Lionsgate
One of the hallmarks of the John Wick franchise has, of course, been Keanu Reeves’ singular commitment to doing his own stunts, which is the key component of the thrill of the franchise, as you know it’s this A-list star that’s actually throwing down. Stepping into John Wick’s world in Ballerina, Academy Award-nominated actress Ana de Armas certainly wasn’t going to let that change.
Speaking to BroBible ahead of the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Ana de Armas told us how — having identified herself as an “occasional stuntwoman” during a Reddit AMA this week — that she now wears doing her own stunts as a badge of honor.
According to de Armas, once you start doing the training, you want it to be you on the screen for as much as possible, not only because you’re proud of what you’ve done, but because you believe you owe it to the audience.
“I think I do now. I do feel very proud of it. I never thought in my entire life that I was going to do action films. Never,” de Armas says wearing doing her own stunts like a badge of honor.
“I never thought I was athletic enough or strong enough or — I just didn’t see myself in that position. But when you start training — and when you start getting through the process of improving your skills and learning new things — you feel more confident. Just getting better at whatever they ask you to do. It’s such a good feeling. You feel very accomplished and proud,” the Oscar nominee continued.
“And when you’re doing an action film, you want to do it. You want to be a part of it. You train for so long — three, four months — and then, of course, on camera, you want it to be you. There’s so much pride in it. I had to do it. I wanted to also give the audiences that. That’s why we were pushing for longer scenes, longer takes. We wanted the audiences to see the longest possible shot; that it was me from beginning to end. No weird cuts here and there, nothing too choppy. It’s the full fight. And that is so hard to do.”
de Armas — who had experience on past action films like No Time to Die and The Gray Man (certainly nothing close to the level of leading a John Wick film, though) — also added that training with Keanu Reeves for the first time made her realize how much she hopes she can be as good as him.
“And training with Keanu, the first day we got on the mat and started rehearsing the choreo, I was just looking at him, and I was like, ‘I hope I can just do it as best as I can — maybe as good as he does it.’”
In addition to de Armas as Eve Macarro and Keanu Reeves and the legendary John Wick, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina also stars Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick (in a posthumous role), Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus.
Content shared from brobible.com.