40 Years Later, The Most Underrated Action Remake Of The Year Found Its Secret Weapon

Action stardom has always been dirty work, especially for Revenge alum Matilda Lutz. Before director Coralie Fargeat broke big with The Substance, she took Lutz to the deserts of Morocco to film a blistering, blood-soaked revenge fable. It’s an experience she remembers viscerally — but her next appearance as the iconic Red Sonja is another beast entirely.

The new film, directed by MJ Bassett, may be closer to a late-summer blockbuster than the indie gems Lutz traditionally appears in (the film hit theaters for one night only ahead of its premiere on VOD), but bringing Red Sonja back to life was a process just as gritty as the actress’ time in the desert. When she carves out some time to chat with Inverse over the phone, she points out the similarities between Sonja and Jen, her character from Revenge — their shared choice in apparel, for one.

“In Revenge, I was in a bikini basically the whole film,” Lutz tells Inverse. “That kind of gave me a sense of the difficulties that I was going to have to endure on this set.” Still, there’s a big difference between a spandex suit and the chainmail two-piece Lutz sports as the She-Devil with a Sword. Getting comfortable enough to fight dozens of stunt performers was just one of the many challenges she faced on set. As “nerve-wracking” as it might have been at the time, though, Lutz looks back on the ordeal now with pride… and a thirst for more.

Ahead of Red Sonja’s digital release, Lutz sits down with Inverse to unpack her time with the character, the importance of subverting the male gaze, and the most difficult stunt she pulled.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

Did you know much about Red Sonja before hearing about this role? Had you seen the original movie with Brigitte Nielsen or read any comics?

I knew of Red Sonja, but I wasn’t really familiar with her as a fan. I read the script and I just resonated with that and the character. I did a self-tape and the tape went well. And MJ, the director, wanted to speak a little more about character and her vision of the film before I taped again. She was so passionate about it. She had a very specific vision of what she wanted to do. She was like, “Listen, I don’t want you to watch [the movie] because this is a new version of Red Sonja. I want you to be just a blank page, and we create from that, from the script.”

A part of me wanted to have a sense of who she was from the comics as well. I thought, “OK, maybe I can read the comics early on before production starts and then forget about it. It’ll kind of be there in the back of my head, but I have a sense of who she is.” So I asked Luke Lieberman, who owns the rights to Red Sonja, to send me his favorites — the comics that he thought I should read. It was just immediate to me that she was a warrior, but she’s also a survivor. That vulnerability and heart comes from having lost everything, but still, she thinks about the people she loves and her world. That’s something that I really wanted to bring to the character when I made her my own.

You’ve said in the past that you’re a big lover of action. I’m curious how your past roles prepared you to take on something this intense.

I’ve always been into sports since I was little. I have three brothers who are all into sports, so I literally grew up doing skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, soccer, dance… That was kind of like, I feel the main prep. Lifetime prep. [Laughs.]

I just love anything challenging, so when I got my first physical roles where I had to do stunts — for example, Revenge was one of the first ones — it’s obviously a complete[ly] different experience. Because Revenge, I got five days before we started shooting. I found out I had the role, I flew to Paris, we did a couple of days of rehearsals and costume fittings, and then I was off shooting. I didn’t really have time to prep physically, but the environment and the climate… we shot in Morocco and it was February, March, so it would get super cold or super hot. I was in a bikini like in Red Sonja, so that kind of gave me a sense of the difficulties that I was going to have to endure on this set.

The bikini is obviously a huge part of this character, but there are surely some out there who see it as outdated. I’m curious what the conversations around the costume were like in those early stages.

I was asked obviously if that was something that I would feel comfortable with. And in Revenge, I was in a bikini basically the whole film, so I knew that was something I could do. But I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just to objectify her; wearing the bikini wasn’t just like an objectification of the character. I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t wearing a bikini for the male gaze. And in the script, it was already there that it was going to be used as a tool of possession and power that Draygan had over her. And that she would be forced to wear it, but then she would own it and she would be like, “OK, this is what you want me to wear. I’ll wear it and I can still defeat your army.” I feel like it’s not a matter of what you wear. I feel a woman should wear whatever she feels comfortable in, and that’s when you see a woman being self-confident. That’s what makes her beautiful, the fact that she feels good in her own skin.

We’ve got to talk about that big moment when Sonja’s essentially baptized in the red lake. I saw a clip of you filming that in a tank. How many times did you have to do that scene?

I think that was probably the most frustrating, tiring, exhausting day of the whole filming. Basically, we did two separate days. With the whole wide frame shot, we were in a studio where this kind of magical spiritual lake with this beautiful tree was constructed for the film. I was hanging from these cables, a stunt woman submerged me in water, and that was kind of simple.

But the moment when Sonja comes out, we shot on a separate day in another studio. MJ, the director, is like, “So you’re going to be inside the tank. We’re going to start filling it with red water — but you can’t breathe, you can’t move, you can’t do anything because then the water’s going to move. I don’t want the water to move whatsoever because I don’t want people thinking that there’s somebody under the water. Then we’re going to open the tank. You have to stay still, but your eyes are open. You’re not breathing. And it’s going to look great!”

I had red water in my nose, in my ears, and my eyes. It was so difficult to do. We did three, four takes of that, and then we ran out of the red water. I think that was the only day where I was so internally pissed. But I’m so proud of it. Now that I look back and I see the shot in the film, I’m just really happy that it’s there.

What’s the biggest thing you learned about yourself while filming?

I grew up in Italy. It’s a beautiful country: The people are amazing, the food is amazing. But there’s somewhat of a mentality where women can’t really be too strong, too opinionated, too much. You kind of feel that you have to always apologize for yourself in a way. I feel like I unconsciously absorbed a lot of that. I am apologetic in my life. And I feel playing a character like Sonja — where she’s unapologetic and she doesn’t ask permission to take up space and say what she thinks, and she does what she wants without really feeling judged or [fearing] what people are going to think of her — it was very, very liberating. It was a great thing for me to do because I kind of absorbed that a little bit. I feel like I say a lot more of what I think now than I did before.

How keen are you to come back for another Red Sonja film, if you get the chance?

I mean, I would love to. It’s not often you get to play such a strong, vulnerable character. And then you get to do all kinds of amazing things like horseback riding and sword fighting, archery, climbing… And honestly, being on the set with the director, MJ, and the whole cast was just such a beautiful experience. I would do it all over again.

Red Sonja is available on VOD now.