‘The Killer’s Game’ Star Sofia Boutella Talks Her Action Respite and ‘Rebel Moon’ Character’s Future
Sofia Boutella desperately needed a break from action, and J.J. Perry’s The Killer’s Game provided exactly that.
After devoting nearly the entirety of 2022 to her most physically demanding role yet as Kora/Arthelais in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon franchise, Boutella was relieved that she didn’t have to bear the burden of being the primary action hero in Perry’s action-comedy. Instead, she was charmed by the romantic role she was offered alongside her former Hotel Artemis co-star Dave Bautista. Her Rebel Moon character also didn’t have the greatest luck in the romance department, so The Killer’s Game’s more hopeful love story likely appealed to her as well.
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The Algerian actor’s physical background is still on full display in the opening sequence, as her character, Maize, is a ballet dancer who’s eying retirement when she meets Bautista’s assassin character, Joe Flood.
“I enjoyed being in an action film and not doing any action,” Boutella tells The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh. “I do action films, but I am also trying to take roles that are different from that style and genre. So it was fun to still be in this genre and not do any action. I suppose it’s kind of like when I did Atomic Blonde.”
Boutella and Bautista remained in touch after becoming friends in the Hotel Artemis makeup trailer. In fact, Bautista sung her praises to Snyder when he was in the preliminary stages of setting up Rebel Moon. And when Boutella’s SAS: Rogue Heroes schedule clashed with The Killer’s Game’s own mid-strike production, Bautista refused to consider any other candidates and helped move mountains so that Boutella could still play Maize. (The Killer’s Game filmed in the strike-ridden summer of 2023 with a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.)
As for the future of Rebel Moon, nothing is official yet, but the prospects of Snyder’s multifilm ambition aren’t looking too promising after Netflix’s recent regime change. The streamer is the only entity to overcome Wall Street’s devaluation of streaming in the summer of 2022, but there have been numerous signals that it’s joining its fellow streaming competitors in making fewer and fewer big-budget plays.
In any event, Boutella is shedding some light on where Kora/Arthelais was headed, and she believes her already redemptive arc was putting her on a trajectory toward becoming the new “Redeemer.” When she was abducted and “adopted” by the villainous Imperium as a little girl, Arthelais found hope in the myth of the original Princess Issa, who was regarded as “The Redeemer.” Through the tutelage of her adoptive father Balisarius, Arthelais then grew up to become a gifted soldier until her father deceived her into assassinating the current Princess Issa for the sake of his own power grab. And while we may not see it completed on screen, that seismic event began Arthelais’ long road to redemption.
“Yeah, for sure,” Boutella says when asked if she believes Kora was slated to be the new Redeemer. “It’s a story of redemption all around, and she learned so much from that [assassination] moment when Issa tells her, ‘I forgive you.’ It was something that Arthelais did not understand at the time, but as time went on, it gave her the strength to keep going and not kill herself or let herself be killed despite that amount of guilt [she was feeling].”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Boutella also discusses how her ballet dancer character differs from her own career as a dancer, before explaining why she compared her Rebel Moon character to an addict.
It occurred to me that I’ve spent more time watching you on screen than any other actor in the last year. Between four different Rebel Moon cuts and The Killer’s Game, that’s a little over 12 hours of Sofia Boutella.
(Laughs.) I hope you’re not sick of me!
No, never! You’ve always held the screen well.
Well, thank you.
Was The Killer’s Game the first project you shot after your nearly year-long commitment to Rebel Moon?
No, it was the second. In between, I did the second season of a TV show called SAS: Rogue Heroes, which will come out in January or February of 2025, I think.
You have some physical moments in The Killer’s Game, for sure, but after nearly a year of intense work as Kora/Arthelais, was it nice to not be the one shouldering all of the action?
??Yeah, I loved it. I enjoyed being in an action film and not doing any action. (Laughs.) I mean, I do some dancing and I kick someone’s face, but I enjoyed it. I do action films, but I am also trying to take roles that are different from that style and genre. So it was fun to still be in this genre and not do any action. I suppose it’s kind of like when I did Atomic Blonde.
Maize is a ballet dancer, and early on, she explains how she wants to retire because dancing has taken its toll on her body. Can you relate to that? Is dancing more grueling than most people realize?
Yes, it requires so much of your body. It’s also very taxing, mentally and physically. It really hits you from every angle, and there’s a moment where the body doesn’t keep up. There are some dancers that are able to push it, but depending on whether you’ve had injuries, that meter changes and varies. It’s really a big topic because your brain can still keep going and sometimes your body doesn’t want to. It can’t. But it’s something that I was actually not able to relate to, because, fortunately, I’ve never had an injury or an incident that didn’t allow me to keep going as a dancer. I chose to step away from it because I fell in love with acting and I really wanted to pursue that craft. But I understand it because I’ve seen it happen around me many times. So I can understand what it might feel like when your body doesn’t want to or cannot keep going.
You and Dave Bautista didn’t interact together on screen in Hotel Artemis, but the two of you happen to be Zack Snyder’s two most recent lead actors. Did you use that bond to get to know each other some more and create your on-screen relationship?
We talked about it a little bit. We did have one scene together in Hotel Artemis, but we did not interact with each other in that one scene. We still talked in between takes, and I thought he was a lovely man who’s very kind and gentle. We then stayed in touch through DMs throughout the years, and we talked a lot when we were about to film this, because there was a lot of scheduling and maneuvering in order for me to be able to join him. So I’m glad that we were able to make it happen, but he was always very kind and gentle, so I’m really happy to have had an opportunity to work with him.
There’s a montage that shows Joe and Maize falling in love, so it sounds like you got a kick out of seeing Dave’s character become a gentle giant throughout that sequence.
(Laughs.) Of course, and a gentle giant is also what [Dave] is. So I was just able to play off of his energy. [Joe] can be a bit shy, and I really wanted Maize to be fiercely outgoing and very bubbly and happy to bring that smile out of him. When they have their first dinner date, she says to him, “You should smile more often, it suits you.” It was super sweet, and it was a lot of fun for me to be that little bee that buzzes around him to poke that cuteness out of him. So I thought it would be a nice contrast with [Joe’s] killer energy.
The Dolly Parton line, “Don’t get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life,” is the underlying point of this movie. Is that something you’ve had to remind yourself of throughout your career?
Well, I’m fortunate to really love what I do. I really enjoy it. I feel very much alive when I’m making art and creating a character on set. So I appreciate every second of it, and I don’t take it for granted. I also don’t feel like I’m suppressing other aspects of my life, really. When I am not filming on set, I do take time to explore nature and do activities, which is something that’s very important to me. This year, I learned to free dive for the first time, and I found it to be very meditative and calming. So I explored things like that for the very first time this summer, and it gave me so much while being completely different from what I normally love to do. But once I got back to work, I felt very much alive like I did when I was free diving. You get the chance to appropriate yourself with various characters and various personalities, and it’s a different, yet enjoyable, experience every time.
Sofia, I thought you were phenomenal in the Rebel Moon movies, and I knew it as soon as Kora yelled, “Stop!” at the soldiers who were assaulting Sam (Charlotte Maggi) inside the barn. She was partially issuing a plea to them because she didn’t want to have to unleash Arthelais again. She’d been running from that side of herself for years.
Yes, I also explored an area that was a bit more complex. I likened it to the relationship that somebody may have with a form of addiction. They know how it feels because that’s all they know, and they’re having a hard time detaching themselves from it. So I played it like she was addicted to it. She’d resisted it for a couple years, but she knew that once she opened herself up to Arthelais again, there’d be no stopping her. She would binge that side of herself for quite some time, especially when it’s fed with so much animosity and guilt and intricate, tricky emotions. So, yeah, that’s exactly how I did it. She was trying to keep Arthelais in a bottle for as long as she possibly could, but at that moment inside the barn, she knew that it was over. She was going to have to fight.
After being abducted as a child, Arthelais comforted herself with the myth of the first Princess Issa, who was referred to as “The Redeemer.” Since Kora was on her own redemption arc, do you think she was eventually going to become the new Redeemer instead of the current Princess Issa?
Yeah, for sure. It’s a story of redemption all around, and she learned so much from that [assassination] moment when Issa tells her, “I forgive you.” It was something that Arthelais did not understand at the time, but as time went on, it gave her the strength to keep going and not kill herself or let herself be killed despite that amount of guilt [she was feeling]. That would’ve ultimately been an act of selfishness, but being forgiven by Issa and understanding forgiveness is the hardest work at the end of the day, and that’s the path she chose.
Decades from now, when you look back on the Rebel Moon experience, what day will you likely recall first?
There’s so many, but I think it’ll be the day when we were on our practical village set in Santa Clarita and Zack was exploding everything. I might also think of the conversation that she has with Hagen [Ingvar Sigurdsson] early on in the first movie. I was finding the heart of the character at the time, which was really important to me.
And what about the same question for The Killer’s Game?
For The Killer’s Game, I enjoyed the beautiful city of Budapest and filming on all of its stunning locations, but I think it’d be the day on the church set when Dave had to lift me over and over. (Laughs.) That was a lot of fun, and it was such a fun film. Compared to Rebel Moon, they are two very different projects.
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The Killer’s Game opens in theaters on Sept. 13.
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