Snake Eyes Star Ursula Corbero Teases A Different Kind Of Baroness For The Movie - Exclusive
Fans of the iconic "G.I. Joe" nemesis The Baroness have discovered over the past four decades that the Cobra intelligence officer is hardly a one-note villain. The Baroness is not only a badass, but a badass with wit and style, requisite qualities for any actor who dares to meet the hopes of fans when playing the wicked Cobra villain in live-action form. Following Sienna Miller's turn as The Baroness in the "G.I. Joe" franchise's first live-action feature film "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" in 2009, famed Spanish film and TV star Úrsula Corberó has taken up the mantle of The Baroness in the new action adventure "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins."
In the film, "Crazy Rich Asians" breakthrough star Henry Golding stars in the title role of "Snake Eyes," which chronicles the beginnings of the famed ninja before he became the famed masked commando for the G.I. Joe strike team. Haunted by a tragedy during his childhood, Snake Eyes is resolute into his adult years to find criminals responsible for his life-altering trauma. On his path to retribution Snake Eyes encounters Tommy Arashikage (Andrew Koji), whom he elects not to execute despite a kill order from his menacing crime boss, Kenta (Takehiro Hira).
After their escape from certain doom, Tommy invites Snake Eyes — if he passes three tests — to join his long-revered Arashikage Clan. But when Kenta enlists the help of Cobra and The Baroness to dismantle the clan, some startling revelations about Snake Eyes emerge and the brotherly bond between the loner and Tommy are broken.
In an exclusive interview with Looper, Corberó hinted at what to expect from her version of The Baroness.
Úrsula Corberó calls her character a 'renewed Baroness'
Growing up in Barcelona, Úrsula Corberó said she was aware that "G.I. Joe" was a worldwide phenomenon but admitted that she didn't know a lot about the franchise before she was asked to play The Baroness. She said that her unfamiliarity with the character and the global impact of "G.I. Joe" aided her in an odd sort of way because it took the weight of fan expectations off her shoulders. That's not to say Corberó didn't study the history of The Baroness, and from that research, there were elements from the character's past iterations that she and filmmaker Robert Schwentke wanted to continue to highlight.
"I was doing my thing," Corberó told Looper. "I had a lot of these huge conversations with Robert, the director, and we were talking a lot about the Baroness and her power, and her sense of humor, which we thought it would be very important to keep that part because she's the villain, and she's allowed to do anything — and that's the funniest part. So, it was very funny. I enjoyed it."
While Corberó was intent on keeping The Baroness' wicked sense of humor intact, she wanted to play a bit with the character's striking sense of fashion. As such, fans will recognize a lot of familiar sartorial sensibilities associated with the Cobra legend, like her long, black trench coat, while some of the character's other familiar styles, like her hair and glasses, have been updated.
"I knew that [style] was a very important thing for the producers, and the people from the team. I remember I tried 100 different glasses before we picked one, and we did all know that they were the ones," Corberó recalled for Looper. "Everything was like that. I mean, the same happened with the costumes. The same happened with the hair. There was this big conversation about doing The Baroness with the long hair as she appears in the comic books or to do something different. I'm pretty happy with the result. I think it's, yeah, it's something different. It's like a renewed Baroness, which I like."
"Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" is now playing in theaters nationwide.