Ana de Armas ‘Didn’t Wanna’ Fight ‘Legend’ Keanu Reeves in ‘Ballerina’ (Exclusive)

Ana de Armas is dishing with "Extra's" Mona Kosar Abdi on “Ballerina, including going toe to toe with Keanu Reeves in her new action thriller from the world of “John Wick.” 

De Armas said of her fight scene with Keanu, “I didn’t want to fight the Baba Yaga, but it was such a cool scene. I was so excited to shoot that. That was more than halfway through the shoot. We shot that for about four days, and it was just amazing to have Keanu, like, wearing the John Wick suit again and, like, just have that scene. Just to work with him again. It had been a while… He’s a legend.”

Ana shared of this “dream role,” “I was blown away. I was a big fan of the ‘John Wick’ movies and, of course, Keanu… There’s so much heart in this film.”

While de Armas thought she knew what to expect, but she noted, “I never imagined what the preparation was going to be. I had done some action films before, but nothing like at this level… the responsibility of taking on something so big but it was difficult, it was very challenging.”

Ana had martial arts training for the movie, saying, “Strength training for sure, and then just hours and hours every day on the stunts facility with the crew, just, like, designing the fights and the choreography.”

Her character also uses guns, so de Armas had some gun training!

Despite some bruises, Ana was never seriously injured on set, saying, “Nothing bad happened.”

When she was praised for her range, going from drama to action, de Armas commented, “What’s fun about being an artist and creating, you know, different characters and working in different projects is that you get to do amazing things and try new things.”