Gina Carano’s claim to fame is that she can stomp people into the ground while, simultaneously, looking fabulous. So far she’s used these seemingly at odds traits to build a promising little career in entertainment, originally by being the first MMA athlete to bring real mainstream attention to the female fight game, and lately by transitioning her physical skills to the acting world. We got our first look at how Carano will fare on the big screen earlier this year in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, where the budding actress proved (in a starring role) not only that she could be just as alluring and magnetic as the biggest actresses working in Hollywood today, but also that there was a certain action magic to be had when your lead actress is able to perform all of her own fight scenes, probably better than any stuntwoman would be able to.
Carano’s character in that film was overly stoic, however, and everything she was asked to do there seemed to be crafted to emphasize her natural looks and physical skills, and to de-emphasize any real emoting or serious acting that her inexperience might not yet be able to handle. That approach isn’t going to be able to last forever though, and now that Carano is signing up for a couple new roles, we might start seeing for the first time what she really has to offer as an actress.
Already Carano is signed on to star in a John Stockwell thriller called In the Blood; but before that film ever even shoots she might be getting the chance to prove her chops on an even larger stage. THR is reporting that the fighter-turned-actress is currently in talks to join Justin Lin and his muscle car crew for the sixth The Fast and the Furious sequel, which I guess we’ll call Fast Six until we get official word otherwise.
Seeing as Fast Five made a bajillion dollars and revived an aging franchise, everyone important is already signed, sealed, and delivered to be coming back for Fast Six. As previously mentioned, Lin is back to direct, but, in addition to that, Chris Morgan is back on board as the screenwriter, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are coming back as the anchoring actors, and Dwayne Johnson is coming back as the government agent given the task of hunting our fast driving bad boys down.
If Carano ends up signing, she would play a member of Johnson’s team, which should give her ample opportunity to toss Diesel around and cave in Walker’s face. But the real question is, will this be another role where she remains mostly silent and kicks ass where appropriate, or will this be the role that gives her the opportunity to show us more of what she has to offer as an actress? Perhaps a little onscreen romance with The Rock would be just what the doctor ordered, as far as her young career is concerned.