MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ

is Holga the Barbarian

Your character is the brute force of the pack. Were you picking up an axe and swinging it around straight away?

I gained a good 15 pounds of muscle for it. It was a lot of eating and I’m not an eater. For five months, I was like, three fistfuls of protein a day. I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t know if I can handle this for longer!’ I got some discipline in there with my trainer; it was fantastic.

What was the vibe on set?

There’s nobody like Chris Pine. Meeting him was an extraordinary experience. He is such a dedicated actor. This guy really loves acting! You give the guy words and he just goes nuts. He loves words! He loves enunciating words. He loves pronouncing words in different ways. He’s a hoot! And Justice is extraordinary. I love that kid. The laughs that I had with that generation because, I’m such an ’80s kid, and they’re so Gen Z. Justice and Sophia schooled the hell out of me on what this generation is all about. On top of that, [directors] John and Jonathan were creating magic every day on set, where mostly it was analogue. I got to breathe in an actual environment where people took the time to detail out the etchings on wood. Even the scrolls had lyrics and different texts from the D&D world. They put so much attention to detail that every day was like visiting Disney World.

There were also puppets.

Those guys are dope, dude! I would just go and crash their domain while they were making monsters. I was astounded. These guys have been around for more than 30 years. And you’re talking about guys that are leftover from Jurassic Park. They worked with ’90s Spielberg, dude. That’s gangster. It was dope.