JESSICA HENWICK
Step into the dojo with Iron Fist’s mistress of the martial arts
Fighting talk from Iron Fist’s Colleen Wing.
Please pretend I’m not in pyjamas at my parents’ house,” laughs Jessica Henwick, on the line to SFX, not in her pyjamas and most assuredly not at her parents’ house, no sir. The rising Brit star is back from New York, relishing some hard-won sofa time after slicing a mean katana as the lethal Colleen Wing in Iron Fist, Marvel’s latest collaboration with Netflix. It’s another fan-friendly franchise to follow her turns as Nymeria Sand in Game Of Thrones and crack X-Wing pilot Jess Pava in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A mainstay of the Marvel comic books, Colleen enters the orbit of billionaire martial arts master Danny Rand [Finn Jones] aka Iron Fist himself. “She has a lot of secrets,” says Henwick, who’ll reprise the role later this year in The Defenders. “She’s quite private, so she’s got these walls up. Danny’s just there, constantly knocking on the wall, and that’s aggravating to her. It’s an interesting dynamic!”
Colleen’s been in the comics for over 40 years now. Did it help to have all that backstory as research?
It’s nice to have it there, because Marvel are notoriously secretive a lot of the time! Even though they say “If you have any questions, ask us,” sometimes their answer would be “You’ll find out soon enough!” So I would occasionally dive back into the comic books and see if I could find the answer there. It’s nice to have something to draw upon. Is she close to the comic book version?
In some ways. A lot of time has passed and I think they just wanted her to be a little more modern. There are certainly characteristics that she has in common with that version. In her very first appearance in the comics she comes across as assured of herself, and she has no time for bullshit. And they’ve kept that attitude of take no prisoners. She’s completely aware of her own capabilities. You worked closely with stunt co-ordinator Brett Chan. What did he teach you?
He taught me Krav Maga, which is the Israeli defence system. He gave me aggression training and we did a lot of Thai kickboxing and we fused it all together. He used to be a bouncer. The interesting thing he said was that you never want to engage in a fight with someone – you literally want to take them down in the smallest amount of moves possible. And I was like, “That’s perfect! Let’s bring it into Colleen, no wasting movement.” She doesn’t like flourishes and she doesn’t like showing off. If she can take you down in five moves or two, she’s going to choose the two moves. How intense was the training?
We filmed for six months and every single day that I wasn’t filming I was training. Even on weekends I was going to the gym. I had a personal trainer, I was doing weights, I was doing Krav Maga, I was doing aikido, learning so many different fight styles. Brett worked on The Last Samurai, so he had managed to teach Tom Cruise how to look authentic. So I kind of took that in my stride and said well, if Tom Cruise can do it, I can fucking do it! It was immense, and so challenging on my body. At the end of it I acknowledged to myself, “This is the peak that my body has ever been.” I was on such a strict diet. I had so much energy, I slept very soundly, I was so healthy, but it’s a full-time job doing it, and I don’t get how these actors like the Hemsworths – who rely so much on it for their famous roles – do it all year round. At the end of Iron Fist I had two weeks off before I went into The Defenders and I was like “Fuck that!” I just went and ate noodles all day and I didn’t exercise once. How does the katana compare to your bullwhip in Game Of Thrones?
The only similarity is that my right arm became very muscly. With the bullwhip I’m right-handed and with the katana I stuck to my right hand as well. The biggest thing to worry about with the bullwhip is you’ve got to constantly have it above your head. The katana is much closer to the body – it’s a short-range weapon. When I was on Game Of Thrones and I had my fight scenes all the camera guys would bring out these riot shields to protect themselves! When you crack it, the tip of the bullwhip is breaking the sound barrier, that’s why it makes that sound. It sounds like a gunshot. It’s really frightening when it’s right next to your ear! How’s The Defenders going?
I’m not going to lie. I think the fans are really going to enjoy it. They’ve made a point to make it recognisable for all the fans – fans of Jessica Jones who didn’t watch Daredevil and fans of Daredevil who didn’t watch Luke Cage. They’ve made it accessible to everyone. I’m sure it’s going to break Netflix!
Iron Fist is available on Netflix now.
“IF TOM CRUISE CAN DO IT, I CAN F**KING DO IT!”