Maggie Q on being a kick ass Asian-American actress in 'The Protégé'

Los Angeles – It was exciting to see Maggie Q ("Designated Survivor," "Nikita") handling all the bad guys singlehandedly like a pro in the action thriller Martin Campbell-helmed film, "The Protégé."

The 42-year-old Honolulu-born Margaret Denise Quigley, who simply goes by Maggie Q onscreen, portrays the orphan raised as an assassin by her foster father Moody Dutton (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson). After being discovered in a closet after a massacre in Saigon, Anna (Maggie Q) travels the world with Moody as his well-trained assassin in their high profile contracts.

Also starring Michael Keaton as Rembrandt and Robert Patrick as Billy Boy, the movie was filmed in various locations from Bucharest to London to Da Nang, Vietnam.

"I think the work was so hard and so grueling that I really wasn't thinking about being a lead or not or what. I think for me, I took it day by day and sort of took what was in front of me, tackled it and it's like, 'Okay, next day,'" she said.

"So, it was all a very small picture right in front of me. I think now I'm sort of realizing, ‘Oh, wow, I'm so glad that I did a good enough job to where it can lead the film,'" she added.

We were able to talk to Maggie Q and below are excerpts of our conversation:

How does it feel to be a kick-ass actress?

Thank you for saying that. Definitely a matter of opinion. I try my best, but if the audiences are happy, then I'm happy.

What kind of training did you undergo, and did you have any accidents or mishaps?

There was no time to train before this film. I wish I had more time to train for this film, but it was really crunch time when we got to go on this, and then when I got to Europe, that's when I really got into the bulk of training and the choreography and most of it. So that was happening simultaneously when I was filming. So, it made the workload a lot, but very worth it.

Maggie Q as Anna in The Protege. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Did you train on martial arts for this film?

I don't have any actual martial arts training. A lot of people think I do. I am trained for film. So, I do know a lot, but I mean, I've gotten all these calls before, like, "Oh, this martial arts magazine wants to put you on the cover," and I'm like, "Oh no, no, I can't do that because that's phony. I'm not a martial artist," but I am trained for film, which encompasses a lot of different disciplines. So, I do know how to fight for camera. I am trained, but I'm not trained in any one discipline.

Oh, wow. That's impressive. But I know Jackie Chan had some influence on you from the very beginning, so that probably helped.

Yeah. He does have a team of people who are experts in every discipline, and they travel around the world with him, and they do all his movies with him. So those guys trained me in the beginning in this genre, and that was very helpful to me to see. I mean, they do things very differently over there than people do here but was grounded in a really good work ethic when it came to learning all this stuff and all of that.

This movie was filmed in London, Bucharest, and Vietnam. How challenging was it to be filming in different places?

Very, because the bulk of the film in Bucharest especially, I mean, we were there from January to March, so you're talking about the coldest months in Eastern Europe. We had a lot of exteriors and a lot of different elements and snow and things like that that would mess up all our exteriors and we'd have to change schedules a lot and stuff, depending on the weather. But it's always tough because you're away from home for so long and you're dealing with unfamiliar territory and a huge work schedule.

How much do you relate to your character?

I think I do in a lot of ways. I think that a lot of people really live that duality. To varying degrees, obviously, but we all have different sides to our personalities, things we don't want people to know. Sometimes we let people in, sometimes we don't. There are a lot of people who do keep people at arm's length because they have secrets. So, there's a lot of things I think that we present that we aren't actually living. She's obviously a very extreme of that, but that is a reality of the way people live their lives. So, it's interesting to see someone like her compartmentalize to survive and also to move in the world. That's kind of how she had to do it. So, I found her very complex and interesting in that way.

Did you go to Vietnam?

I couldn't go to Vietnam. The crew went to Vietnam to get a bunch of stuff, but the actors ended up not being able to go because of the pandemic.

How was it having Samuel Jackson as your foster father? How was it working with him?

Oh, he's wonderful. We had a great chemistry. We got along immediately, so that really helped. We obviously built the characters together, but it's nice when you have a base of good chemistry together. You know when you meet someone, you immediately like them, that helps a lot in creating chemistry.

Maggie Q as Anna, Samuel L. Jackson as Moody, Robert Patrick as Billy Boy. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

And Michael Keaton, as your nemesis lover?

Yes, exactly. Aren't they always? What a wonderful co-star. I can't think of a better person for the role or somebody that I could have worked with that I admired more.

As an Asian-American actress in Hollywood, do you feel that Hollywood is opening up to more Asian actress projects where they feature as leads?

They have to. It's irresponsible to not represent, number one, the populations in the United States and certainly the world. Right? So, more diversity is just logical to me, but I also think that this is a global marketplace and they're responsible to that global marketplace now. So, there are more opportunities coming up, and with streaming and all this stuff, there's just more stuff being made, which is even greater for more minority castings too.

I've always loved you in "Designated Survivor." What do you think that TV series brought for your career?

It was funny. Again, kind of like this movie, when "Designated Survivor" was brought to me, I had finished "Nikita" on a network. It was a network show and I was like, "Never again. I'm not doing a network show." Then when they came to me with it, the reason why I liked it and I liked the creator was it was sort of a bifurcated storyline where I didn't have to lead the entire time. I just couldn't lead, not after my four-year run. I was too tired to do it. So, the fact that I could share lead screen time with Kiefer Sutherland was very enticing to me. I ended up having a really great time and meeting such great writers and having such great co-stars that I'm really glad I didn't close off to it because it was a great experience for me.

You are a fitness and health buff and you're still vegan. So, can you talk about how being vegan has helped you focus more on your work and make you stronger?

I think just diet in general is really important. What you put in your body matters. Every time you put something in your body, you're voting for whether you want to be healthy or not. So I'm highly cognizant of what goes in because it's my fuel. Right? You wouldn't put something that was bad for your car in it, so you shouldn't put anything that's bad for your body in it, either, even more important. So, diet is a central focus and obviously when I'm working, diet's really important because I'm eating twice, sometimes three times, as much as I normally do because of all the calories that I burn. Health and nutrition are really foremost and should be for most of us.

You love rescuing dogs. Do you still have rescue dogs?

I have three right now. Many years ago I had up to eight, but I have three now. That's a sane number to have as a working mom. So yeah. I enjoy rescuing dogs. I'll always adopt. I encourage people to do the same. It's the best decision you'll make.

—MGP, GMA News