The 22-year-old actress says 90 percent of what's in 'The Princess' is her in action thanks to her trainers.
Joey King put her body through a grueling experience while filming Hulu's The Princess. Her hips, legs and hand were banged up but when it was all said and done, she wouldn't have had it any other way. Why? It was "kind of addicting how much fun" she had.
The 22-year-old actress opened up about the experience while on the red carpet of the premiere of her action-packed film, telling ET's Cassie DiLaura why she pushed her body so hard during the "intense" training. King said that, going into filming, she had a cast on her right hand following surgery on her wrist, but that didn't deter her from going full throttle during training sessions. In fact, she insisted on nailing the combat training given she had one huge goal in mind.
"I've never done something like this before, so I was very nervous," King tells ET. "It was very scary to jump into this headfirst that I’d never done before. But I did know for a fact that I wanted to get to a point in my training process where I was able to do most of my own fighting most of my own stunts. And everyone on the stunt team, every single person that trained me -- my stunt doubles who helped train me every day -- they supported me so much and they lifted me up so much to the point where 85 to 90 percent of what you see on the screen is actually me. I couldn’t have done that without everyone that lifted me up."
In The Princess (streaming July 1 on Hulu), King is a strong-willed young royal 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, King's character must protect her family and save the kingdom.
It's apparent how proud King is about the intense training she mastered for the film. She posted a glimpse of her training session on Instagram, looking quite the stunt pro herself during rehearsals. Yes, there were long, painful days but she says it was all worth it.
"I have bad hips in general too so I'd be sitting there Thera-gunning my legs at night crying," she quipped. "I did have a cast at the beginning. I had wrist surgery. I wound up sword fighting with my right hand. There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears. But honestly, the pain and the stuff that my body went through throughout all this its as kind of addicting how much fun I had. I wouldn’t change anything."
King's a busy actress these days. She's also part of a star-studded cast in Bullet Train that includes Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. The action film is about five assassins aboard the same bullet train out of Tokyo, which is based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka. So, what'd King learn from Pitt himself?
"Brad is just so agile and impressive and gorgeous," King said. "There's a lot to learn from someone who can pull off all of those things at the same time."
And, speaking of being a busy bee, King's also set to star next year alongside Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman in a new comedy for Netflix. With that in mind it's worth asking: does King have any time to do wedding planning?!
"Right?!" she responded. "I don't know. I'm just honestly getting into the thick of wedding planning but also, I’m just like so enjoying being engaged because we always say -- me and Steven [Piet] -- we’re always like you know you’re engaged only once for a very short period of time in your life, and once you’re married you’re married forever. We’re so excited to be engaged."
Back in March, the Kissing Booth star announced on Instagram that Piet proposed to her, and she said yes! Piet popped the question on 2/2/22, so it's safe the man knows what he's doing when it comes to planning romantic gestures.
King confirmed as much when she said Piet threw her a curve ball when he asked her if she wanted to be part of the ring shopping process (duh!). She also teased a bit of what to expect from her wedding.
Hint: King likes the idea of dramatics!
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