The Chronicle

Leveraged to kick butt

- SEANNA CRONIN

Less muscle, more technique for Moretz

CHLOE Grace Moretz has never shied away from roles in scary or violent movies. The cute little girl from The Amityville Horror, who was too young to be allowed to see the movie she starred in, is a teenager now.

At just 16 she already has the horror films Let Me In, The Dark Fields and Carrie under her belt.

She kicked butt, literally, in Kick-Ass as the adolescent crime-fighter Hit-Girl under the tutelage of her dad, played by Nicholas Cage.

But she’s also starred in more family-friendly films like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dark Shadows and Hugo.

Moretz returns to the Kick-Ass franchise to play the now teen Hit-Girl who continues to battle crime while dealing with the issues faced by any high school girl.

In this Q&A, she discusses the physical challenges of playing a vigilante superhero. Q: As Hit-Girl you have a lot of action scenes and stunts in Kick-Ass 2. How much are you allowed to do yourself?

A: I’m allowed to do a lot, probably about 90%. It is about trying to do as much as you can without getting hurt. You definitely don’t want to get hurt. I did the van sequence, for example. My stunt double did it at 60mph (96kmh) on a real freeway and then they put me on hydraulics on the car, where the car was shaking and the wheels were still running and everything. I did the full sequence. What you see in the movie in the wide shots is my double moving about on the van, but then when you cut in, you will see what I did on top of the van while it was moving. I also did a lot of the Mother Russia fight and I did all the training scenes with Aaron (Taylor-Johnson) with all those kicks and punches. That was me. Q: Was fighting Mother Russia at all intimidati­ng?

A: Her name is Olga. It is the perfect name for her. She was six-foot seven-inches tall, and in heels she was about seven feet. I am five-foot-four, so she towers almost three feet over me. It was weird to do a fight scene with someone when you can’t reach their neck, but it was a lot of fun. Off set, she was a sweetheart. She would go to the snack bar and get like 60 sandwiches. Q: What kind of physical training did you do for the role of Hit-Girl?

A: I did a lot. It is technique more than training, and the less muscle you build the more agile you are, especially with jujitsu and the martial arts. The less muscle you build the more you can do. It is about leverage. A lot of the stuff I was doing with Aaron was all leverage and when you are little and you have a low centre of gravity it is much easier to flip a tall guy. Q: Do you keep up any of the training in everyday life?

A: I try to keep it up. It is hard because you can get hurt easily doing that stuff and that is the last thing I need. That would put me out of work and I love what I do. The worst thing would be for me to be stuck at home saying, ‘No, why did I have to jump off that?’ or ‘Why did I have to go and hurt my ankle?’ Q: What do your friends think about your films and your career?

A: My friends are just my friends. I have known them since I was nine so they don’t even care. They will see me on the Teen Choice Awards and they say that it’s cool. They are just so supportive of me and they want me to be happy. They know that when I am with them I don’t like talking about my business, just like I don’t talk to them about what they are doing at school. It’s not like, ‘What did you learn in algebra today?’ We are just kids and we go and see movies and have sleepovers and we eat a lot of food.

Kick-Ass 2 is in cinemas now.

 ?? PHOTO: DANIEL SMITH ?? 90% HIT- GIRL: Chloe Grace Moretz stars in the movie Kick-Ass 2.
PHOTO: DANIEL SMITH 90% HIT- GIRL: Chloe Grace Moretz stars in the movie Kick-Ass 2.

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