The Woman King star Lashana Lynch recently detailed her near-superhuman warrior training for the upcoming film. Set in 1823, Lynch stars as Izogie, one of General Nanisca's (Viola Davis) lieutenants in the Agojie, a real-life all-female army from the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. For her young king Ghezo, Nanisca leads her army in battle against rival neighboring empires, as well as invading European forces. Directed by The Old Guard's Gina Prince-Bythewood, and originally based on a story developed by A History of Violence star Maria Bello, the film will also star Sheila Atim as Lieutenant Amenza and Thuso Mbedu as the young recruit Nawi.
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As with many sword-and-sandal historical epics, there will be action-packed sequences that demand a high level of physicality from the film's actors. One such sequence required thousands of extras to engage each other in combat in a Braveheart-style battle scene. Davis previously detailed her training regiment for her role as the general, revealing that she endured nine months of intense strength training, and weightlifting, as well as learning a variety of hand-to-hand combat techniques.
In a recent interview with Variety, Lynch detailed the near-superhuman warrior training that she endured in her preparation for The Warrior King. The actor explained that after exercising in a variety of new ways for 15 hours a day, she felt "invincible." Lynch claims she really tested the limits of her body, pushing herself as she has never before. Read what the star said below.
Every single part was difficult, even the parts that I really enjoyed. I’ve done stunts before. I’ve worked with weapons before, but I haven’t trained every single [muscle]. I was shooting “Matilda” when I started training for this. I haven’t played a soft part and trained with a machete at night. I haven’t done 15-hour days before like that. I haven’t used a machete before. I haven’t trained barefoot before. I haven’t trained outside before. There’s so many firsts in this training that it made me feel like I was literally invincible.
Modern day voices would say, ‘You seem like a superhero,’ with the types of things that were asked of us, but really this has taught me that our bodies can just do this. No matter your age, your shape, your vibe, your weight, you can do this. Because, trust me, most days I came in and I thought, “Oh, no, my shoulder is dislocated, surely, because I’ve never felt this before.” And then our trainer Gabriela Mclain would come in and be like, “Alright, shoulder raises, arms out.” I had something in me somewhere and I was able to access it. The reserves were very deep for this, thank God. And gosh, you’re going to hear a lot during this press tour about the training because it’s quite indescribable. Even when we had days off, there were no days off.
Lynch's recount of her strenuous The Woman King workouts really shows the level of physicality needed for the upcoming action-adventure film. Although many of these types of films use stunt people for their fighting sequences and set pieces, it appears that many of these battles will feature the actors doing their own stunts. To give the most authentic performance for a role such as this, portraying a warrior of high-fighting skill, the actor must undergo a significant amount of training to convince the audience that she actually can carry herself into battle and hold her own. Based on Lynch's detailed account of her workout regimen, the actor has pushed herself to great success.
Putting the stars of a film through a highly-specialized training regimen is not uncommon for major movie productions, especially action-oriented projects. Alongside the U.S. Navy, actor Tom Cruise developed a full military-style training program for Top Gun: Maverick that put the film's actors through both a physical fitness regimen, but also flight training as well. This allowed the stars to look and act the part of members of the U.S. Armed Forces while operating real aircraft in a convincing manner. The Woman King uses similar techniques, but instead training the women with swords and machetes to have the Agojie come to life once again when the film hits theaters September 16.