Olivia Munn, who plays a newly introduced character in the X-Men franchise, just shared her challenging experience in filling in the shoes of Psylocke.
According to Yahoo Movies , the Newsroom actress was extremely excited to join the X-Men roster. However, she had to face a lot of physically demanding scenes.
“I’ve been banged up and put back together. It’s a very weird thing to be in so much pain and yet to be excited by it.”
To do the role justice, Olivia Munn had to train since 2015 for sword fighting. Psylocke also has telepathic abilities. Originally born as Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, Psylocke was found alongside her brother, Captain Britain.
Betsy would eventually get kidnapped by Mojo, a Jabba the Hutt-looking monster in the X-Men comics series. This is the beginning of her journey with the X-Men.
Olivia Munn is a Psylocke fanatic herself. She said that this role is a dream come true for her because she was an X-Men fan since she was a child.
“I come from a family that would talk about ‘X-Men’ as if it were the Civil War. Every week, we would go get the comic books. It was our childhood.”
Olivia Munn also admitted that she has been Psylocke’s fan “for so long.”
Her background with X-Men and specifically Psylocke has impressed X-Men director Bryan Singer when she was auditioning. Munn added that it felt natural to tell Psylocke’s story to the crew.
“It made me feel good to be able to speak for her. ‘Oh you don’t know her? Let me tell you about her…He could have thought it annoying but he was like, ‘I hear you.’”
Olivia Munn is so connected to her character that she even disregarded her stunt double. In her interview with ET Online , Olivia Munn just proved how dedicated she is in playing the role.
Since Psylocke is one of the most active characters in the X-Men series, Psylocke would have to be seen jumping around and doing all kinds of fight scenes in the film.
Although stunt doubles are usually the go-to option for these challenging roles, Olivia Munn said she wanted to complete all of the scenes by herself.
“That was me from the beginning to the end. That was a really cool thing to feel like when I showed up on set I was like ‘Oh wait, I can do this! Throw me onto a wire, give me a sword—I’m good!”
Olivia Munn took sword fighting and Tae Kwo Do lessons to fill in the challenging action scenes. Munn said that she is training for six to seven hours every day to prepare for the movie .
“Psylocke is such a powerful, lethal character. It was important to me that I was able to do all of the stunts because the more believable it is, the better it is for the audience — and the only way to make it believable is for me to actually do it.”
In her multiple interviews, Olivia Munn has been showing off her swords skills. There was even an Instagram post of Olivia Munn and her boyfriend, Aaron Rodgers, practicing the swords. Although Olivia Munn has impressed the fans with her swift slices, it made athlete Rodgers look completely lost.
Aside from the actual swords skills, Olivia Munn said that her appearance will closely resemble that of the comics. Thus, she had to face issues with the tight latex design of the costume.
At one point, she even told Conan that they needed to lube her up just so she could fit in the costume.
X-Men: Apocalypse will launch on May 27, 2016.
[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]