Starring in this week’s big release: Total Recall, is none other than one of Hollywood’s most beautiful leading ladies, Jessica Biel. In the film, the actress plays Melina, a rebel agent and a member of the resistance.
Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that she teams up with Colin Farrell‘s Douglas Quaid and the two go on the run together in an attempt to figure out why everyone is after Quaid and what secrets his mind really holds.
At the film’s recent press day in LA, we sat down with Biel to discuss her role in the remake. She talked about some of the tougher scenes that she had to shoot, the fight scenes, how she prepared for the role and more.
Check it out below.
We Got This Covered: You and Kate [Beckinsale] reach near-UFC levels with your fighting. How awesome was that?
Jessica Biel: It’s good, especially when you’re the girl who gets to do it. You don’t always want to be objectified and sexualized like that. Sometimes it’s ok, but when you’re doing something like this, you want to feel like an equal. You want to be choreographed like anybody else, whether it’s Colin [Farrell] or Kate [Beckinsale]. The gender neutrality in this particular fight is what was really exciting for us, because it wasn’t about anything but two incredibly capable warrior women beating the (bleep) out of each other. Men get to do that all the time, so it’s pretty fun for us to do that.
We Got This Covered: Who would have the advantage in a fight, you or Kate [Beckinsale]?
Jessica Biel: I mean, this is the question that everybody keeps asking (laughs). I don’t know. I think probably she does, because she’s got more experience in this really kicking ass kind of world. She’s wiry. I would be afraid if I ran into her late in a dark alleyway.
We Got This Covered: What was the toughest scene to shoot?
Jessica Biel: The zero gravity stuff where Colin [Farrell] and I are floating through the China fall, the big system that takes us from one side of the world to the other. It was an interesting way that we shot this. To shoot that, they turn the cameras upside down and hung us on wires in a harness upside down. It was the craziest thing. Upside down pretending to be rightside up. So uncomfortable. Necks straining, harness digging into your ribs, giving you a wedgie, making you miserable, blood rushing to your head, looking like you have to go to the bathroom. It was bizarre and physically, the weirdest thing we had to do by far.
We Got This Covered: What kind of diet did you have to keep to prepare for the part?
Jessica Biel: It was a pretty clean diet. I had to cut out most of the good wine, cheese, and good pasta. All the good stuff. All the yummy stuff. You have to do it. I had a pretty good mix of martial arts and boxing training, parkour and my own personal weight training just for upkeep. And yoga, lots of yoga.
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