‘Warcraft’ Star Paula Patton Says Bigger Butt Was ‘A Bit Of A Surprise’

As Warcraft hits theaters, one of the film’s stars, Paula Patton, opens up about training for her role as Garona and the hidden benefits that training for a film role offers. As Patton relates, taking on a variety of roles can lead an actor to discover hidden talents and to expose him or her to previously undiscovered knowledge, but Paula recently received a benefit from her Warcraft training routine that she could never have anticipated.

Warcraft Actress Paula Patton Trains Hard And Her Butt Shows It

Whenever an actor takes on a physically demanding role, the performer is required to go through a training regimen with a fitness expert, oftentimes accompanied by a nutritionist, to help prepare for the role. This was the case for Patton in her role as Garona for Warcraft, and she admits that, in the beginning, she found the workout routine itself to be a great challenge, especially because Warcraft producers were looking for a very specific look for Garona.

“The [filmmakers] wanted Garona to have more muscle, for me to eat more protein and such, so it started with two and a half hours of physical training, six days a week,” says Paula. “You do it one day at a time, you grow to love it and then we added at least two hours of training with knives and sword.”

Ms. Patton adds that her intensive Warcraft training sessions expanded to include horseback riding, which was something Paula had always wanted to try.

Ms. Patton says the greatest thing about being an actress is the tremendous opportunities the career presents for allowing one to expand her horizons and under the guidance of established experts.

The fitness experts Paula trained with were demanding to say the least, but it wasn’t long before Patton realized that the grueling sessions were beginning to pay off. She was looking noticeably stronger and fitter, but Paula also came to realize that her backside was also changing shape. Paula wasn’t alone. Others were noticing the changes too.

“You don’t really look over your shoulder that often and my friends were like, ‘Girl, have you seen your butt lately?'” the Warcraft actress recalled with a laugh. “So I think if it was anything it was that, my butt got bigger and it changed, so that was fun. It was the thing I certainly didn’t need to have in the movie but I kind of liked it. You’re not thinking about it. Once we got past the training and the endurance and it became stunts, you’re not really thinking about it at that point, so it was a bit of a surprise.”

Paula Patton’s First Reaction To Warcraft: “Oh My God, Did I F–k It Up?”

Ms. Patton says she went into Warcraft determined to enjoy the experience and learn as much as she could throughout the production process, but, as filming wrapped and the first screening debuted, she began to worry that she wasn’t quite good enough. She says watching Warcraft for the first time was an emotional experience and Paula found herself focusing too much on her own performance, worrying that she failed in becoming a convincing Garona.

Patton watched Warcraft a second time in theaters as a regular audience member and the actress says it was then that she saw the film as a whole and truly enjoyed the experience. She says seeing Warcraft in an IMAX theater really helped her appreciate the grand scope of the film and now she’s really enjoying talking about it and sharing her experience.

Paula says she offered insight into her character where she could, but she also acknowledges that it was director Duncan Jones’ vision which she was helping to realize, so, in some areas, she had to bite her tongue. There was one area, however, in which Patton just couldn’t keep quiet — and that was really the problem. The size of Garona’s tusks were too daunting, says Paula.

“The only thing I know that I definitely was chiming in on was the tusks. I wanted to be able to speak,” says Ms. Patton. “They started out a lot larger and I was like, “I can’t talk with these on and you’re giving me all this dialogue. This is where I have to draw a line in the sand. I need to be able to speak.”

Warcraft is currently showing in theaters.

[Image by Theo Wargo/Getty Images]