Strong female characters like Priyaka Chopra’s “Nadia” are being praised for their weapons work on Citadel. And, according to one expert on who was on set, there’s a funny reason why they often outperform the men. The Citadel universe has been a trailblazer for bringing heroic women to the forefront of the spy genre, and with season two of the action-packed show now streaming on Prime Video, critics have noticed that its fit female stars are well adept with a weapon or three.
To find out what goes on behind the scenes, M&F talked to armory specialist, Ben Rothwell, who worked on Seasons 1 and 2, and he explained that an actor’s first experience with a real gun is often to comment on how heavy it is. Of course, real bullets are not used when filming, but productions do use blanks under controlled conditions.
What Armory Specialist Ben Rothwell Revealed About the Cast
Ben Rothwell has worked with Jason Statham and Citadel’s male star, Richard Madden, and he says that they are at the top of the game, but when it comes to the women, the expert says he’s noticed an advantage they often have over the men an edge over the men. “She was brilliant,” explains Rothwell. “We did another film with Priyanka, Heads of State, and she used guns an awful lot on that too.” Apparently, Rothwell has a tongue in cheek reason for praising the girls. “We tend to find, that women are actually better, partly because they listen, sorry everyone,” he jokes. “You give a gun to a guy, and they turn into a child really quickly.”
The Wild Grenade Launcher Scene That Nearly Went Too Far
Fortunately, Chopra underwent intensive training, is as fit as the come, and has often shared the process with her 92.9 million Instagram followers. But it’s not just this female lead that proved a point. Rothwell says that one of his favorite scenes involved another female character, no spoiler as to who, acing the task of firing a grenade launcher.
When building the mock grenade launcher, Rothwell says it got bigger and heavier as they tried to arrive at a final design. “Everything we offered up, it didn’t seem to matter how big or crazy we went,” they loved it, recalls the weapons pro of getting the final sign-off. “So, we just kept adding more and more guns on this poor girl,” he continues. “She actually ended up having, at one point, a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, a pistol, two knives, and some throwing stars.” Fortunately, after the crew finally overloaded the strong woman, items were gradually removed before the cameras rolled. “It’s a really cool action sequence,” he beams.
