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The intensity of the action epic The Woman King, currently in theaters starring Viola Davis, is balanced with light moments, especially in this training montage that sets up two key characters.
Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) was abandoned by his father in a palace in the 19th century African kingdom of Dahomey. She is taken in and trained to be part of a group of female soldiers.
“I’ve seen the training montage and it’s always fun and exciting,” director Gina Prince-Bythewood said of the scene. “What makes this different?” She said the focus on female warrior stories was “an element we haven’t seen before.”
Prince-Bythewood’s approach, which she took in her previous action movie, The Old Guard, was to have the actors perform their own stunts. In this sequence, the performers have to do somersaults during some wrestling scenes. First, it was Lynch flipping Mbedu, and Prince-Bythewood said with a caveat: Mbedu only agrees to be flipped six times.
“As you can see, she is trucked in,” said Prince Bythewood.
There was a surprise in the segment where Nawi does the same to fellow trainee Ode (Adrienne Warren).
“The beauty of the moment is when Ord shoves Nawi at the end of the wrestling,” Prince-Bythewood said. “It wasn’t a script. It was two actors, so at this point.