EXCLUSIVE: Maggie Q Talks The Protégé and Who Would Win in a Battle Between Anna and Nikita

Maggie Q leads Martin Campbell’s new action movie, The Protégé, and we got the chance to sit down and talk to the actress about her new movie. We chatted with Maggie about everything from her banter with Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton in the movie to who would win in a fight, Nikita or Anna. You can check out what she had to say below.

On paper, The Protégé seems like just another action movie, but it is so much more than that. What convinced you to sign up for the movie?

“Well, thank you for saying that. And it is exactly what you say. You start with good material. I had told my reps that I wasn’t interested in doing anything in the action genre, if anyone called, just say no. No need to call me, no need to let me know who it was, it’s fine.

So when my agent called, he was very apologetic. He was like, ‘I know you said, but here’s the thing, it’s actually a good script, Maggie.’ I’m like, ‘Is it?’ And again, like you, I was very doubtful that it was going to be any different than what I’m always being sent. And it was. It really was.

How was it working with your director, Martin Campbell?

Martin, he’s such a wonderful director, and he’s such a legend. I knew that obviously, the physicality, interestingly enough, would be great in the film. But then when I worked with him, I realized that the physicality doesn’t interest him at all. He just happens to be really good at shooting action, but he really was centrally focused on these characters and their journey. And that’s why you get the movie you get.”

Let’s talk the banter between your character, Anna and Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) and how it differed from her banter with Rembrandt (Michael Keaton), did you have to come at each character differently or did you know exactly how Anna was going to act with both men?

“No, it’s very different, actually. I love the juxtapositioning of these two relationships, right? That father-daughter sort of love, that unconditional, deeply-rooted love between this man who raised her, and then this sort of cat and mouse kind of romance, I’ll call it loosely, between her and Rembrandt, where she’s never really had the experience, first of all, of anybody who was at her level, obviously. And so you get this really interesting banter, as you say, this back and forth, this super smart dialogue.

And two people who are highly capable in their lives and yet can’t handle one another. So there’s something really fun and interesting about that. And even her easy banter with Moody, it really does show and sort of highlight the relationship they’ve built together. Because really when you’re raised with someone and it’s someone that you trust on that level, someone who loves you in that way, you have to build that kind of trust that thing that they did in the movie, which was they said a lot of fun things to each other. But also, there was a lot they didn’t say, that spoke volumes in the movie.”

Click under the jump to read the rest of our interview with her. The Protégé is now in theaters!

Was it hard to do an action scene and then have to drop automatically to be doing those more intimate scenes with Moody where you’ve got to kind of collect yourself and be a little bit more emotional?

“Yeah, they’re are two very, very different tones in this. And I would say, more than two different tones, because even with Rembrandt, there was a heightened sort of existence to the way that they dealt with each other. But at the same time, it wasn’t the relationship with Moody, it wasn’t the relationship with Robert Patrick’s character, it wasn’t the relationship with anyone else. They were all very different and in their own way, really challenging. And I think that Martin was just so focused on how different they were so that they mattered to the audience in a unique way.

Can you talk more about Anna’s relationship with Moody and how you approached those scenes?

“Yeah. And there was a lot of stuff that we did, that Sam and I did, that got cut from the movie because we didn’t want to hit people too over the head with illness and this and that. We don’t want people to feel sorry for him. So we did shoot a lot of stuff that was very, very touching, very sweet and very relationship centric with the two of them. And we kind of had to get rid of it just because we needed pace in the film and whatever it was that we were trying to do with our final product.”

Let’s talk about your fashion in the movie. I was absolutely obsessed with every single costume you had on, whether it was when you were in the bookstore to all of your action scenes. Did you have any input in Anna’s costumes or was it all left up to the costume department?

“I always do, really, have final say. I like to give the costume designer her vision, because I don’t like to step on people’s toes in that way. But if it’s something where I feel like it’s not as functional as it could be, in practicality when I need it, I obviously will change it and whatnot. But she, this costume designer [Karyn Wagner], she’s famed for The Notebook. So it’s really funny because she put Rachel [McAdams] in a bunch of iconic stuff and it ended up becoming things that people bought. So she does, she has an eye for those things. She’s subtle in the things that she picks, but what she picks is very quality, and she’s got a really good sense. So I gave her the floor with this movie.”

Was there a piece of the ensemble that you wanted to keep afterwards or not so much?

“I went through so much in this movie in all these outfits that they were all kind of worn down by the end.”

How do you prep for a movie like this? Whether it be research or stunt training, what did you do to make sure you were ready to do an action scene to an emotional scene?

“We did a lot of rehearsals, so Michael and I, and Martin spent a lot of time together with the script. On that end, I wasn’t able to work with Sam on that level until we got to Romania because he was cast last. But we did a lot of the legwork on the dialogue, worked a lot with the writer who’s based in LA, while we were still in LA, and then continued on with that work in Romania.

I wasn’t able to do any real physical rehearsals until I got to Romania because I was post-surgery. I had a surgery before this movie. I was trying to preserve my physical body for when we’re shooting. So a lot of what I had to do to train for this was a memorization before I was able to step in physically.”

The movie sets up for a potential sequel at the end. What would you like to see happen if there is a sequel?

“I love the fact that nobody really knows. I do, I love it. We actually had alternate endings, funnily enough, that were even more mysterious. But our test audiences were like, ‘I can’t take it. My heart’s going to shut down. Everything’s going to shut down. I have to at least know a little bit of what happens.’ So we gave them a little bit. But I don’t think I’m totally done with her. And if audiences aren’t, then we’ll do another one, which will be really fun, I think.”

Is there an alternate ending you wish they had used instead of the other one?

Yes. I like the darkest ending possible. I’m different than most people. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, they shouldn’t know anything.’ We had an ending where the door opened, and that was it. We cut, and we were out. That’s what I wanted. And Martin was like, ‘I would love that too.’ But like I said, when we tested it, the audiences were like, ‘No.’ They could not handle it. They were like, ‘I’m not going to be able to sleep.’ So we had to show that sliver at the door.

But I think that creates the anticipation too.

“Agreed. I’m often wrong. So I’m for sure, I could have been very, very wrong about that. But I always love that, the bigger question mark.”

As we wrap up, my last question for you is this, one of the roles that you’re well known for is your role on Nikita. So who do you think would win in a battle, Nikita or Anna?

“Oh, that’s pretty evenly matched, I would have to say. I’ll say it’s evenly matched because they’re both really good. So that is a fight I’d like to see, I think. I don’t know who would win that one, to be honest.

It’d be intense, but I think it’d be a good time.

“It’d be intense. It’d be a long fight, you know what I mean? Like two boxers going many, many, many rounds. I would say there’d be two women, not with many words.