You got to be the lead in your first movie, Haywire. What was it like to share in the ensemble of a Fast and the Furious movie?

We sort of get Girlfight vs. Haywire in this movie when you fight Michelle Rodriguez.

CraveOnline: I was so excited for you when you booked Fast & Furious 6 because that’s huge.

Gina: Yeah, when I got that call I was just in L.A. in an apartment. To get any job is good but to be part of such a big franchise, I was just like thank you, thank you, dancing around my apartment alone.

What kind of dancing do you do in your apartment alone?

Gina: It depends on what kind of call it is and that was a jumping, really dorky child dance.

We sort of get Girlfight vs. Haywire in this movie when you fight Michelle Rodriguez.

Gina: Yeah, yeah, of course I wanted to go after Dom and Hobbs. I’d love to have a big fight scene with a massive person like that but when they explained to me the whole premise of Letty coming back and how important it was for my character to be the opposing force there, and how much they wanted to make a really awesome girl fight, I was just like, “Okay, I think that’s fresh. I can definitely deliver that.” Michelle was just so funny. The girl just makes me laugh and I think we had incredible chemistry off screen and it made it more comfortable to push each other and be rough with each other on screen and laugh about it afterwards. Nobody was hurt. It was a lot of fun and a different kind of thing for me.

I think that’s the fight we want to see. When you’re fighting in the tube station, was it a real location or a set they build? Was there any padding in that area?

Gina: I think very little padding. Just for insurance purposes, they had to put stuff on corners just in case somebody fell and really, really got hurt. The setup of it was six to seven floors down and it’s an old tube station that’s shut down. The elevators don’t even work so I felt so bad for the whole film crew. I mean, the camera guys, cinematographers and their people had to lug these cameras up and down. There was no bathroom down there so we literally had two days to shoot the fight scene. Going down there, being physical, it’s hot, doing everything of course myself, and if you had to go to the bathroom you had to run up six flights of stairs and time is money. It definitely, I think, adds to the whole feel of the fight and it’s a really cool location too.

Had you seen Girlfight and was it fairly accurate to boxing?

Gina: I haven’t seen Girlfight actually but I really respect Michelle. She’s one of those people that you just love to watch on film. You know who Michelle Rodriguez is. You just learn to find a place in your heart for her because you adore seeing her act.

I think we recognize some of your signature moves. You’re still doing all the flips and holds yourself?

Gina: Oh yeah, the flying arm bar. Yeah, that was an amazing thing to do. Of course everybody’s talking about insurance with that move and I’m like, “Are you kidding me? I am doing that myself. There’s no even question about it. I don’t care what insurance says.” Of course finally, they started letting me do the move on some of the stunt guys, only two weeks before we actually had to shoot the scene. The first time I did it, they were like, “Oh, she does this better than we did it so it’s okay.” The trick is, to do that on somebody who’s smaller than you, you have to use all of your momentum and it’s pretty much doing a flip with somebody’s arm between your legs. It’s easier to do it on a guy who can handle a certain amount of weight and be stronger, but to do it with somebody who’s small is a little bit trickier. I was so ready and down for that challenge.

Did you ultimately do the arm bar on Michelle?

Gina: Oh, of course. I did it over and over and over and I enjoyed it because I could see the cinematographers and everybody around that was watching it was just so excited that an actress is actually doing something like that for real. No CGI, nothing, I was doing that myself and I think that added a little entrtainment for the evening. I think that whole fight, whenever I was on set and doing fighting, I think people had a good day because it was fun. To see somebody who was actually doing it and performing in the movie was special.

No, I know you did it yourself, but was Michelle on the receiving end or did you do it against her stuntwoman?

Gina: Yeah, that was a stuntwoman.

I’ve actually seen you fake fight more than I’ve seen you real fight just because I didn’t follow every MMA fight. Is that weird to you?

Gina: Well, I think it’s awesome because when people see what I’m doing on film and they want to know any background on me, they can see where I come from and why I am this way. I think that’s a compliment to me so if somebody has no idea who I am and they see, “Hey, that was pretty cool and I wonder who is that?” And then go on YouTube and watch some of the stuff that made me who I am, I’m proud of that.

You got to be the lead in your first movie, Haywire. What was it like to share in the ensemble of a Fast and the Furious movie?

Gina: It was such a good move for me because I needed to go and get the experience and be a part of a big production. You can speculate all you want on how great of an actress you want to be and how you want to perform but until you get the opportunity, you never know how good you’re going to be on film. So for me, that was just a great experience to go and be around. Now I feel like I haveHaywire which is a beautiful, strong, intimate experience that was safe. Now I have this experience and I did a movie called In the Blood that came directly after Fast 6 which I’m very excited about because it was In the Blood that I started feeling leagues more comfortable acting. I really, really got the bug now. If I had any doubts before, they’re all squashed because now I’m really looking at the scripts that I’m being offered and I’m reading through things. It’s going to be important for me to be a character and to have character development as well as take action to the next level.

We talked about In the Blood last year. That was already on your schedule. So In the Bloodwaited for you to do Fast & Furious?

Gina: It was a little hectic at first. To get released from Fast and the Furious 6 was almost like down to the day I didn’t know if it was going to happen. Finally, thank God, Universal was a really cool studio and they gave me the go ahead to leave and shoot this movie for a month right directly after that. They’ve got such a huge budget on Fast and the Furious 6, if they needed anything, if they needed to get me back, thank goodness they got everything and they signed a waiver so that I could go do In the Blood. Literally, I wrapped on Fast 6, I got on a plane to Puerto Rico and a day and a half later I was shooting In the Blood for the longest hours of my life, straight for four weeks. I didn’t get home until December 22 which went straight into Christmas and seeing my family, and I’m so glad I did it because I feel like I had such a great experience on Fast 6 and such great opportunity and exposure, but then In the Blood I think, when people start seeing the teaser for that, they’re going to be excited. I think it’ll be a fun movie for people to see the range and where I hopefully will want to go.

Will we still know it’s a Gina Carano movie?

Gina: I think you guys are going to be pleasantly surprised. Of course you’re going to know it’s me, but I think you’re going to see me be a character and really get into the feeling of what my character is. I was able to somehow really just go for it. I don’t know if it was such a quick shoot or the chemistry between the cast on In the Blood or what it was. I’ve seen a teaser for it and my heart lights up because I’m like, “That is a movie I would want to go see just to check out, just because it’s so intense and interesting and different.” It’s like okay, if I can do that, if somebody sees that, they might be like, “Okay, she’s really going for it.”   (CraveOnline.com)(Fred Topel)

Collider: Since the the Fast and Furious franchise is all about cars, I was curious what your first car was.

Gina:  Oh, my first car was a Chevy truck and I couldn’t tell you what year it was, but … my papa – my grandfather – gave my mom a truck when she was in high school and then my older sister got the same truck, so by the time I got the truck … I mean, we’re talking pathetic little radio with an antenna and the windshield wipers didn’t work, but it was painted baby blue and it had my name on the side of it. My papa didn’t want to spoil us too much so he tried to keep it real. [laughs]

Yeah, same thing with me. I had the hand-me-down car that was probably older than I was.

Gina: Yeah and then my little sister gets the old, old-school Mercedes that was my mom’s college car and I’m like, “Oh, you guys just treat the middle child like that, huh?”

After your experience with Haywire, how did that change your Hollywood exposure?  Did you start getting more calls? What sort of calls were you getting?

Gina: It’s a film that piqued people’s interest and I think people still, even after Haywire,were a little gun-shy, but they still wanted to talk about it. They definitely wanted to talk a lot about it. So, when I got the call for Fast and Furious 6, that was, “Okay, now I can go from doing something like Haywire with director Steven Soderbergh and take that experience and then go into a huge franchise.”  Really, there’s nothing that can teach you more than experiencing all this.

After that, I did In the Blood, and that was directed by John Stockwell.  I went straight from London to Puerto Rico and only had a day and a half off from shooting Fast 6 to filming In the Blood, and it was just a four-month, intense, crazy shoot that I learned so much about myself acting-wise. I was so excited to be like, “Okay, I think I really want to get more into this, I really want to explore this, because if I can do what I have done so far in such a short amount of time, I want to see what else is inside me.” It’s challenging. Of course, I feel like I can always do better with action and I always want to push the envelope there as long as I can because I’m a physical person and I love expressing myself physically, but I’m also, on the very flipside, an extremely emotional person.  I like watching the relationships and the chemistry and the relatability … seeing somebody do it just right, just like if I’d see a fight scene in a movie, it’s like, “Okay, that person’s moving correctly and throwing their punches correctly,” and so, I want to portray that in acting.  I do love entertaining and I love characters; it’s one of the reasons why I’m going into this with a positive belief in myself and I like this more than fighting right now, because in fighting, you’re representing yourself.  In acting, you get to explore such an artistic side with different characters to research and learn and explore different things inside yourself and I do that anyway, so I might as well be doing something that I already do, as in a second nature to me, on film.

Fast and Furious 6 obviously has a lot of great action, but it has good character turns and relationship building.  We’ve got to talk about your fight scenes in this movie because they’re brutal, they’re fantastic and they’re actually refreshing; it’s nice to see the ladies getting involved in the action in these films.  You have two big fight scenes with Michelle Rodriguez; can you talk about how you approached the choreography and rehearsals?

Gina: I think with such a massive film like this and knowing that they wanted the fight scene between two women to be great, they hired such a wonderful stunt coordinator and we were training, it seems like, forever.  As soon as I got to London, it was fight rehearsal after right rehearsal.  Michelle was great; she showed up to every one.  It’s kind of interesting.  You never know who’s going to be standing in front of you, how intimidated they’re going to be or how insecure they’re going to be with acting or with action.  They don’t know me, either.  All they know is my past of being a professional fighter, so what kind of ideas have they built up in their head about me, not being able to control my punches or getting frustrated, the cliché that people think about fighters.  But me and Michelle had such a great energy and there were no egos involved and I think we really took care of each other and made it okay to have a couple bumps and bruises.  You can’t take it too seriously because this is what we’re doing. Nobody was hurt; I really pride myself on that.  I don’t think I’ve ever hurt anybody unless I intended to. [laughs]

I had a blast doing this. The rehearsals were intense. We went over the fight scenes over and over and over, me and Michelle did, until we were absolutely sick of it.  That made it, on the day, so much easier to perform, like a dance that we had done over and over and over and on the day it was just like, “Oh!” And you put your energy in there that you’ve been holding up until the day and it was just such a beautiful way to do business and to work. It’s just like studying for a test and making the test easy; it makes it a lot of fun, especially when people enjoy it.

From script to screen, about how much changed? Was there a lot of improvisation on set or was it pretty much as scripted? Do you know if any of your scenes didn’t make the final cut?

Gina: That was really interesting because when I did that Haywire experience, what was written in the script with the revisions and everything is what was shot.  Fast and Furious 6was constantly, constantly changing and just constantly a new thing every single day, so you really had to just expect that. I wish I could say from the first conversation I had to the last conversation I had what transpired, but I think Justin Lin is a great, great director because he can take something on such a massive scale and have that many huge characters on and off the screen and he can manage it with a smile on his face and keep the positivity up and really keep everybody working.  Not only that, but he pushed the action up on a whole new level, which is the escapism that people love to see, and he’s so passionate and excited about it. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Justin Lin does next, because he takes such care. I heard they had to pretty much pry the movie out of his hands just to get it shown in London because he was just so meticulous and there’s just so much respect to someone who takes that time and energy.

You get to do a bit of a tag team with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  Can you talk about your experience shooting with him on the movie?

Gina: Yeah, he’s just a really wonderful man. I’ve heard that about him, people say, “I just love working with Dwayne,” and it was exactly that.  He’s such a pleasure to be around and, at the same time, for me, knowing where he’s been and gone and kind of having a similar – not exactly the same, but a relatability to that – I have so much respect for that. Then, his work ethic and his professionalism was just … I have never seen a man work so hard.  He was up at 3AM working out, then going to set, being a lead/main character, doing so much output.  I was like, “When do you have time for yourself?”  He’s really like a Superman, like a super-being.  I don’t know how he gets it all done. I was inspired, because if the man can do all of that and keep his head on his shoulders and stay professional, then it just raises the bar for everybody around him.  And having that be my second movie and standing next to him, watching how he works, it was really cool.  He surrounds himself with good people from his hair and make-up to his bodyguards, they’re some of my favorite people to this day, I just love being their friends.  He surrounds himself with really good people and keeps really grounded and I can’t tell you how much that means in this business.  I really respect how he’s created his own company in and of itself.

So, I just wanted to clarify: you said The Rock has bodyguards, is that right?

Gina: [laughs] Yeah, The Rock has bodyguards. Yeah, they’re soldiers, they’re ex-soldiers that you don’t really want to mess with.  They’re sitting there watching us play soldiers, so if I had a question I’d go up to one of them and be like, “How would you do this?”  You feel really safe when they’re around, they’re just good solid guys.

Did you guys do a lot of working out together during your downtime?

Gina: No, not really, not at all.  I like to do what I do, so I found a nice gym in London and I found a Muay Thai guy so I could hit some pads.  That’s kind of like yoga to me, it balances me out and keeps me normal.  I think that because all of these guys have worked together so much, they all bring their own people and their families, so coming in as a new person … I think somebody asked me once, “Where’s your entrouage?” And I was like, “Nope. I don’t have one. I kinda roll solo.”  Everybody had an entourage.  But I can find a home because I’ve pretty much been living out of my suitcase for the last ten years, so I can find a home anywhere.  I know I can find Muay Thai and martial arts anywhere so I can always find a nice gym to help get that going.  I think that everybody has worked together so much but everybody has their own lives when they go home at the end of the day, whereas Haywire we stuck together as a group and that’s the lovely thing about doing a new movie and having a fresh movie, but at the same time it’s understandable that people have worked together, it’s like, “Okay, we’re here to get the job done.”

Can you talk about your experience filming in London?

Gina: I just absolutely fell in love with London.  I had a nice apartment and I’d go out and sit on the balcony and look around.  I come from a family of little fashionistas who absolutely, their dream was to come to London and they came and visited me and just really soaked it in.  It’s something that, you have to remind yourself that it’s something not everybody gets to do.  I’m so fortunate to have done it and be able to invite my sister and my cousins out and say, “Hey, come stay with me in London.”  It’s something that they have always wanted to see and really something special to them because they’re so fascinated and London has such great opportunities.  You get used to taking the Tube stations and taking away trips to shop.  The people are great, everybody’s relaxed and there are such interesting creative artists here.  It was really a good experience for me and I really love it here.

You already mentioned In the Blood.  You’re also attached to the Adi Shankar project, which I believe is the female version of The Expendables.  Are you still involved with that and can you give us an update?

Gina: With that one, it’s kind of a work in progress and I think that as soon as I read the script I’d be able to answer that more thoroughly.  I think it’s important to find a director who has a good vision behind it and, like, from Sucker Punch – I absolutely love that movie.  So I take that and I say, “Okay, it’s a bunch of females and it’s very fantasy driven,” but if you take a couple of women who are very realistic and could actually pull off some amazing fights, maybe put a darker twist to the story to it and make it very cool and believable, that would be something I’d of course be interested in.  There’s something about … it’s lovely to work with guys, but it’s a whole other educational experience working with women.  It is a blast because you learn so much because you’re on the same page and it’s like, “Well, you’re a woman and you’re saying this and you’re doing this and we’re in the same profession, so we’re learning a lot from each other!” I went through this working with guys and I absolutely love learning stuff like that and having that camaraderie with someone of the same sex.  So, if a good visionary wants to jump on board with that and I see their vision correctly and I like it and I like the script, I would absolutely do it but I have to read the script first.

Briefly, Steve interviewed you previously for Haywire and he brought up the topic of Wonder Woman.  With all of the recent superhero movies that are coming out, have you done any auditions for any superhero roles recently?

Gina: No, I haven’t done any auditions.  There have been talks about some different characters.  That’s a dream to put on a costume and be a whole other level of character, but I think that … we’re looking at a whole bunch of different things right now.  There’s always the possibility that some day I will be a comic book character that I’ll play and I’m not sure who that’s going to be.  It would be very fun and fascinating.  We’ll just have to see where my career is going to go.  There’s so much I want to do.  I love emotions, I love drama, I love comedy and I also want to take action up to another level, I love comics.  I’m just reading some scripts and putting myself out there and seeing what’s attractive to me.  We’ll kind of figure out where this goes.  It’s going to be interesting and keeps it very exciting, I’ll tell you! [Laughs]

Are there any dream roles that you would want to play if the opportunity came up?

Gina: You know, when I was a teenager, it was Pride and Prejudice.  It was Elizabeth inPride and Prejudice.   I know that really sounds ridiculous.  But that’s already been redone, Keira Knightley did that.  That was when I was young. I really like the idea of creating something new that’s fresh and something that people don’t understand what they’re watching.  I like to break down barriers and I think that Hollywood is doing the same thing over and over.  I want to do something new and say, “Let’s evolve as artists!”

Well, I’ll tell you what, there’s always Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  If they can get that off the ground you might have a part; you might get to do both things in one!

Gina: [Laughs] Alright! That’s what I’m sayin!

Do you have any other upcoming roles or projects you want to fill us in on?

Gina:  In the Blood will be coming out later this year.  It’s being looked at by distributors and there’s a bunch of incoming calls on it.  I really felt like I tapped into something good there.  I feel like I have potential to do so much more, but I feel like I showed a different side of myself that anybody who has been following my career is going to be extremely intrigued by.  I look forward to hearing reactions because I just saw a little teaser for it the other day.  It’s nice to watch something and say, “Oh my gosh, I did that!” I’m so glad that somebody caught that on film.  I’m excited for people to start learning about In the Blood, and I think that when people see that, they’ll start to see how serious I am about where I’m going right now.  But people haven’t seen it yet; they’ve only seen trailers for Fast and Furious 6 and Haywire and I understand that, but I’m looking forward to people seeing In the Blood.  (collider.com) (Dave Trumbore)

MetroNews: You’re a tough chick but you look almost petite next to the Rock. What did you do to assert your dominance?

I just fed off his energy. It’s kind of an intimidating thing, the size difference. But he’s such a lovely person. It just made me want to mirror that kind of energy.

What do you do to stay in shape?

I train everyday. I do Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. You go through phases when you’re training: you start out and you’re like, “This is brutal.” Then you’re laughing and think, “This is ridiculous!” By the time you pull it together you get a second wind and you get focused and it’s just the best feeling.

All that kicking and punching, you must need a lot of fuel to keep going. What’s your diet like?

It’s been a long road to get here but I have a very healthy relationship with food. I’m just normal. You go through ups and downs of figuring out how your body responds to food but sometimes you have to cheat and eat some pasta you know? When you start putting too many rules on something you get a bit anal about it and it’s counterproductive.

Your co-star Michelle Rodriguez looks like the kind of girl that doesn’t take anything. Were you on guard when you first met her?

She is feisty. I’ve been around feisty people my whole life, so I didn’t have any expectations. I gave her a chance to be exactly who she is. We had great chemistry — she’s the first actress I’ve ever worked with physically.

You guys fight a lot in the movie — is it all for real or stunt doubles?

I do all my own stuff but she’s quite tiny. I grabbed her wrist to handcuff her and I was like, “What!” She has the tiniest little wrist I’ve ever seen. But if you don’t walk away with some pain, you don’t feel like you did your job.

You’ve worked with both Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender. Now, girls have obsessed over Channing’s abs in Magic Mike and Michael’s bum in Shame. You’ve actually seen them both, up close. What would you score their assets, out of 10?

He’s known for his bottom? I respect them too much to rate that. Channing has worked so hard to be taken seriously and Michael is just automatically taken seriously.

Most guys like the fact they’re the stronger one — physically — in a relationship. But you’re a martial arts expert and could probably beat the heck out of anyone. How has this affected your romantic relationships?

You don’t know any of my ex-boyfriends. They could have been strong. My ex-boyfriend got me into Muay Thai and we would go to the gym and spar. But my relationships are private.

I don’t want to talk about him.

Do you ever look at people and think, “I could totally kick your butt.”

If you don’t like someone, of course you have that kind of thought sometimes. You kind of get violent fantasies and then you’re like, “Wow! why did I do that?”

Your last professional fight ever. Who would you want to be up against and why?

The person I lost to: Cyborg. You always want to avenge that.

(metronews.ca – Romina McGuinness)

(credit: EoinA & Paul)

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by: Hey-Why-Her?

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(credit: EoinA & Hey-Why-her?)

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“I think it’ll be a very cool fight scene between two women,” says Carano, who plays Hobbs’s right-hand woman. Rodriguez is no mean screen fighter but going head-to-head with a real warrior means Carano has to pull some of her punches. “But every once in a while you have to give it a little something – and it helps out with the acting too,” Carano laughs. “Gina’s deadly,” growls Diesel barely concealing his delight.

(IGN)

credit: Swinjen & Hey-Why-Her       source: YahooMovies!, IGN.com, Machinima.com

When did your transition from fighting to acting start?

I always knew in my heart that if an opportunity was going to come, it was going to come, which it did through Steven Soderbergh. Ever since then, I’ve been like, just trust your heart a little bit more [laughs]… because those things do happen. He approached me after my last fight, which I had lost against Cyborg and I got a phone call that week, four days after the fight. My agent, you know how agents are, was like “you really need to take this meeting, he’s a director.” I was like I don’t want to see anyone. I still have a black eye, this is awful. We had lunch for four hours and asked if I wanted to do a movie and I was like, YES.

Can you tell us about your character in the film?

Yeah, her name’s Riley, which I think is a cool name. It’s only the second character in a movie I’ve ever had. She’s kind of a backup to The Rock. She’s on his team and is very loyal to him. She has some really cool twists and turns throughout the movie that I think the audience is going to be surprised by.

Does she have a love interest?

Ummm [laughs]… Let’s see. In her mind, always. You’ll have to wait and see.

How has the training you’ve received in MMA translate to acting? Not just in the physical part of acting, but acting itself?

It helps me so much because physical acting is often times just as important as verbal acting. I think what I bring to the table is just a natural sense of physicality, which I don’t really have to think about too much. Training to fight is a passion so when you have a passion, you get humbled. You get humbled when you go to the gym and you get humbled every day you go to the set. It’s interesting because it’s two kinds of parallel worlds.

Do you feel more or less pressure coming into a 6th film of a franchise?

This is important to me. This is the second movie I’ve landed so of course I take it really seriously. I mean, acting is really vulnerable. Like today, for instance, I was doing this look over my shoulder and all I kept thinking was Zoolander blue steel. I was like get that out of my head, why am I thinking that! Stop that!

Do you like the physical roles or would you want to move onto something that’s a little more dramatic and less about your background?

I’d love to actually because I’m kind of two different people. The physical part of me is very much different than me sitting here. You know, I’m shy, I’m nervous energy’d and I know that all about myself. I’d like to explore that side of me more because it’s natural and I think it’d be refreshing to see in me. But, I know I have to put in my time.

Are you doing any of your own stunts?

No no no. I do all the fight scenes and everything I can physically that way, but you can’t take anything away from stuntwomen and stuntmen. They do things that production won’t let me do. I know a lot of actors say that, but when you see these stunts, I’m just like I don’t know if I’d do that anyway because it looks like you just broke your neck [laughs]. I saw one today where a girl got hit by a car and she rolled over it. I don’t think I could do that.

source: BroBible.com                                      credit: EoinA & Paul877

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Growing up, I wasn’t an athlete. I always considered myself an average girl. It wasn’t until high-school that I found out that I loved entertaining people through dance and theatre classes. 

It was the summer after I turned 17 and graduated. I auditioned for The Phoenix Suns Dance Squad. I remember practicing so hard to make it on the team. All of the girls were so beautiful; I started to lose confidence. Even though I had the skill, I didn’t shine in the audition. At that point in my life, I started to hate myself. I hated the way I looked and how short I was. Everything put me through a depression.

A month later everything changed. Watching one of Gina Carano’s fights for the first time left me speechless. It was the StrikeForce Women’s Featherweight Title fight against Cris Cyborg. Even though she lost, she just seemed so superhuman to me. I was at loss for words. I just wanted to see more of her. I watched all I could until I was exhausted for school the next day. Every video I watched made me say, ” Gosh, I want to be like her.” She inspired me so much that I questioned myself thinking, “Why not… why not give it a shot?” Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified of fighting. I had never gotten into a fight or even hit anyone, and the next thing I know, I’m stepping foot into a Muay Thai Gym. 

Just the sound of “Muay Thai” was intimidating. I didn’t know what to expect. The coach was a little man from Thailand. He gave me my first pair of pink boxing gloves and red Muay Thai shorts. After changing clothes, I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, “I can’t believe I’m here right now!” I then tried to pump myself up, thinking “Okay, be like Gina, be like Gina.” Walking out of the bathroom, the coach said, “Oh good, you look like a fighter now.” By the end of the class, I fell in love with it; I was so excited. 

It lit a whole new fire inside me. The girl who had once hated herself now had confidence. 

I wanted to learn everything, every: punch, kick, knee and elbow. I would then watch Gina’s training footage and try to mimic her combos by shadow boxing in the hallway of my house and in front of my dresser mirror. I felt the urge to kick everything when I was at work and school, just because I finally knew how to. I became so obsessed with the sport and the culture, that it turned into a way of life for me. By Gina inspiring me to get out of my little box and try something new, my whole world changed in such a small amount of time.

After only 8 months of training, I dropped out of college to prepare for my first smoker fight at Master Toddy’s gym in Las Vegas. I lost the fight by split decision. Even though smokers don’t count on any record, losing made me learn and grow into the fighter I am today. After that, I trained so hard and pushed my body and mind, surpassing my limits.  I quit school, my two jobs bagging groceries, and working at a sports bar. I sacrificed relationships, giving up going out with friends because of my dream.

 

    
I’ve been doing Muay Thai for two years, & have 2 title belts in the 105lb. Atom-Weight Division for the State of Arizona, & the 105lb South-West Regional Title from The United States Muay Thai Association. I came a long way in a short amount of time, and it all started because of being inspired by Gina.

There is nothing more rewarding than accomplishing a seemingly impossible goal. My journey of becoming a Muay Thai Fighter is just getting started. I am still a student with alot to learn. One of my goals is to go to Thailand, and experience what it is like to live, train and fight out an authentic Muay Thai camp, and learn more about the culture. In the next 5 years, I hope to become a world champion, inspiriting others like Gina Carano did, and they can in-turn share their “Gina Carano/Athena Austin story”. Even though she may not be fighting now, she is still someone I will look up to and thank throughout my journey. I think it is amazing that she is in the movies now because it shows just how many doors can open through hard work and dedication.

AthenaAustin.com

     Through this journey,  I have met wonderful people who’ve shared my dream. So, I’d like to give special thanks to all the training partners and coaches I’ve ever worked with, my amazing parents, my boyfriend who shares the same love for Muay Thai as I do, and my friends who support me 100% and never want to miss a fight. you all have helped me become the fighter I am today.    - Athena Austin 

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 @ginacarano: “flips and tricks with #fast6″ (click for full pic @ twitter)

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     ——-^ START AT 01:48:00 ———

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ESPN’s Lynn Hoppes – “Fast & Furious 6″ is getting a lot of buzz. What was it like on the set for you? 

Gina: “It was a great time watching all these people I grew up watching in movies my whole life. I got to see them in action and see all their different styles and personalities. It was interesting watching them either mesh together or not mesh together! It was really cool. Movies being made is a miracle.“

- You’ve been working a lot lately, with a handful of movies under your belt. I hear you have another one in the can as a starring role also coming out this year? 

“That’s ‘In the Blood,’ about me tracking down my kidnapped husband. That was a quick shoot for director John Stockwell. It was one of the most extreme things I’ve done in my life. I had to zipline. I had never ziplined before. And the first time I’m doing it I have someone hanging on me swinging and screaming. It was the coolest and hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

- You’ve starred in a few projects, but what’s the latest on the female version of “The “Expendables”?

“There are several in development now and it’s all about getting the right people and who’s going to be first to the production. You have to get the right cast. It’s a competition right now.”

Speaking of competition, do you ever think of getting back in the ring? 

“I am always training, because I love it. But I would have to train specifically with a fight in my mind. That hasn’t entered my mind yet. I’m just preoccupied with my next project. I want to grow in this space. It’s really challenging for me. It’s attractive to me. Not like fighting isn’t. But it’s emotionally painful to act. You want to get better even after people smash you down. You want to be better than you were before.“ 

- Do you think you were ahead of your time? Now female mixed martial arts is really coming into its own with the arrival of superstar Ronda Rousey. 

“I love what’s happening now. I love that Ronda came along and revamped the sport, and she brought it back. It broke my heart when it fell apart a few years ago. It was kind of hard when I was fighting, because people were saying, ‘Who are you going to fight now? What are you going to do now?’ I would love to be a part of it now. When I watch UFC, it’s still my dream to fight. I’m so happy that it’s happening for the women. I feel like I was a part of the beginning of it.“ 

- You’ve always tried to stay in shape, and now you’re working with Under Armour on a project for women called “What’s Beautiful.” What does that mean for you to inspire women to get into shape? 

“We’re all given gifts. You shouldn’t be greedy. You should feel good about yourself and not be greedy of what other people have. It’s a constant battle for everybody, but you need to be happy with yourself.“ 

- Are you happy now? 

“It’s been a struggle, but I’m growing into a person I’ve always wanted to be. If you’re bad to yourself, you’re going to feel bad. You have to treat yourself better to start to feel better. I think it’s people’s mentality that slips when it comes to getting into shape. If you allow your mentality to be healthier, I think it’ll help you out. Too many people get stressed out.” 

- So it’s time for you to take a break, right? 

“I’m just returning to Los Angeles to think about what’s ahead. I finally got a break. I didn’t think my mixed martial arts world would end the way it did [failing a prefight medical exam before her final match]. I was just taking opportunities in the off-times, and that took me in this direction. I’m grateful. I’m trying to better myself. I don’t want to be a person with a short-term career who just went from sports to the movies on a whim. I want something different. As long as I can be artistic, I’ll be good. I think the shock factor is good to keep people interested.“

(source: Lynn Hoppes / ESPN.COM)

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 START ^THIS VIDEO AT 01:08:11

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“Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of all-stars as the global blockbuster franchise built on speed races to its next continent in “Fast & Furious 6.” Reuniting for their most high-stakes adventure yet, fan favorites Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Elsa Pataky are joined by badass series newcomers Luke Evans & Gina Carano.

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete.

Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.

Building on the worldwide blockbuster success of Fast Five and taking the action, stunts and narrative to even greater heights, “Fast & Furious 6″ sees director Justin Lin back behind the camera for the fourth time. He is supported by longtime producers Neal H. Moritz and Vin Diesel, who welcome producer Clayton Townsend back to the series.”  

For more info on the film, and to keep up to date with all the latest news, visit the official website: http://www.thefastandthefurious.com/

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