What’s more, from the shocking pilot to the thrilling and emotionally hard-hitting finale, most critics and fans agree it was consistently great, and perhaps got even better as time went on! This series also helped pave the way for premium TV as we know it today, but still stands as the best in my view. In fact, it’s still my number one series of all time.

Since it's the pilot episode’s 20th anniversary this week, here are some words from top action choreographer and second unit director Larnell Stovall. His best known work includes martial arts fan favourite, Undisputed III, to mainstream work in Ride Along, Netflix’s Altered Carbon and the forthcoming John Wick television spin-off, The Continental. He’s also been cutting his teeth as a filmmaker, having directed (and action directed) various episodes of DC’s Titans.

He told me, "the coolest thing about The Shield is that I was originally an extra on the pilot. Between takes, Michael Chiklis saw me and we struck up a conversation. He said I had a good look and seemed sure the show was going to get picked up, so he suggested I hide my face because he could see me coming back later. So, I tried to make sure I couldn’t be seen clearly! It was a fun early job and they gave me a SAG voucher at the end, towards joining the union. Next thing, and I believe it was still the first season, I actually booked a part after two attempts. When I came back, Michael congratulated me, gave me a big hug and then probably proceeded to kick my ass on the show [Laughs]...

Larnell Stovall behind-the-scenes on Undisputed III with director Isaac Florentine

The funny thing is I was on the show three or four different times, a couple times as a stunt guy and a couple more times playing different parts. The first time I played a gang member and the second time was as a character called Luddy at the end of season three with some decent dialogue. I’ll never forget I was in a robbery scene with Gene LeBell, of all people, and part of the sequence involved me slapping him! I didn’t want to do it but Gene basically said to me “if you don’t slap me, you’re going to regret it” [Laughs]. He told me to go for it. I got a call about a year later and a casting director said they were thinking about bringing me back as a recurring character for six to eight episodes. That would’ve been very cool but I’m kind of happy that didn’t happen now because I believe it might have changed my path. If I’d booked that, I might have followed a different journey into acting, and this was way before I was doing fight choreography. Those experiences were great but I’m glad things turned out the way they did."

I extend a heartfelt happy 20th birthday to the entire Shield family, where many talented cast and crew have gone on to continue great careers elsewhere.

My book Life of Action II is still available in hardback, softcover and on Kindle, for those who want to read Larnell Stovall’s career-spanning interview in full.

For anyone who hasn’t experienced The Shield, there’s an impressive definitive collector’s edition boxset from Mill Creek Entertainment featuring full 4k HD restorations of each episode, plus dozens of hours of brand new and archive special features, deleted scenes, commentaries from the cast and crew, featurettes and much more. Don’t sleep on it. Long live The Shield!