8 Actresses Who Can Kick Your Ass

Charlize Theron

A former teenage model and then a student at the Joffrey School of Ballet, Charlize Theron has built a career that spans genres and character types. She won an Oscar for portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), and her super intense side broke through again playing Imperator Furiosa in 2015’s high-octane action sequel Mad Max: Fury Road, followed by Atomic Blonde and Fate of the Furious in 2017. Not a fighter by nature, Theron worked hard with eight trainers at David Leitch’s 87Eleven studio in order to get in shape for Atomic Blonde, mixing it up with martial arts, boxing, and wrestling. The intense two and a half months, which included four hours a day of training, also resulted in a twisted knee, bruised ribs, and two cracked teeth. But the extreme dedication and hard work paid off. Director David Leitch changed the approach to filming the movie, going for longer takes because, in his words, “She could do 20 moves without cutting.”

Brie Larson

Brie Larson soars as Captain Marvel, and her movie will vault over the $1 billion mark with ease. But the road to super stardom was not easy, and Larson put in the hours to make sure she was in prime shape for the part, especially considering she will also play a crucial role in Avengers: Endgame. She’d been in big-budget movies before, like Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Kong: Skull Island, but her Marvel debut was more intense and involved. Her workout routine (which you can find on the Playbook fitness app) ran five days a week for nine months with trainer Jason Walsh and included weighted hip thrusts, weighted press ups, Bulgarian split squats, and pull-up drills. As reported by the L.A. Times, her training was split into three three-month periods: foundational training for Avengers: Endgame, training during the filming of that movie, and her Captain Marvel training along with technical work stunts and fights.

Oh, and she can push around a 5,000-pound Jeep:

Marvelous indeed.

Rosa Salazar

While Rosa Salazar racked up a good amount of film and TV credits throughout this past decade, Alita: Battle Angel is her breakout role as a star. While she may look petite, the 5’4” actor packs a wallop. Prior to Alita, she appeared in the young adult action film Insurgent and two Maze Runner movies. To prepare for the high-octane, sci-fi flick, inspired by the Japanese manga title, she studied multiple martial arts to portray the film’s mythical discipline called Panzer Kunst.

She and her Sensei, Keith Hirabayashi, combined staff work, kickboxing, Kung Fu, Eagle Claw, and Muay Thai, training her for three hours per day, five days a week for five months. She says she did a lot of kickboxing to raise her endurance level, because she was going to do stunts in a performance capture suit over 12 hour days (or longer) during the months-long shoot. Even months after filming on Alita ended, she was still continuing to practice and stay in shape, and she looks fierce.

Michelle Rodriguez

Michelle Rodriguez has been a badass on screen ever since she debuted in the boxing movie Girlfight (2000). Her most famous role is Letty Ortiz in Fast & The Furious franchise, and she has also appeared in action-packed flicks like Avatar, Machete, and Resident Evil: Retribution, not to mention the hit TV series Lost. That’s a bulked up list. As she told Men’s Journal, she mixes up her exercise regimen between intense aerobics workouts, hiking, and even skydiving. She calls herself an eco-friendly eater who prefers foods like free-range meats, fish, beets, broccoli, and spinach. She takes her tactical training seriously too:

Rodriguez may actually be moving on from the Fast & The Furious franchise as she feels the testosterone-laden series does its women a disservice, particularly because of their lack of interaction. Not to worry – even if Rodriguez does not return to F&F, she’ll find something new and exciting to dig into.

Gal Gadot

It would be easy for naysayers to dismiss Gal Gadot for landing the coveted role of Wonder Woman in part because she was crowned Miss Israel in 2004. But right after winning that contest she served as a solider for two years in the Israeli Defense Forces, including involvement in the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War, meaning she was fighting in real life before she transformed into a warrior goddess onscreen. Gadot has said that her training for Wonder Woman was even tougher than the military – she spent a year doing martial arts training, weight training, cardio intervals, and TRX training, gaining 17 pounds of muscle in the process. She’s already trained hard for Wonder Woman 1984, her fourth appearance as the DC Comics superhero, which is due out next year.

Tessa Thompson

Tessa Thompson has amassed a diverse resume over the last 14 years, and recently she has been building up her action movie chops with appearances in Thor: Ragnarok (for which she added 15 pounds of muscle) and Annihilation. Soon she will reprise her role as Valkyrie in Avengers: Endgame and will appear in Men In Black: International. For Thor, Thompson trained on set in Australia with Amanda Walker for 20 to 60 minutes per day, up to six days a week.

Their regimen included high-intensity interval training using bodyweight and weight training, finishing with a short Crossfit-focused workout. Thompson has criticized how Hollywood writers describe female heroines as sexy and badass. She could care less about the former; she wants to put on the muscle and tone up. And she looks perfect for each role.

Maggie Q

Like Michelle Rodriguez, Maggie Q has been kicking butt on screen from the start in Hong Kong and Hollywood. Jackie Chan saw potential in her early on and had his trainers prepare her for action movie stardom. Check her out taking on 10 assassins in Naked Weapon (2002):

Before landing her current regular role as FBI agent Hannah Wells on TV’s Designated Survivor, she was tearing up the small and big screen in TV’s Nikita and movies like Mission Impossible: III and Live Free or Die Hard, in which she laid the smackdown on Bruce Willis. She became a vegan over 20 years ago and regularly practices Katonah Yoga. Her Nikita workouts included power yoga, cardio weight training, and cardio intervals. She’s a lean, mean fighting machine.

Michelle Yeoh

Although Michelle Yeoh first came to international prominence in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and then the Oscar-nominated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), she had been starring or co-starring in Hong Kong action movies for over a decade. She is known for her powerful punches, high kicks, and graceful moves, which can be traced back to her study of ballet, which began at age 4 and ran though her time at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. A spinal injury impeded her dance career, but she continued in the arts including acting and choreography. At age 20, she was crowned Miss Malaysia and Miss Moomba, and she represented Malaysia at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London. That led to working on a television commercial with Jackie Chan, which then attracted attention from the Hong Kong film industry.

She rapidly became a bonafide action star, absorbing new martial arts like Tai Chi as she went along doing films like Police Story 3: Supercop and Wing Chun before her Hollywood break. In 2016, she reprised her sword-wielding role from Crouching Tiger… in its sequel, Sword of Destiny, and she is now the newest Star Trek captain on the Discovery series. Sample her prowess from over the years in this fun montage: