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Len Wiseman, the director of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, has revealed why this movie isn’t deliberately feminist.
It was announced in 2019 that a female-led spin-off of John Wick had been commissioned, with Keanu Reeves set to be an executive producer on the film.
With Ana de Armas at the helm as the lead, Eve Macarro, the movie picks up chronologically during the third John Wick film and further explores the Ruska Roma, the Russian group that trains children to be assassins.
The story follows Eve’s training as an assassin and her journey of personal revenge as she seeks out the group who murdered her father in front of her as a child.
In a hotel in London, Metro sits down with Wiseman for a wide-ranging interview about the film, straight off the bat we discuss whether he considers the film ‘feminist’.
‘It’s an action movie with a really powerful and strong lead, and I wouldn’t say so much…,’ he reflects and tries to find the right way to express his sentiment.
‘I’ve been doing female-driven characters in action really from the beginning of my career,’ he says, referencing his action horror series Underworld that starred his ex-wife Kate Beckinsale. ‘I really don’t put too much of a weight on it, I just think women are strong regardless.
‘So I’ll sayit’s not intentionally, to me it is an action movie with a really kick ass lead that is a female character.’
He emphasises that lines such as ‘fight like a girl’ – a phrase that recurs in the film and is even the title of the song as the credits roll – are not an attempt to pander to being a movie making a statement.
‘To put a flip on [fight like a girl] and make that a very powerful thing, rather than a teasing phrase or what have you, that’s absolutely intentional. But, I didn’t want it to ever feel pandering to that. Just be real to it.’
The director’s undiluted enthusiasm about the film is evident, and he’s eager for more female-led action movies, but not ones that are originally written as male characters.
Ana, who played the character Paloma in the James Bond series, previously explained why she felt 007 shouldn’t be played by a woman: ‘Why don’t we have more movies about Paloma? Let James be James and John Wick be John Wick. We’ll do our thing,’ she told The Independent.
Wiseman nods and says he ‘totally agrees,’ with her sentiment.
‘If they turned into like Jane Bond. I’ll just go, “What are you doing?” No.
‘I would love to see more original, female-driven action movies, and I’m always glad when there’s one that really works.’
He adds that when it comes to women’s roles in these movies, he also doesn’t believe women-led action films should only be directed by women.
‘It’s if you were to ask, if a male-led action movie should only be directed by a man. I don’t think that either,’ adding that James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow are both fantastic directors who are capable of directing incredible action movies, regardless of gender.
‘I think it’s the best person for the job, is really what it should be. That’s kind of my thought on it.’
He added that he has pet peeves about when these characters are made sometimes indestructible, though.
‘Often, I’ll see that the female character is like indestructible in a way that is almost overtly kind of sexy and powerful and it just leans in too much into the sexiness of it.’
He added that the really great action characters are not the ones who pose after a fight scene, but the ones who look knackered.
‘Keanu will go through this amazing sequence, and after he’s done, he’s just f*****g tired,’ he said,
Comparing Reeves to Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs he adds: ‘Instead of landing like a Marvel character, they just eat it on the ground and then get up and keep fighting.’
During the production of the film, there were rumours that John Wick director Chad Stahelski had to ‘reshoot’ the film. Stahlski rubbished the rumours at the time, and while chatting to Metro, Wiseman cleared up the story.
‘Here’s the truth of it, which is a personal thing, I ended up having a health crisis, and I had to go to the hospital for a little bit, and it was a really scary time. But everything is good and great.
‘And thank God Chad was there. And we were always planning on splitting up the schedule in terms of some of the additional stuff that we were shooting to just try to get everything possible for the audience.’
He said that at most, the rumours were ‘annoying’, but he was grateful things worked out the way they did, as they were able to make an incredible film.
‘So it’s annoying. I guess if anything, like you hear reshoots and you go, “Oh, that’s bad.” There were additional shoots, and then I had to go to the hospital for a little bit. So thank God it worked out the way it did.’
‘The important thing is, the movie is incredible. I had a great time, Chad and I worked, you know, in partnership with it. And it is a movie I think people are gonna absolutely love.’
Ballerina is in cinemas on June 6.
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