Fans Are Comparing Maggie Q To Tom Cruise, Here's Why
Veteran actress Maggie Q is finally getting her moment in the movie spotlight as she headlines the new action flick The Protégé. Sure, she’s starred in several series (Nikita, Stalker, and Designated Survivor, which made its way to Netflix) and films (Rush Hour 2, Mission: Impossible III, and the Divergent movies, among others). However, Q has rarely been the focus of the story.
And when it comes to how she approaches action films, it turns out that the actress shares something in common with Mission: Impossible star Tom Cruise herself.
Taking On This Role Was A Matter Of Cultural Pride
Having worked in Hollywood for two decades, Q knows all too well that she has to choose her roles carefully, especially when it came to characters that purported AAPI stereotypes When it came to this film, however, the actress also knew that she had to do it straight away. After all, she shared similar roots with the assassin Moody.
“First of all, being able to portray a strong Vietnamese woman, it just all goes together, it’s synonymous with who I am,” Q explained during an interview with HollywoodLife.com. “To play someone of my own culture, half my culture, and portray the strength of the women that I know in our culture was really cool.” Nonetheless, the actress was determined to make sure that Moody wasn’t the type of character that conveniently fit into common tropes. “You want to do your culture proud, but at the same time, also represent in a way where it’s like, I am not going to play into these tropes that are that are so common, and so typical, and normally put together by people who don’t have any creativity,” Q added.
Meanwhile, the film’s director, Martin Campbell, happened upon Q as he was searching for the perfect actress of Vietnamese descent. He came to realize that she checked all the boxes. “First of all, we needed someone who was Vietnamese and she’s half Vietnamese. Secondly, she’s a terrific actress,” Campbell told ComingSoon.net. “Thirdly, she’s brilliant with action. She’s been trained and she worked with Jackie Chan. So in terms of the action she is extremely experienced.”
Campbell himself had worked with Jackie Chan but it wasn’t the martial arts star that led to Campbell to discover Q. “I happened to see a clip of Maggie, where I really loved her performance,” he explained. “I didn’t even know she did the action. I had no clue about that. I just saw her performance and really liked it.”
So What Do Maggie Q And Tom Cruise Have In Common
The moment they got to set, it didn’t take long to realize that Q did action and even excelled in it. Being an industry veteran himself, Campbell knows that there are, essentially, two kinds of actions stars – those who rely on stunt doubles (such is reportedly the case for Ryan Reynolds who Campbell directed in Green Lantern) and those who take matters into their own hands. For Q, the only way to get things done is to be at the center of the action herself, just like Cruise.
Perhaps, Q’s tendency to do her own stunts goes back to the time when was making the 2002 film Naked Weapon. During production, her stunt double had her hand sliced open while doing a wire stunt. With the double out of commission, director Siu-Tung Ching told Q she had to step up. “She’s like crying and bleeding,” the actress recalled while speaking with USA Today. “And I’m supposed to jump in and do the stunt. But I did. And I did it.”
In The Protégé, Q does it again, executing the flying balcony scene on her own after her stunt double confessed to being too terrified to keep doing it. “She was like, 'You're never going to get used to it, good luck,’” the actress recalled. “I was like, wait, that's not what you're supposed to be saying.” Meanwhile, every time they shot the scene, Q also realized that the moving camera kept missing the shot, which meant she had to do it all again. “I was on the verge of tears,” the actress admitted. “But we kept missing it. It was devastating.”
Despite the frustrations and setbacks though, Q kept at it. Eventually, they got the shot, which clearly managed to show that it was the actress doing all the action the whole time. “God knows how many times she did the stunt. But there were no doubles used,” Campbell himself confirmed. “It’s all Maggie on that screen.” The director also explained, “Really we choreograph those fights so you could see them and that you can see the action and it’s grounded in reality, if you know what I mean.”
Following The Protégé, Q has been attached to a couple of film projects, one of which is an action film Long Gone Heroes with Ben Kingsley and Peter Facinelli. And once production gets underway, fans can be assured that Q won’t hesitate to get in the sandbox.
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