In the new movie “Chick Fight,” Malin Akerman stars as a woman down on her luck who picks herself back up after joining an all-women fight club. Her trainer is played by Alec Baldwin and her nemesis in the ring is played by Bella Thorne.
The movie combines action, comedy and drama in a classic underdog story. “It’s the Rocky story but for women,” said Akerman. “It’s the idea that there needs to be an outlet for women, and in this film it comes in the form of an underground fight club that’s been started by a therapist who thought, we need more than just talking it out, we need to duke it out sometimes so that we feel strong and powerful, so that when we walk out on the street, we’re ready for anything in life.”
As with any film, the fight choreography is staged to make it look more dangerous than it actually is. But when shooting scenes “your adrenaline starts to pump,” Akerman said, “because if you’re off by a centimeter, you can hit someone in the face. And that did happen with one of the stuntwomen, she got knocked right in the forehead and got a goose egg and got a concussion. So things can go wrong and that keeps you on your toes. But I really enjoyed the physicality of it.”
Akerman is known for everything from “Watchmen” to “27 Dresses” to “Children’s Hospital” to “Billions.” When asked to share a cringe-y moment from her career, she told a story from her first Hollywood movie, “The Heartbreak Kid,” directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly.
My worst moment …
“Oh goodness. The one thing I remember is my first film I ever did out here (in L.A.) was ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ with Ben Stiller (from 2007). And for the first week I think I called my then-husband and cried to him and said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, I can’t do this.’ I just felt so out of my league.
“There I was with Ben Stiller. And all of sudden the day came where we had to glue a merkin on and I had to fake pee on Ben Stiller’s back.
“And that was horrifying because, you know, I’ve got nothing but a merkin glued to me and a tube sticking through the merkin and a guy to the side who’s pumping water so that it comes through the tube and looks like I’m peeing on Ben and it was just … I was mortified. But I also knew that it was going to look so funny.
(In the scene, Stiller’s character had been stung by a jellyfish and her character was trying to help alleviate the pain; for the record, urine does not help with jellyfish stings.)
“It’s interesting when you read a script and go, ‘Oh my God, that’s hilarious.’ And then you’re there on the day and you’re going, ‘I … don’t know if I can do this while I stand there half-naked.’
“I just think that we test our comfort levels at every turn in this business, and sometimes we go over our comfort zone and have to reel it back, and sometimes we learn from it and see the result and go, ‘That was so worth it.’ And this was worth it in the end. I am a sucker for comedy.
“And by the way, everyone was so respectful. Everyone on the crew was on the other side of the camera so that no one was behind me, and they ran up with a towel as soon as they called cut, so I just felt protected. And that is the main thing. If we’re going to create something fun or beautiful or anything that’s a bit risqué, as long as you have people making you feel supported and that it’s not gratuitous, then I’m pretty game. Especially when the results are really funny.
“But I think every time you step foot on a set, you’re challenging yourself and pushing yourself to do something new that most of the time is uncomfortable.”
Acting is often about vulnerability, but this was a different kind of vulnerability. Was that more challenging?
“Yeah, of course. Vulnerability isn’t just emotion, it’s putting yourself out there. That is essentially what we do: We put ourselves out there to be judged and enjoyed.
“But you have to feel safe in order to do that — and that is the director’s job and the producer’s job, so you can do the job properly. This was very much talked about and spoken through. Peter Farrelly was the one who actually came into my trailer and we talked about that, and also the intimate scenes, and he just asked me what I was comfortable with. And he said that even if I think I’m comfortable now, if there were things I wasn’t comfortable with on the day, just to speak out.
“So I didn’t feel like I was pushed into it. I had read the script, I knew what I was in for, I was up for it because it was in the name of comedy.
“It being my first movie in Hollywood, it felt larger than life. The experience was both technical and embarrassing, I guess. I was young, in my early 20s, and was not as comfortable in my own skin as I am now (laughs). Vulnerable it was. I wouldn’t have changed anything, but I probably wouldn’t have felt as uncomfortable now because I have more experience under my belt.
“I cried that first week — and it had nothing to do with this scene — it was just not believing in myself. I was trying to do comedy with one of the best comedians and came out of it like, we did it. It’s a funny scene to think of as feeling emboldened by, but I think the whole experience (on the movie) was for sure. Just having rolled in with little experience and to be accepted by these veterans and seen as an equal and come out and go, all right, I’m worthy to be here and I can hold my own. Feeling like, I can do this.”
What was it like watching that scene?
“Oh my God, it was hilarious. I felt like we really accomplished what we set out to do, so it felt great and I shared that laugh with the audience.
“My family knows — I mean, we’re all a bunch of crazies in my family. There are definitely forewarnings, especially for brothers and sisters because nobody wants to see their sibling in those situations, but I think that everyone’s pretty open-minded and everyone can enjoy a good laugh. It’s not to say I don’t feel highly embarrassed and I don’t necessarily want to sit beside my family when they watch this film. They can watch it on their own time.”
The takeaway …
“It was really interesting because I was super nervous and had never done anything quite like it. I was on a set in Hollywood, this girl from Canada, all those things coming into it, and I was so beautifully surprised how professional everyone was — and how much of a job this actually was. How technical it actually was. After they called cut and that scene was done, the Farrelly Brothers took me under their arms and said, ‘That was great, thank you. What a great laugh we’re going to have with this.’
“So it felt like an accomplishment — which is a weird thing to say about that — but it was more about challenging myself; being nervous and getting over it. I think that’s a big lesson. Challenging yourself, always. And not in a dangerous way, but that is what makes us grow as human beings — knowing that we can push ourselves a little bit in different directions and take chances and it might just turn out all right.”
