Fresh from an appearance on the big stage promoting her starring turn in Ballerina during Lionsgate’s CinemaCon presentation on Tuesday, Ana de Armas found her way to a new location in Las Vegas. The Oscar nominated actress turned up Wednesday inside the John Wick Experience, a new and immersive 12,000-square-foot ticketed attraction inspired by the blockbuster franchise. De Armas spent some time talking to press about her role in the upcoming Len Wiseman-directed film, which is due for release on June 6. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with de Armas at the event for a brief four question interview.
Nice job on stage yesterday. The Ballerina action scene played so well. It wasn’t mentioned that there’s so much more to come even during that wild sequence …
Yeah, all the action scenes are pretty long in the movie. We get to the point where we feel the character is pretty overwhelmed. She clearly was not prepared for what was about to happen — coming at her [with] all these people. We wanted that to feel like she’s struggling, she’s in an immense world and all these assassins coming at her, so she’s just trying to get through that and find what she’s looking for.
Makes sense to hear that it was the most challenging role for you. Physically, what was the most difficult part?
Everything was difficult. It was really challenging. We had a lot of exteriors [to shoot] and like I’ve said before, the sequences are very, very long. We wanted the audience to feel like I was doing it, and so we had to be prepared. The stunt team, which was amazing, taught me all the basics for fighting and how to connect every move with the other so I could be flexible and prepare for anything they would just throw at me and improvise. Things always happen, so you have to be prepared.
Yeah, it was a long [shoot] but those three-and-a-half, four months that I had to prepare were really important and necessary for me to find myself in it and find the character, who she was and what her style was and what was her deal, including adding the ballet element.
How do you describe who the Ballerina is?
She’s someone that is turning pain into power and sometimes anger. As a young assassin or someone who wants to get in into that world, emotions can get on the way because you’re not thinking, you’re not cool, you’re not in charge, and sometimes they get the best of you. What I think is beautiful is we are discovering this character as she’s turning into a really dangerous assassin.
It was so fun to see a new Keanu Reeves scene yesterday that we didn’t see in the trailer already. What is your favorite memory of working with him, either on or off set?
That day, just seeing him walking on set when everyone was waiting. He just walked in with the John Wick suit on again. It was the first time after John Wick 4, which was a very iconic moment. I’ll never forget that. And then we shot that scene for three or four days, and he was just full on. It was actually longer than we thought, I think, originally in the script. It just kept getting more and more intricate and complicated, and then we found those action moments in between. It became something really special, and it was a good setup for that relationship.
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