Thinking of her previous roles, Joey King in a princess movie won’t feel like a stretch. Action hero, however, feels like a totally new adventure. Even King herself knows she’s heading into unchartered territory with her new film The Princess. “It is not what you expect.”
Director Le-Van Kiet was blown away with King’s performance in the action-heavy film. “Joey just consistently impressed me dramatically, but also physically.” Kiet’s original plan was to have stunt actors complete most of the fight scenes in the film, something King did not allow. “Every day she came to work, she’s like, ‘No, I’m doing that, right?’ And we all looked at each other and we were like, ‘Okay, I guess you are.'”
King’s costar, Veronica Ngo, is no stranger to action films, but even she was impressed with King’s performance. “She’s so talented, and I have never seen a girl fight like that before.”
“I think that it’s worth saying though that the only reason I felt like I could do these things is because Kiet and Veronica – and the entire stunt team as well – they all lifted me up so much,” adds King. “No one made me feel like I couldn’t do anything. My two stunt doubles, who became great friends of mine, they wanted me to do everything that I could. They wanted to train me to be the best that I could be.”
Performing many of her own stunts came with extensive preparation. “You can’t just go in there and be like, ‘Oh, I trained for two weeks and I’m so good at this,'” according to King. “The training process helps you to not be head shy anymore when you get hurt, to go into the next take. There were a couple of times I got kicked in the head and hurt my back, but you have to know the next take, you can’t be afraid of that and anticipate it. You just have to go full throttle.”
The hard work in stunt training paid off. “I couldn’t be more proud or more excited for people to see this movie,” says King. “It is just such a good time. It’s just such a fun movie to watch.”
The Princess begins streaming on Hulu on July 1, 2022.
About The Princess
An action-packed fight to the death set in a fairy tale world, “The Princess” is directed by Le-Van Kiet (“Furie”) and stars Emmy Award® nominee Joey King (“The Act,” “The Kissing Booth”) as a beautiful, strong-willed princess who refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed, and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must protect her family and save the kingdom. The movie also stars Dominic Cooper (“Preacher”), Olga Kurylenko (“Black Widow”), and Veronica Ngo (“The Old Guard”). “The Princess” is directed by Le-Van Kiet, written by Ben Lustig (“The Thirst”) & Jake Thornton (“Final Fantasy”), and produced by Neal H. Moritz (the “Fast and Furious” franchise), Toby Jaffe (“Total Recall”) and Derek Kolstad (“John Wick”), with Joey King and Guy Riedel (“Spectral”) serving as executive producers.