Cornish quotes from Sucker Punch (2011)

Could you talk a little bit about your dance scene today, Jena?

The dance today is crazy. Each of us girls, except for Emily – because her dance becomes the tipping off of the fantasy worlds – we each have our own burlesque dance. It’s our persona coming out.; it’s all of the different icons that we represent. Mine’s sort of the nurse because the first time that Baby Doll sees me, I’m done up as a nurse. It’s a crazy-dead-zombie-robot-nurse dance. It’s going be so crazy; it’s going be awesome.

What was your training like for the film?

We started off in Los Angeles and spent a month there. We’d go out to 87-11 and train in the morning, martial arts – warm up, warm down. Then we’d have a half-hour break, our protein shakes, our amino acids.

And then Logan and Dave would take over, our physical trainers, our weight and strength advisers.

They’d train us like maniacs for an hour and a half. We’d also do gun work, as well, which was so much fun. Then when we came to Vancouver, it was pretty much the same schedule, but we were learning more about the moves that we’d use in the film, the choreography for the film. Everything ramped up.

On top of the marital arts and weapons, we were doing costumes and walking through the sets and meeting with Zack. It was really a full-on rehearsal schedule. The first three months that the three of us girls were training together – Jaime and Vanessa didn’t come until August – that was the rehearsal. All three of us girls sweating, crying, figuring out what our pain threshold was. In a weird way, it was like an asylum. We had to eat at a specific time. We had to push ourselves to the limits. We were wearing these sweat uniforms and being instructed. Everything was a regiment. It was a far more interesting style of rehearing. Getting to know the physical body of the character, the character’s pain threshold, and how you can work together as a team. Horrible moments, like when I’m doing my 20th farmer’s carry and I’m frickin’ sobbing and you want to do it for the other girls. You all become strong together. I think that any form of round-the-table, reading-the-scenes, we never would have gotten to that point of closeness and how connected we were in those first three months.

And it was such an unspoken thing. We did talk about it, but there were so many moments when we were all just going hard and doing this thing. For me, in particular, during those three months, there was this feeling inside me that was almost zen-like. It was so peaceful because coming in, and doing martial arts, and working out, and learning how to use a gun. You have to be so careful with a gun; it’s a deadly weapon. There was something very focused about that process, very disciplined. Just to be able to exert that much energy and let it out every single day. It was really fun.

What are your characters’ relationships to Baby Doll?

It’s all through Baby Doll. I understand my character through Baby Doll; I understand the story through Baby Doll. That’s the eyes that we’re watching the film through; that’s where the fantasy is taking place. That’s the key, that’s the truth . It’s just as simple as the first time Baby Doll saw me, I was in a nurse’s costume. There’s something that takes care; there’s nurturing there. That becomes the archetype that I fulfill in her mind. She creates me in a way.

We’re playing these characters, yet you’re seeing these characters through all different dimensions. Trying to come to some sort of understanding of how you create the one character regardless of the world, or creating the through-line of one journey. But it’s also a question of what do you show. I was struggling with that, but then I felt a great sense of freedom. When I was in the psych ward, I could simply be Sweet Pea in the psych ward; when I was in the action-world, I could be Sweet Pea in the action world. I could let myself go in those worlds and trust in the character, and trust in the story. I feel like my character is a cube and each day, I’m turning the cube and looking at a different side.

Could you talk about the costumes that you wear in the film?

I thought mine wasn’t revealing enough. All the other girls had their thighs out, their legs out, and I’m covered in fish-nets! Give me more skin! It’s the first time in my whole life that I felt covered up in my underwear. We’re in nothing but various forms of underwear, but it all goes back to trust. Obviously, the early fittings were intimidating. And that was before we started training. So let’s just see what my thighs look like in seven months and hope for the best.

You get kind of used to it. This outfit for me is now like a second skin. We’ve been wearing that stuff for so long.

And everybody is so respectful, which is important. All the guys are so considerate and gentlemanlike.

What are your thoughts on how Zack Synder writes women?

I think Zack himself is very much in touch with his femininity as much as he is his masculinity. He’s very sensitive and caring.

Also, the script speaks for itself. If I’d read the script and felt that if he didn’t know what he was talking about, I don’t think any of us would be here. He’s exploring so many different levels of female archetypes and allowing them to break and bend and expose themselves with amazing different forms of strength and insecurity, and allowing these women to really be fully-fleshed characters. I was thinking that they could really be men or women. IN an action movie, we’re so used to seeing these men, but literally we could almost be sexless were it not for the specificity of the world that we’re in.