Gina Carano Talks Acting, Wonder Woman, and Her New Film, In The Blood

Actress and former mixed martial artist Gina Carano‘s latest flick is In the Blood, an action thriller where she plays a newlywed on honeymoon whose new spouse goes missing. And just like any action hero worth their salt, she turns out to have been hiding a particular set of skills from her dearly beloved and wades through mercenary blood in order to get them back. Women and Hollywood spoke to Carano about her character in the film, her goals as an actress, and the one question on everybody’s mind: so how about that Wonder Woman?

Says Carano of her character Ava:

Ava learned some hardcore skills of how to do certain things, but by the time she got married to the man of her dreams she was trying to figure out how not to show that side of herself. She might have been a little bit suppressed. Then all of a sudden something extreme happens and she reverts back. She is able to use the good parts of it. Her husband is looking at her like, “Where did that come from? Who did I marry?” I’m sure that a lot of couples can relate to that: Who are you?

The action hero who keeps their past a secret because they’re trying to get out of the action game and settle down with someone relatively “normal” only to have their services needed in such a way as to make their past obvious to their love interest is a pretty familiar trope (in fact, we doubled up on it for Mr. and Mrs. Smith). But we rarely see it applied so neatly to a female character, with a male character playing the “normal spouse” role. That said, Ava’s husband is no shrinking violet: “A strong woman [like Ava] — someone who is willing to go to the ends of the world for their husband — she’s obviously going to be attracted to someone who inspires her and makes her feel strong and encourages that behavior in herself. He can’t be a slouch either.”

Carano says In the Blood pushed her to develop her acting chops in new areas, which initially unnerved her.

Before I filmed the movie, I wanted to figure out how to show emotion — believable emotion, on film. When that moment came, it was really scary. I’ve taught myself my whole life not to show people what I was feeling or thinking… To force myself to do that it was probably one of my proudest moments on film so far. I’ve done so much physical stuff, but to be able to do that was like, “Ahh! I can breathe! I wanna do that again! Make me cry! Make me cry!

…I don’t want to do the same thing over and over — I don’t want to be “The Physical Person.” I’ve run into a lot of actors and actresses who are just fine being that person. They like being “The Action Person.” I’m not. I know it’s a bigger risk, and it’s going to be harder to do, but I’d rather be true to myself creatively because that’s who I am in life.

And as for the Amazon in the room?

Wonder Woman is something people ask me a lot about, and that’s such a huge compliment. I can’t wait to see [Batman vs. Superman].

What I want to see in an action heroine, and in Wonder Woman, [are] the two parts I have in me. One is very creative, emotional, female, protective, with motherly instincts and sisterly instincts, but the other side of me is this really aggressive skill set. There’s anger and violence in there.

Hopefully what I’ll be able to do in the future in my characters is combine what a real woman is — which is both of those things. Men and women feel a lot of the same things. More often than not, women feel violence and aggression, maybe in the form of, “How will I be able to lift this car off my baby? How will I be able to find my husband?” Or even, “How can I protect my country?”

For more on the movie and Carano’s words you should check out Women and Hollywood’s interview right here.

(via IndieWire.)

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