Maggie Q Interview NIKITA
by Christina Radish Posted:August 26th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
As a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita (Maggie Q) was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known as Division. Fooled into believing that she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country, she quickly learned that she was instead being trained as a spy and assassin. After being betrayed by the only people she thought she could trust, she did the impossible by escaping, in order to seek retribution and destroy their covert operations.
During an interview to promote the CW’s Nikita, show star Maggie Q talked about taking on the legendary character, her love of action roles and vowed never to wear that red bikini in the pilot episode again. Check out what she had to say after the jump:
Question: This character has been around for awhile, in various incarnations. What’s it like to take on what has become a legend of sorts?
Maggie: I felt confident because of the team that they put around me, with the director, the writer and the cast. I believe in everyone so much. I’m excited for this journey. It’s a challenge, but if we’re not challenging ourselves, what’s the point. It’s cool that there have been different incarnations, but we’re doing something really different with this one. I know that’s lip service, but you’ll understand the difference when you see it.
Was it important to you not to rehash the origin story?
Maggie: Right, that’s what makes it different. We’re really going from where the legend ends, and we’re going into the future of her. She’s gotten out now. This is her tale about how she gets back at the people who have hurt her.
How long have you been doing martial arts?
Maggie: I’m half Asian, so people immediately go, “Oh, you do kung fu,” like that’s what we do. We wake up, we do kung fu, we brush our teeth. It’s just assumed that you’re not working your ass off to make this believable and make this something great, and we absolutely are. All of us. I’m not a wushu champion. I was an athlete when I was a kid. I was a swimmer and a runner, but all this action stuff is such a challenge. It really, really is. I’m lucky that I’ve been doing it for long enough that I have a formula that works for me, but it certainly isn’t something that I can close my eyes and do. Absolutely not.
How did you initially get into martial arts then?
Maggie: When I was living and working in Asia, at the time, Jackie Chan was looking for these new young people to star in movies that he was producing, but not starring in. So, his team of guys trained me when I was very young, in different disciplines. They molded me. They gave me my introduction. I wouldn’t say they taught me everything because, once I got to Hollywood, I feel like that’s when I really got into the action genre. I really got the time to focus on things when I was booked for a project. They were very serious. They were like, “Listen, we’re going to train you from the ground up. This is how we’re going to make you real.” So, it does become very real. You can’t fake this stuff. You either know it, or you don’t.
Since you have a background in action movies, is it easier to do this role, or are there still physical challenges?
Maggie: Both. It’s comfortable for me. I weirdly feel very natural, in the physicality that comes my way, whether it’s guns, cars or whatever. For some reason, it’s second nature to me. But, every action project you take, whether it be a movie or TV series, is always different and a lot of people don’t really know how big a difference it is. It’s a different style of fighting, a different tempo and all of that. It’s been good, though. It’s been fun. I like the physical challenge. It’s fun for me.
What was it like to spend three weeks training for this?
Maggie: I set that training up. They didn’t have money to train us. My partner is an action director, so I asked him if he could get all of his stunt team together and create something for my cast. I have the training and background, but they didn’t. They had none. For me, it was important that everybody in the show was believable, and I knew that they weren’t even close. So, for three weeks, we did three days a week and we broke their asses. They couldn’t walk. Lyndsy would text me and go, “I can’t even eat. I can’t raise my arm.” I thought it was so fun. I’ve been through that for so many years, so to see someone else go through that was awesome.
With the physicality of this role, do you find yourself slinking home at night and crawling into bed?
Maggie: I don’t do anything but sleep, when I’m not working. I have no life. I’m no fun. All I want to do is sleep and get ready for the next day. It’s awesome.
Do they space out the action sequences for you, so that you don’t have to do them so close together?
Maggie: When I started in film, I was living and working in Asia, and I swear to you, when we did films there, it was so fast. It was much like TV. They did films in two weeks or six weeks, so I actually realize now that I’m very used to this pace, and I enjoy focusing, getting it over with, getting it out of the way and saying, “Let’s move on. Let’s do something cool again. Let’s get going.”
Which worries you more, knowing that you have a day where you’re going to have to shoot a big action scene, or having to do a big emotional scene with a lot of dialogue?
Maggie: You know what worries me? Doing them on the same day, which we do sometimes because TV is so fast. You’re here, and then you’re there, and sometimes you don’t know where you are.
With all the action films and stuff that you’ve done, have you ever had any major injuries along the way?
Maggie: Oh, I’ve injured everything. I’ve hurt my wrist and cracked my shins. It’s ridiculous. Actually, I haven’t broken everything, but I’ve cracked and fractured a lot of different body parts.
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