Rihanna Says: "Battleship" Made Me Confront My Sensitive Side...

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Friday, 18 May 2012 12:28

Written by Marie Moore

At a special screening of Battleship for a select few at the Nite Hawk Cinema in Brooklyn -- where the seats had miniature tables attached -- there were bowls of regular and gourmet popcorn. Drinks were also served before and during the screening as waiters crouched down slinking through the aisles so as to not disturb the viewing.

This was a perfect setting for the interview that followed with singing star Rihanna via Skype who was in Hawaii -- where the sci-fi action thriller had been shot.

I began by asking the sultry pop music diva now making her acting debut what characteristics she shared with her sailor character Raikes -- a beautiful-yet-tough-as-nails gunner -- other than the same monogram.

“I think mostly being one of the boys,” Rihanna replied. “I really liked that. I was used to that, growing up with my brothers, and all my cousins. It was rarely any girls around, and I didn’t feel out of place.”

Boys love playing with guns and she went on to say that what she will miss most about playing her character were the guns. “Most of the fun was on set, doing the actual shooting, and using the weapons. That was some of my favorite parts, the weapons, all the stunts and the fighting scenes. I did a lot of training with a female soldier, who's a real weapons officer. She taught me a lot about weapons and drills, the whole etiquette, and the body language. I would have never had those experiences, had it not been for shooting this film. That was definitely fun to play.”

In addition to having fun, the Battleship shoot was very revealing for the Barbados-born Robyn Rihanna Fenty.  “I actually learned a lot about myself,” the 24-year-old disclosed. “I mean, I had to delve into, you know, different emotions and things that I had been avoiding, I guess, not even knowing.  I guess I put up this face, and I don't want people to see me weak or anything, or vulnerable.  I did that for so long that I kind of had to break that down. And it really taught me a lot about myself. It was a great experience.”

The award-winning pop idol also learned that being a video queen does not help when on set of a big blockbuster movie. “I thought the [video work] would help,” she laughed, “but little did I know. It was a completely different beast. It was brand new, and it was a whole different experience. It was a much bigger set. I had to use dialog and I never really use that in my videos; it's usually just me acting to a track, a musical track. That was different. Having an accent, too.”

And director Peter Berg was taking no prisons, she explained. “Peter Berg, he's very spontaneous and fearless. He pushed me a lot and he threw me out there, right away from day one.  I didn't even have a chance to really think about what I was doing.  I was right out into the scenes. 

"On the first day I had no lines. So I didn't have lines prepared, I was just in character. Then all of a sudden, It was like, I had 12 lines in my first scene. I liked that, the improv. I had to learn really, really quickly.”

She added, “Working with Peter as a director made me feel safe. His enthusiasm made me trust him and I believed he could really putt it [what he needed in the role] out of me.”

With a big budget movie under her belt, millionaire Rihanna, who is now #4 on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list with an array of hit singles, has no intentions of putting music on pause.

“I don't think music could ever be on hold for me,” she acknowledged, “because it's something that I love to do.  So even if  there isn’t a deadline or a specific project, I will always feel empty not making music.  I will always get that bug. Even right now, I'm still going a little crazy. I can't wait to go in the studio, just to play around with songs. 

"I can do that, because that doesn't become work for me. I am going to make time to do some more films. I really liked my first experience with Battleship, so I'm looking forward to doing more. But I can't say goodbye to music.”

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