When Maggie Q shot the high-octane thriller \u201cThe Prot\u00e9g\u00e9\u201d in January 2020, the 42-year-old actress was still recovering from a major operation \u2026<\/b>
\nWhen Maggie Q shot the high-octane thriller \u201cThe Prot\u00e9g\u00e9\u201d in January 2020, the 42-year-old actress was still recovering from a major operation on her spine two months prior. That didn\u2019t stop her from kicking ass, jumping off balconies and being hit by a speeding car to play a vengeful assassin named Anna. \u201cI didn\u2019t have time to train because I had come out of surgery, and then I was on bed rest and then I had to go right into making this film,\u201d she told The Post. \u201cI wish I\u2019d had the opportunity to hit [training] hard, and learn 500 moves and have five months to [learn them].\u201d But she didn\u2019t. So Q relied on her years of conditioning work with Jackie Chan in the late \u201990s and early aughts to quickly get into fighting form for the new film, out Friday. \u201cBecause of my background and my 20 years of experience, I was able to bring to the table that muscle memory,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was intense.\u201d Born Margaret Quigley in Honolulu, Q was raised in Hawaii by her Vietnamese mother and Polish and Irish-American father. After high school, she moved to China to pursue acting and modeling. There, she found locals sometimes struggled to pronounce \u201cQuigley,\u201d so she shortened her name to \u201cQ\u201d and went on to memorable roles in \u201cMission: Impossible III\u201d and the CW television series \u201cNikita.\u201d In her new film, \u201cThe Prot\u00e9g\u00e9,\u201d Q\u2019s Anna is forced to relive the trauma of her childhood by returning to her motherland of Da Nang, Vietnam, to avenge the murder of her adopted father, a contract-killer played by Samuel L. Jackson. The actress drew inspiration from the limitless tenacity she has observed in her mother and other Vietnamese women. \u201cThese women are so super strong,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing knocks them down. And that\u2019s Anna\u2019s stock, that\u2019s what she comes from.\u201d Q is similarly tough. She refused to let her medical woes hinder her own pulsating performance. \u201cLife doesn\u2019t wait for you. The opportunity is happening, and you either make it happen or you don\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cMy audience is not going, \u2018Oh, you know, she\u2019s probably still in pain\u2019… No one is thinking about that,\u201d she added. \u201cYou either bring it or you don\u2019t. There\u2019s no excuses.\u201d Q also got to show her softer side, working with Jackson, now 72. \u201cIn the movie, [we share] this really beautiful and platonic love,\u201d she explained. \u201cHe plays somebody who really cares about [Anna] and takes her into the world, under his wing, because it was the right thing to do. She\u2019s everything to him, and he\u2019s literally her world.\u201d Then there\u2019s the cat-and-mouse spark of lust ignited between Q\u2019s character and her devilishly hot rival Rembrandt, played by Michael Keaton,69. \u201cAnna and Rembrandt are both very smart and very powerful,\u201d Q said. \u201cAnd when they meet, it\u2019s as if they have finally each met their match, in both senses of the word.\u201d The passion between the star-crossed cutthroats reaches a climax towards the end of the film, as they vie to outwit one another in a battle of wills. But for Q, the greatest victories are those she\u2019s scoring off-screen, getting cast in meatier, more complex roles. \u201cAs a woman and a minority, you\u2019re constantly fighting to keep your head above water, because the opportunities that are presented to other people aren\u2019t always presented to you… Now I\u2019m beginning to see more representation,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s everything.\u201d<\/p>\n