How Nathalie Emmanuel Channeled Fast Saga's Michelle Rodriguez For The Killer: "I Don't Exist Without Her"
Emmanuel stars as an assassin known as "Queen of the Dead" in John Woo's new Peacock action film.
Actress Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, The Fast Saga) is having a big year. In September, she co-stars in Megalopolis, director Francis Ford Coppola's first theatrical release in 13 years, and now she takes the lead in The Killer (stream it right here), director John Woo's reimagining of his own similarly titled 1989 Hong Kong action classic.
While The Killer is Emmanuel's first time leading an all-out action film, she's certainly been in the thick of things, having played Harriet in the Maze Runner films, Missandei in Game of Thrones, and Ramsey in the last four Fast Saga films. However, starring in a John Woo action film could make anyone a little nervous, as Emmanuel shared with NBC Insider recently.
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So how do you take care of calming the nerves? Just call a Fast & Furious bestie to get some advice!
The Killer's Nathalie Emmanuel asked Fast & Furious' Michelle Rodriguez for advice
While Emmanuel has been playing Ramsey, a British computer hacker and programmer, since Furious 7, she's shown mostly behind a keyboard. It takes until F9 for her character to reveal that she doesn't know how to drive, which is pretty much the coin of the realm in the Fast Family.
In Fast X, Emmanuel finally sees a bit of action, but still nothing near what she's asked to do in The Killer. As the assassin Zee, known in the Parisian underworld as the "Queen of the Dead, she uses just about every weapon in the book to take down her assignments, be it a sword, a gun, a random household item, or even her thighs. Alas, after extending kindness to one of her would-be victims, she finds herself on the run — not only from the cops, but also from her dangerous assassin peers.
Asked if there was anything she carried through from her Fast family experience to help with her role in The Killer, Emmanuel introduced us to the concept of WWMRD: "What would Michelle Rodriguez do?"
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Rodriguez is the grande dame of the Fast films, introduced as Letty Ortiz in 2001's The Fast and the Furious, and she's still rolling in the franchise to this day.
"To be honest, I have to shout out Michelle Rodriguez because, to me, I don't exist without her," Emmanuel explained. "There was even a moment where I was having some challenges and I was uncertain of myself. I phoned her, and she gave me such amazing advice. She just really supported me. She was willing. So that community of people, not just Michelle, are just giving and offering their advice and their support. I'm so grateful to her and to them as well."
The Killer is now streaming exclusively on Peacock!
