Ruby Rose Reveals What It Was Really Like Filming Vanquish - Exclusive Interview
Ruby Rose is currently starring in George Gallo's (Bad Boys, Midnight Run) latest action crime thriller, Vanquish. As Victoria, she is a single mom — and retired drug courier — who is forced to fight for her daughter's life when the child is kidnapped by a retired cop named Damon, played by Morgan Freeman.
Rose has been making a name for herself as an action star, bringing ferocity along with supremely honed physical skills to roles like Ares in John Wick: Chapter 2 and most recently as Grace Lewis in SAS: Red Notice. As Kate Kane in the Batwoman TV series, we've also gotten to see her transition with fluidity from wealthy heiress to superhero.
Looper spoke to Rose prior to the release of Vanquish and she filled us in on what it took to become a mother on a mission, as well as how exciting it was to work with veterans Gallo and Freeman.
Approaching a new role
Hi, Ruby. You are on a roll with the action movies. We talked when SAS: Red Notice was released. What initially attracted you to the role of Victoria in Vanquish?
Well, for starters, I've always wanted to work with George Gallo and Morgan Freeman. I mean, of course! But reading the script, I was like, "Ah, please be something that resonates with me." I just loved how different this situation was, how different the script was, how different Victoria is.
Where did you find differences from some of the other action-based roles you've had?
I have played a lot of characters within the genre of action thriller, but never have I played someone that has such an undeniable reason and force pushing her to have to do these things. It's usually a choice or is part of a mission, or it's part of a job. This is a sort of different situation where she's just a single mom trying to do the best for her daughter. She's a caretaker. Then she has this sort of ultimate moment of betrayal very early on, which stuns her — that she didn't know who this person [she once trusted] really was — and it throws her. But then she hasn't got time to process that because she has to save her daughter.
Becoming Victoria
Yes. She has to spring into action.
She has to literally go straight from that, from her world being torn apart, into finding and rescuing and staying alive to protect her daughter. I love that because it's not that she wants to go and do these things. It's kind of painful. It's bad memories. It's everything that she doesn't want to do, but she's been given a choice. I enjoyed that there was a different reason and intention going into each of these things, just getting closer and closer to get her daughter.
Right. How did you get into that headspace of being a parent who would do anything and face all of these things from the past, and the unknown too, just to protect their child?
It was really easy because I read it and I thought a lot about my mom because my mom had me when she was 20. It would have probably been a similar age difference to the daughter that I played, Juju, and I played her mother. Sorry. I just remember some of the things that my mom did and being a single mom as well. There's something about the sort of fibers of their being when their daughter, their little baby, is in trouble, there's nothing that they wouldn't do. I could really see where Victoria was coming from with all these different things and how just, obviously, mortifying and terrifying, but pushing those feelings aside to just, "I have to get my daughter, there's just no other way about it." I just took a lot from my personal experience with my mom.
Sharing the screen with Morgan Freeman
George Gallo has made some great action movies. How did he help you develop your Vanquish character?
George helped me with the character a lot. He kind of just liked my input, especially when I was talking about my mom and also different times where you've seen a mom do things like lift a car to save their daughter. He kind of just loved and let me go on sort of the route that I wanted to go on very much.
You haven't worked with Morgan Freeman previously. What was that like?
Morgan was also fantastic. I loved working with him. He lights up a room. He's also just such an amazing actor. All the scenes we had that were quite intimate, the emotion was just palpable. We could just really feel it. We spent a lot of time going back and forth and saying, "What do you think about this? Should we change that?" Morgan had said he hadn't really done that for a while, or that other people don't really do that with films. He hasn't done it to that extent since like theater. In theater, that's what everyone does and they love doing it. But in film, he says a lot of the time people just turn up and they walk on set and they say their lines. He enjoyed us being able to do that together. I did too, and I just thought that just made the movie all that much better. George would sort of sit there and just like, he'd insert things. He just loved watching what was happening.
Vanquish is currently showing in select theaters and can be seen on Apple TV and streaming platforms April 20. Blu-ray and DVD viewers can see the Ruby Rose-led action movie on those formats April 27.