Nathalie Emmanuel's Army Of Thieves Fights Scenes Are More Complicated Than You Realize - Exclusive
With an impressive list of credits that includes two "Maze Runner" films, the last three "Fast and Furious" chapters, and "Game of Thrones," there's no question that Emmy-nominated actor Nathalie Emmanuel has experienced more than her fair share of exciting moments in the action genre. There's plenty of action, too, in her latest film, "Army of Thieves," but along with the intense pace of producer Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead" prequel comes a new wrinkle: Emmanuel gets to take part in some serious hand-to-hand combat.
Streaming exclusively on Netflix, "Army of Thieves" chronicles the beginnings of "Army of the Dead's" quirky safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), a lonesome European banker and safecracking enthusiast. He is recruited by a prolific thief named Gwendoline (Emmanuel) to pull off the ultimate set of heists. After a zombie epidemic has broken out in Las Vegas and a corporate magnate is worried about its implications, he's decided to pull a group of his seemingly impenetrable safes from their public spaces. Because they're the same iconic safes Dieter and his recruiter have dreamed of cracking, Gwendoline assembles a crew to attempt the jobs before it's too late.
Naturally, boosting some of the world's most secure bank contraptions isn't an easy task in "Army of Thieves," and sometimes, Gwendoline and her crew need to kick the asses of any human roadblocks standing in their way.
Nathalie Emmanuel says her training was intense and her fight scenes had to be precise
Playing Gwendoline in "Army of Thieves" involved much more than learning the art of thievery. In an exclusive interview with Looper, Emmanuel said that she not only needed to hit the gym "a whole lot" to get into fighting shape; but go through some fight choreography to ensure her punches landed where they were intended.
"It was not like, 'Oh, you just show up a few days before,' and learn that it was weeks of practice and rehearsal and trying things out, and then being like, 'Oh, that looks good but actually we can make it better and changing it slightly,'" Emmanuel revealed. "We were all doing physical training every day. But the kind of stunt rehearsals were, as soon as I had an afternoon free, I'd be in the stunt gym, basically. Or if I had a spare hour, we would be on the side of set, practicing because it's basically like a really, really complicated dance routine. And if you don't quite get it right, you don't quite hit the right mark or throw the right punch, you might actually hurt yourself or somebody else. So, it's really, really important."
Reflecting on her fight scenes in "Army of Thieves" — which is directed by Schweighöfer — Emmanuel said she is "really proud of what we achieved."
"I'm not going to lie. I kind of came upset to that first fight that we see in the movie, and I was like, 'Oh, she's a badass' and it was amazing," Emmanuel enthused. "So, that was really great. I'm so proud of the fights that we did."
Also starring Ruby O. Fee, Guz Khan and Stuart Martin as Gwendoline's and Dieter's fellow heist crew members, "Army of Thieves" is streaming exclusively on Netflix.