Thanks to her roles in No Time to Die and The Gray Man, Ana de Armas is turning into a proper action heroine, a wheelhouse that is only bound to grow in strength with the upcoming John Wick spinoff, titled Ballerina. For de Armas herself, it was the opportunity to have a creative voice, more than anything, that convinced her to join the franchise despite her trepidation about the action genre.
While we count the days until Keanu Reeves returns as the deadliest assassin in cinematic history with a fourth John Wick installment, the fictional universe is expanding its reach via spinoffs. The first of these stars Ana de Armas in the lead role, and despite Wick appearing for a cameo, Ballerina will be de Armas’ film. Now, we’ve learned that statement is true in more ways than one.
The Blonde star recently appeared in Vanity Fair‘s 2023 Hollywood profile and talked about some of her upcoming roles. Apparently, the thing that got her most excited about Ballerina was the opportunity to influence the script and give it a woman’s perspective. In her own words:
“Once I get to set to film, I’m an actress and I just want to focus on that, and I want to enjoy that part. But in the making of a film, sometimes the director wants the actors to be involved, but it’s not a given. So having a place as a producer at least guarantees that you have a voice and you are in the conversation.
“On Ballerina, it was important that I got a great script. At the beginning, when I met with Len [Wiseman, the director], I said, ‘we need a pass with a female writer,’ and that was great. What I liked about that is they heard what I said, and what I requested was done for all of our benefit. And now we’ve got a really cool script with a female touch and then Len’s side, which is also very smart.”
Ballerina centers around Rooney, a ballerina who is on a quest for vengeance to find the people who killed her family. In her journey, she’ll cross paths with Keanu Reeves’ John Wick and Ian McShane’s Winston. The spinoff takes place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and the forthcoming John Wick: Chapter 4.
No release date has been announced for Ballerina, though we know that filming started in late 2022. As for Chapter 4, you can expect to catch the fourth entry in theaters on March 24.