Interview with The Doorman star Ruby Rose by Bobby Blakey
There are few actors as versatile as Ruby Rose who is a model, DJ, boxer, and actor. She gained probably her biggest notice when she joined the cast of Orange is the New Black. Since then she has been singing into our hearts in Pitch Perfect 3 and kicking major ass in films such as John Wick: Chapter 2, XXX: Return of Xander Cage and on the TV series Batwoman. Now she is headlining her own action film The Doorman alongside Jean Reno and I had the pleasure to sit down to discuss her work on the film.
Bobby: How did you get involved in The Doorman?
Ruby: I was presented the script and the first thing I looked at was the director, Ryuhei Kitamura who I’ve been a big fan of for a long time then found out Jean Reno was involved. So before I even read the script I was 99% sure I was going to do this. After reading the script and some discussion with the director next thing you know I am in Romania shooting the film.
Bobby: You have done a lot of action films in your career. Is this something you just gravitate towards or something people tend to come to you with now because they know you can pull it off?
Ruby: I think it’s a mixture of both. I have established myself with a couple of films that are heavy in the fighting and action, but also I really enjoy it. I’m a very physical person, was an amateur boxer and just always loved staying physical. I love doing them but I also try to make sure everyone I do is different than the last. The action has to make sense to me for the story.
Bobby: That’s why I love your films because you always seem to reinvent yourself for the roles and keep a variety coming even if it’s in the same genre. I think you worked with Simon Rhee as stunt coordinator on this one right?
Ruby: Yeah with Simon and his team.
Bobby: Did you get to do all the fighting yourself and how long did you have to train for that?
Ruby: I did all the stunts myself except for maybe one. My stunt double was an Asian man with a big neck and just a tough strong dude. He is shorter and wider than me and had to wear a wig. I took one look and said this will never work. There is nothing worse than seeing that it’s definitely not the actor. I enjoyed the fact that I had that responsibility to do the stunts. Simon is such a good trainer and his team are all awesome to work with. We trained about 4 hours a day for a week and I would video it as well to work on my own.
Bobby: As an actor everyone has their own process of finding the various emotions they need to deal with. Do you have a go to place or did you have to do some research to deal with the PTSD side of the character?
Ruby: In reading a lot of stories and information about my great grandfather’s time in the military, while he didn’t suffer from really bad PTSD, I read about others that had and what they dealt with. I also had a car accident when I was young and have suffered a little PTSD from that throughout my life that I drew from. Also working on another film SAS that is written by a sociopath who was in Vienna and was explaining to me how people on the spectrum being in the military is one of the best things you can do because they don’t get PTSD. He explained to us what he and his friends went through and how terrible it is and how it affects relationships, getting work and all these different aspects of life. From all that I had a pretty good understanding of PTSD to draw from.
Bobby: You always hear stories about people struggles working with some younger actors and here you spend a lot of time with them. Was the experience any different than working with an adult actor for you?
Ruby: Part of the reason I wanted to play this part was because of the relationship with these kids because I hadn’t done that in a film yet. I loved both of them but Kila who plays the little girl is crazy. I am a little bit scared of spiders. Not majorly, but I don’t want them thrown at me. We would be in a stairwell waiting for them to say action and she would find a spider and tap it to throw it onto me and I would scream. She was a prankster, but when they called action she was very professional. Julian as well was professional and has worked a lot already. We had a great time.
Bobby: If there anything else that you can tell us about?
Ruby: A lot are actually secret, but I did just finish a film called Vanquish with Morgan Freeman that will come out at some point and then SAS: Red Notice that I have already completed so I am pretty excited.
Bobby: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and looking forward to your future projects.
Ruby: Thank you, I appreciate it.
Check out The Doorman when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 13th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.