BY CLARA SEELY-KATZ

Talented, badass, and down-to-earth are words I would use to describe JESSICA MCNAMEE as well as truly just kind. This is something she has in common with her Mortal Kombat persona, as both she and her character Sonya Blade seem to be just truly good-hearted people, although Jessica definitely has more humor than her counterpart. 

Going into the production of the movie, Mortal Kombat (In theaters and on HBO Max), Jessica admits that unlike some of her other castmates she had to do a deep dive and crash course on all things Mortal Kombat. All of her research seems to have paid off since in both combat style and in looks she really nailed embodying Sonya Blade. 

I was lucky enough to be able to have a few moments of her time to ask her about her experience in filming the movie, what she hopes viewers come away from her performance with, and where she wants to endeavor in the future. 

In Mortal Kombat you play Sonya Blade, who is one of the most badass characters of the crew, aside from basic research into the iconic game itself, was there any other prep that you had to do for this role?

I found myself just on the internet, you can really watch for hours, I found plenty of people playing the actual game, which was really helpful. And then there was a whole bunch of training involved for me. I had personal training to kind of put on some muscle, I had martial arts training with Nino Pilla, who's an amazing martial arts teacher. And then I spent hours with the stunt team, having them teach me all of my choreography for choreography fights.

Yeah, I saw you mentioned in previous interviews that you were particularly excited for this role because of the training for combat and stunts that it entailed- what were the most rewarding and challenging aspects of the rigorous training you went through?

I think it was harder than I expected. At first, the pros make it look so easy. And I definitely thought that I'd be able to jump in and kind of pick up these skills fairly quickly. But there's such a fine art to any form of martial arts, there are people that train for years and years and years to become good at those sports. So it just took a little longer than I was expecting, which at first I found frustrating, but then once I kind of hit my stride, it did become really rewarding, because I felt like I started to pick things up easier. And also, I was kind of just in so much pain for the first little while as well because it was just using all these muscles that I hadn't activated before. And so once that also went away, and I started feeling stronger, that was really rewarding. I really wanted to kind of do as much of the stunt work as I could, I thought it was such a great opportunity to learn and new skills. So once I started nailing those big wire stunts that you see in the movie, that's when I was feeling really good about myself. 

That definitely seems like it would have been intimidating, which leads me to my next question, as the only leading woman in the film, did you feel any intimidation going into playing one of the more iconic mortal Kombat characters? Did you feel the weight of being the majority of the female representation within the film (as well as in the game itself)?

Yes, I did, in a way, I felt a certain pressure. I don't know if it was necessarily as much about the fact that she was the only lead female I think it was more that I had all of this exposition in the film to live up to, and I felt the weight of that. I think there were times where I thought about how I, you know, am in charge of explaining this whole world to a whole bunch of people who may not have ever had an experience with Mortal Kombat, and I felt the weight of that pressure in terms of being kind of the only female lead. I took it in my stride, and I knew I really had to represent - I knew that there was a certain responsibility that came with that. Yes. But you know, I am looking forward to there being more films in the future in this Mortal Kombat world and getting to see a couple more of the female characters portrayed on screen.

I think that's going to be pretty cool. So also, in terms of who your character is, what do you think she stands for in the bigger picture? And is there anything, in particular, you would want young women to take away from her presence and ability within the movie?

Yeah, a couple of things. So first of all, she's just genuinely wants what's best, you know, she's a real do-gooder. She kind of has that military training and puts the well-being of the greater good over her own wellbeing. I think that's a fairly admirable trait, personally. I also think the other thing that is admirable about her is that she really holds her own in a group of strong men. And I really love that. I love seeing that portrayed on screen. Not only does she hold her own, but she kind of leads the charge, you know, it's her. She has the special ability of rallying all of these people together, and I think that's just a really cool thing to see on screen. And I'd certainly hope that young women who are watching this can see a really strong woman holding their own and holding her own against a bunch of men and take a leaf out of that book. 

So in the future, do you want to stay in the realm of blockbuster action film, in terms of your career?

It's interesting, really I never expected to wind up in this kind of universe, you know, between being in The Meg and Mortal Kombat, I've ended up in these blockbuster movies, which is really cool. I love it. I really do love these movies, and I love working on them. I love the physical and epicness of all of it, the physical aspect and epicness of it all. It really feels like when you're on these kinds of sets like that real movie magic is happening, because the production is on such a large, huge, wondrous scale. That being said, there are many other avenues I'd love to explore in this business, I really would like to do some form of musical adaptation, I would love to a rom-com, but I also love horror. So, you know, I would love to explore all different avenues, I don't necessarily want to get just put in the box of doing these kinds of films. But then at the same time, if I did, I would be very happy as well. So I'm just kind of taking it with a grain of salt. And, you know, this business is such a wild business to be in. I feel like so much of it is out of your control in a lot of ways. There are times where I've been trying to dictate in which direction I'm going with this career, and there's always a curveball thrown at me and I ended up not on the path that I thought I would be on. Even so, all of this, being in this movie, has exceeded my wildest dreams, to be honest. 

If you wouldn't mind just like telling me, how did you get into acting in the first place, because you did mention how your career took off down avenues you didn’t expect, so how did this all start out for you?

Yeah, I started in Australia. I had a really amazing high school teacher that Tony Renshaw who encouraged me to do to seek out a career in this. So when I left school, I decided to take the year off of University. Instead, I started studying acting classes, and then I booked my first role in Australia, which was a pilot that never went ahead but got some momentum. From there, I wound up on a really beloved Australian TV show that kind of went on for about for me for three years. That kind of put me on the map in Australia. After I wrapped on that show, I put myself on tape for the vow, which was the Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum movie, I auditioned for Rachel McAdams’s, younger sister. And lo and behold, I booked the movie just out of nowhere. I was flown over here (America) and I've been kind of working over here ever since. So that was kind of a really pivotal moment in my career. You know, I thought maybe I would only ever be working in Australia and I love working in Australia. But yeah, I ended up in America. It's kind of, I'd say, slowly snowballed since then.

Lastly, at A Book Of we ask the question: If you were a book, what book would you be and why? This could be a real book, or possibly a made-up book entitled something that you think encapsulates you to some degree?  

Interesting… okay, if I was a book, I would be “My Inner Monologue: Improv”. It would be a stand-up book because I've always really wanted to do stand up and get up there and just be ridiculous and crass. I always have so many weird thoughts and jokes that I think are something I would love to be able to share but I’m way too scared of how insane and how ridiculous I would be. So if I had the guts, I'd love to put that book all of my weird thoughts and jokes into a book, that is something I would share - that is “me” as a book. 

MORTAL KOMBAT is NOW playing on theatres and HBO MAX