Krypton star Georgina Campbell is back on our screens this week with Wildcat, a new film that sees her character taken hostage, tortured, and forced to fight her way out of a terrorist stronghold. In Wildcat, Campbell plays an ambitious reporter stationed in the Middle East, who is taken captive after a militant group ambushes her convoy. Convinced that the young woman is hiding her true identity, they’ll stop at nothing to extract information crucial to the success of their upcoming terrorist attack. With time running out, she must find a way to survive and turn the tables on her assailants.
The shoot involved long hours of simulated torture that left her genuinely exhausted, and days speaking in an American accent — something fans of Krypton will remember she does not have naturally. That part was a challenge, because it added another layer onto her performance, leaving her to have to stay true to the character, while screaming without letting her natural voice creep in.
“It was very stressful dong it,” Campbell admitted. “There were so many American people around, which was great, but at the same time, I was so worried about that accent.”
Something she was a bit more comfortable with? Getting to be a badass. In spite of being a relatively small person, Campbell seems to find these characters where she has to be believably scary and strong.
“It’s so much fun,” Campbell told ComicBook. “To begin with, I found it really intimidating, especially on Krypton because that was the first time I was really doing big action sequences, and I’d never done that before. But yeah, it’s so much fun, and you get really great stunt teams that help you out. And on Krypton, I and had a fantastic stunt double as well.”
Campbell said that in spite of an ambitious film and a relatively short shoot, she didn’t have unpleasant surprises along the way…but that doesn’t mean the long days of shooting torture scenes were easy.
“[Director Jonathan W. Stokes] knew what he wanted, and especially with the torture scenes and things like that, they were very well choreographed and thought out beforehand,” Campbell said. “There’s a long sequence where I get electrocuted on a bed. And that was shot fine, but was absolutely exhausting. It started out as being a bit funny it’s because it’s embarrassing. Everyone’s around you and you have to go to bed and start jerking around as if you’re being electrocuted. It’s silly. But then it’s such a long scene, and she keeps getting electrocuted. And we have so many different angles that were being done. So I was absolutely shattered by the end of it. It went from being silly and funny to just being like, ‘Oh my God, when will this end?'”
Wildcat is screening in select theaters, and is available to rent and buy on digital video on demand services.