Michelle Rodriguez IS HOLGA † BY

ALANA JOLI ABBOTT

Q:What can you tell us about Holga the barbarian?

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: She’s a woman of few words and a big temper. I’ve made an entire career of temper tantrums. It’s cool that I get to play this really awesome barbarian who’s very matter-of-fact about everything.

In tabletop D&D, barbarians have the rage class feature—did you play into that?

Absolutely. I think people will be satisfied with her battle rage.

You are doing some fantastic fight choreography. Do you have a background in martial arts?

Absolutely not, but the 15 pounds of muscle I gained for the role beg to differ. It was really more about trying to develop a great scene because sometimes you can get lost with punches and kicks. My main concern in almost every action movie I do is to try to gain some flight in there and to accentuate the fight so that it doesn’t look like everything else we see.

What was your conditioning like? [My trainer] overfed me with protein and pumped me up with weights. I was pretty hardcore. I had to ask them for a punching bag because Holga really got to me!

Despite filming in lockdown, you got to do some great location work. There were so many great places that we visited not only in Northern Ireland but also in England. The old cathedral that we shot in was my favorite. It’s massively beautiful, the architecture—it’s pretty extraordinary just to be walking through it. We weren’t staring at a blue screen, and that really made a difference for me in the performance.