For most action-movie fans, the notion of being cast in a film that is written by Sylvester Stallone and stars Jason Statham is one of those amazing daydreams that will never come true. For Arianna Rivas, however, things got very real last year when she was cast in A Working Man—in cinemas now. And, as the 23-year-old tells M&F, this gigantic gig meant throwing herself headfirst into an exciting world of stunts and action that has changed her life forever.

Arianna Rivas, who has appeared in movies like Prom Dates and The Harvest says she was understandably “really excited to see Sylvester Stallone pop in my email.” A Working Man is based on the 2014 novel Levon’s Trade, by Chuck Dixon, and was re-written and adapted for the screen by Sly and the film’s director, David Ayer.

The plot sees Rivas’ character, Jenny Garcia, kidnapped by human traffickers while Jason Statham, who plays ex-Royal Marine Commando turned construction worker, Levon Trade, attempts to rescue her. Rivas, who was born in Nebraska but was raised in central California explains that she was cast after three rounds of auditioning and shares that being booked was “a pinch me moment.” Still, the fun would soon turn to hard work, requiring the most epic performance of her career so far.

“Reading the character, not only is she a black belt in Karate, but she’s also just an overall overachiever. She played piano, she was a dancer. So, the preparation was getting all of those skills, learning how to play Moonlight Sonata with handcuffs on and learning how to dance and how to look like a black belt in Karate.”

Arianna Rivas Became a Warrior for ‘A Working Man’

With such great movie minds associated with A Working Man, Rivas was more than happy to throw herself into the project head-first. She was flown to London where she undertook a month of the most intense training of her life before the camera’s began to roll. Rivas’ Karate training began under Alex Erickson of Jam Movements, a combat studio in Los Angeles that also teaches stunts.

Fortunately, Rivas was able to draw on her experience with dance and gymnastics to help find the movements that her mentors wanted to see. “My muscle memory comes relatively naturally,” she explains. “But when it came to throwing a punch, I throw a punch like a cheerleader or a dancer—very tight and firm—and they said, ‘No, you got to loosen up a little bit. It has to come from your core.’ So, navigating those subtle differences, it still helped a lot to know some dance, because when it came to the fight choreographies, you step here, you punch, you duck, and so we worked about a month on that, and I learned two pretty strenuous fight scenes.”

Rivas would reflect on the footage of her work during the previsualization stage, collaborating with David Ayer to do some “self-diagnosis,” on how things were progressing. “And say, ‘Hey, I think I really want to look stronger with my punches and really sell the facial expressions’, because that was a whole thing, too. We got to really explore and have fun with that, and all the different aspects of making combat look good on screen.”

Arianna Rivas Learned That Action Scenes Rely On Audio, Too

Arianna Rivas also learned that great action scenes aren’t just about how they look, but how they sounds is critical too. “And so that was where the acting came into play,” she explains. “Where it’s like, OK, you have the fight choreography, but you’re not making enough grunts. You’re not making enough noises. So, having to also sell that was something that Jason [Statham] is obviously really good at, where he knew what kind of noises would come with different movements, and when you get hit in a certain spot, you’d make a certain noise. Voice mixed in with movement.”

Rivas became immersed in the audiology of fight scenes. “If she’s angry, she’s going to scream from her head, and if she’s terrified, she’s going to breathe and that was an aspect, too, where I had these scenes where I’m running for my life.” In order to get her body into a heightened state for those types of scenes, Rivas shares that she would break out some jumping jacks, and throw her arms up and down between takes, “just to get my body kind of in the zone of fight or flight and getting my heart rate up.”

Still, behind the audio and visual presentation, there was no escaping the serious physical demands of the movie. “I actually injured myself in the first month, where I messed up my hip joint,” shares Rivas. “So, I had to also go to a chiropractor and kind of fix that before I got back into it. Then there was some maintenance, rest and recovery, and meditation — keeping the mind and the body healthy.”

Of course, when leading man Jason Statham is working in the same stunt room, there is every motivation to plough on. “We’d sometimes work at the same time, so I would go and peek and see what he was doing,” recalls Rivas. “Sometimes he was training and working on a fight scene, but sometimes they did have a gym where he would just be exercising, working out. I know Noemi (Gonzales) who plays my mom in the film, she would see him doing squats outside of his trailer because he was so dedicated to just being fit and looking strong.”

Statham set a great example on set, says Rivas, explaining that he was very hands-on when it came to helping develop the flow of the action. “It was just evident to me that he was truly a vet, and that he’s been doing this for so long, because he has so much knowledge, and he knows what looks good and how he throws a punch… where his energy comes from. Everything was just so fine-tuned with him. So, I learned a ton watching Jason.”

So, with the movie wrapped and enthralling action fans in theaters now, would Rivas return to similar projects? “Oh, I enjoyed every second of that film,” she beams. “I learned a tremendous amount, and I just got to push my boundaries and see how far I can go. How strong can I get? And, that feeling of exercising so hard and feeling so strong in your body. I think, for me, A Working Man brought out a level of confidence that I would like to think I can carry with me afterwards, and it opened my eyes.. I like kicking butt!”

Out now, A Working Man has proven to be a huge hit, reaching No. 1 at the box office.

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