Aubrey Plaza's Action Scene In Operation Fortune Had Her Scared & Begging For More
From her signature role on "Parks & Recreation" through film projects spanning the gamut between "Dirty Grandpa" and "Emily the Criminal," Aubrey Plaza is not known as an action star. But in "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre," starring Jason Statham and directed by Guy Ritchie, Plaza gets at least one big action set piece to add to her highlight reel, and while promoting the movie, she spoke about the experience of filming it.
Plaza sat down with Collider to discuss her experiences filming "Operation Fortune," some of which took her out of her usual comfort zone. When asked how enjoyable it was for her to film the scene in which she fires a gun at antagonists from the window of a moving vehicle, her answer was detailed and revealing.
"That day was the very last day of the shoot for me. I had been there for three months. I was waiting for that day. I mean, you know, I'm in an action movie. It's like, 'Give me some action.' Because my character was more of the tech genius dealing with the hacking into the whatever, so I was really excited to get my weapon and get in there," said Plaza. But, she also admitted: "It was scary."
Plaza said she is 'motivated by fear' which helped her in the scene
After first throwing a little (presumably) lighthearted shade towards her co-star in the film, Aubrey Plaza went into more detail about her emotional state filing her big action sequence in "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre."
"Josh Hartnett, who fancies himself a stunt driver – and he was, whatever, to a certain extent – but he was really driving the car and we were whipping around cliffs," she said. While production was hopefully safe, there's always a danger in performing such stunts on screen, and Plaza admitted to being fearful during part of the process. She went on to explain how that fear actually helped her in the scene, and even pushed her to go further than originally intended:
"I will say, I am driven by fear, motivated by fear, survival," the actress continued. "Some of it felt real, and then when I got to do the actual stunt with the stunt driver doing the little donuts and me shooting out the thing, it was awesome. I was like, 'More.' They didn't even want me to get out of the window. Originally, I was just gonna have my arm shooting through the window, and I just begged them like, 'Please let me get all the way out there," and they let me do it. So it was cool.'"
Perhaps we'll be seeing more action and stunts from Aubrey Plaza in the future — a gender-swapped "Rambo" remake, perhaps? Stay tuned.