As action flicks and superhero blockbusters continue to dominate the box office, we're
finally getting the strong female leads we've been lacking for decades in both film and
TV.
The physical demands of these roles are no joke, but these actresses were more than up
for the challenge.
Let's take a look at some of the amazing women who put in maximum effort in order to kick
ass onscreen.
Alison Brie
Until recently, Alison Brie was best known for playing a long-suffering wife on Mad Men
— a role that required serious acting skills, but no stunt work.
So when she landed a starring role on Netflix's original series GLOW, she had to train like
a madwoman to get in literal fighting shape.
Sometimes, that meant intense workouts where she hurled weighted objects onto the gym floor;
other times, it meant carrying her 220-pound trainer, Jason Walsh, around the room on her
back.
Walsh said his goal for the training regimen was to turn Brie into someone who could both
dish out and take a hit.
He told Business Insider,
"Alison did all her stunts.
I'll tell you right now, I've worked with a lot of people and she's a little bad a--."
Alicia Vikander
Prior to her preparation for the role of adventure junkie Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot,
Alicia Vikander told The Graham Norton Show,
"I had never lifted a thing with my arms."
Not wanting to disappoint fans, Vikander hit the gym harder than ever for four months.
The Oscar-winner ended up adding 10 to 12 pounds of muscle, but this new and improved
physique would be short-lived.
"It takes three weeks for you to lose it all.
That is the sad bit."
Lupita Nyong'o
Someone forgot to tell Lupita Nyong'O you're not supposed to enjoy bootcamp.
She took part in a six-week session along with her Black Panther co-stars — sometimes
working out as early as 3 a.m., for as long as four hours — and called the intense experience
"fun."
Nyong'O told Collider she enjoyed challenging her body, saying,
"I get to jump higher than I thought I could jump.
[...] I get to roll backwards, which I thought I would never do after the age of 8?
So it's been fun."
Nyong'O was already a workout enthusiast, but the exercising and dieting for Black Panther
took her fitness to a whole other level.
She told The Hollywood Reporter,
"I remember coming home for Christmas and I couldn't fit into my clothes."
Margot Robbie
Director Craig Gillespie pulled off skating scenes in I, Tonya using both CGI and stunt
doubles, but not all of Margot Robbie's scenes involved Hollywood magic.
She trained on the ice three times a week for three months and learned five routines
in all.
Robbie told Wonderland of her intense training,
"My alarm would go off at 5:30 a.m. and I'd want to cry.
Sometimes after sessions I'd get back into the car and weep."
Those tears of frustration eventually turned into tears of joy.
Robbie's performance as the disgraced skater earned her an Oscar nomination.
Emma Stone
Trainer Jason Walsh has an Instagram photo of a feeble Emma Stone with a caption that
reads "Deadlift PR day.
Change takes breaking comfort" and states that Stone was prepping for her role in Battle
of the Sexes.
He told W Magazine,
"When she trained for La La Land, we worked out three to four days a week.
With Battle of the Sexes we did five days a week and sometimes two times a day."
Stone trained for three months and put on 15 pounds of muscle for the role.
She seemed giddy with the results, telling CNN:
"It was the first time I'd ever felt like, 'Oh my god, I can lift a lot of weight.'
[…] You feel like the Hulk, a little bit."
"It was the first time I focused so, so much on the physicality of someone, because playing
an athlete… that is the way she was able to make change in the world."
Rooney Mara
It wasn't enough for Rooney Mara to get multiple piercings for her role in The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo.
She was determined to go all in, which, for her, meant training in a wide variety of fields.
She told MTV,
"I feel like I went to school.
I had motorcycle class from 9 to 11, and then I went to dialect class, and then I had skateboarding,
and then I had computer training, and then I had kickboxing."
She told the Hollywood Reporter the skateboarding was…
"...to sort of try and change the way that I walk and stand."
The kickboxing was meant to help her feel confident taking her clothes off on screen.
She told Parade,
"The character is incredibly comfortable in her sexuality, and I had to go in making the
film feeling the same way."
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!