10 Actors Who Learned Martial Arts For Their Roles

Find out which stars took up martial arts…

To prepare for her role as the Black Widow in the MCU, Scarlett Johansson trained intensively in the gym and in a variety of martial arts disciplines. It was a huge change for the actress, who says she had never even stepped foot in a gym before getting cast in the role. The Avengers fight choreographer Jonathan Eusebio shared that Scarlett put in months of work to get ready for the film.

“We covered a mix of different martial arts, but more practical martial arts; a mix of karate, Jiu-Jitsu, judo, Filipino martial arts and Muay Thai boxing. It was a bunch of different elements from a bunch of practical martial arts,” he explained.

While getting ready for his starring role in the The Dark Knight trilogy, Christian Bale began training in Wing Chun, a martial arts style that prioritizes hand-to-hand combat and quick punches, as well as the Spanish Keysi Fighting Method.

“The very first time that I met with Chris [Nolan] after him asking me to play the role, he had said he really wanted me to be involved in the fighting technique so that it kind of looked organic and looked like something that I had invented myself,” Christian shared.

Before filming the first Matrix movie, Keanu Reeves underwent an exhaustive four-month training program with legendary martial arts choreographer and director Yuen Woo-ping. Before filming began, the director required all of his stars to commit to the intensive training process.

“It was challenging, not just in the physical sense, but also mentally challenging. This was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But it was worth it,” Keanu shared back in 1999. “The entire experience was wonderful. It was like a chance to play cowboy and Indians for me, you know, to really have a good time in a shoot ’em-up style. And we were the first western actors to ever try this, the wires and the stunts. It felt really satisfying to be pushing the envelope.”

When Charlize Theron landed her role in Atomic Blonde, she got to work on her martial arts skills. For six weeks leading up to filming, Charlize trained two to three hours a day in all different kinds of martial arts. She became so good that it actually changed filming plans. Director David Leitch thought Charlize was only going to be able to do a few moves every take -- but she ended up being able to do up to 30 moves in succession.

“The entire stunt team was very pleasantly surprised at her overall physical ability,” stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave told People. “She was extremely tough; she did 95 percent of all of her own fighting.”

He continued, “A lot of it is natural, God-given talent that she was born with. She’s just a very coordinated and athletic person to begin with, but I can attest to the hard work that she put in, and that’s what separates the good ones from the great ones, in my opinion. Hard work was one of the bedrocks of her training, and I think it really shows in the final product.”

Before Simu Liu landed his role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, he may have exaggerated his martial arts capabilities. Looking back, Simu says he “had done some work as an on-again, off-again stuntman,” but was mostly a dancer. As soon as he got cast, he got to work on building his martial arts skills.

Before Jessica Alba made her mark on the big screen, she starred in the Fox series Dark Angel as a supersoldier who escaped a military facility. To prepare for the role, she trained in both martial arts and gymnastics -- which ignited her passion for fitness. Through the years, she says she’s dabbled in “a bunch of different disciplines in martial arts,” including Krav Maga. It’s helped her with other fighting roles throughout her career.

“My very first big role was in a TV show that James Cameron created called Dark Angel. I was 17 when I was hired for it. I trained for about a year and a half. With that as my foundation, I got to flex my muscles…But I got to really use my foundational skills in stunts and apply it to this movie, which was awesome,” Jessica shared while talking about her 2024 film Trigger Warning.

“When I got the part, they asked me about my martial arts background and experience, which of course I exaggerated because I wanted the job really badly,” Simu said during Variety’s Actors on Actors series. “Pretty much from the moment I was cast, I started working with trainers and learning how to move.”

Tom Hardy found a lifelong passion for Brazilian jiu-jitsu while training for his 2011 movie Warrior. Leading up to filming, where he played an MMA fighter, Tom trained under a grappler ​​to become extremely proficient at the sport. He ended up really loving the experience and now frequently practices jiu-jitsu -- a skill which he’s taken with him to other films like Venom.

Kevin James had to train for his role in the mixed martial arts comedy Here Comes the Boom where he played a biology teacher turned MMA fighter. Leading up to the film, he says he trained with UFC fighters whenever he got the chance between his busy schedule so that he was ready to perform his own stunts.

“We had the access to bring UFC fighters in, whether we were traveling, whether I was doing stand-up or promoting a movie, we would set up in a hotel and just go, ‘All right, put these gloves on!’ And we would just go and start working out so my movement would look like I kind of knew what I was doing and it just grew,” he told ESPN. “Then there was strength training and working out and tightening up my body, which was brutal. It never got tight, tight, but it got closer.”

For his role in Say Anything…, John Cusack trained in kickboxing -- even though it wasn’t a huge part of the role. He trained alongside world champion Benny Urquidez and has continued to work with him for over two decades. With all the work he’s put in behind the scenes, Benny says he’s incredibly impressed by John.

“I’ve never seen a man who’s 6-feet-4 be able to move like that. He draws you in, he umbrellas you like an octopus. You don’t know where he’s going to attack you,” he told the New York Daily News. “He’s got the kind of control that I can put a cigarette in my mouth and he can kick it right out without hitting me.”

Brie Larson got a crash course in martial arts before taking on her starring role in Captain Marvel. She carved out nine months to get ready for the movie, crafting an intense training regime which included working on her martial arts skills. Even after filming wrapped, she says she has continued with her training.

“I carved out nine months, and was like ‘I’m going to hit it as hard as I can and see how far I could go,’” she told People. “I was able to get way further than I ever thought I would ever get to in my life. I never thought I’d be able to deadlift 225 lbs, never thought I could hip thrust 400 lbs, I didn’t even know hip thrust existed before and so that was great.”

She continued, “The martial arts, the boxing, all of that added a new element that’s really stuck with me that I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life continuing to study. Because I love the space my brain gets into when I’m doing it, it’s like a meditation, it really sticks with me and it’s profoundly changed the way I live my life.”