ALICIA KEYS KICKS ASS IN DEBUT ACTING ROLE

Alicia Keys turns her image around as a sweet songwriter to bad girl assassin in Smokin’ Aces.

Alicia Keys makes her acting debut as a female hit woman contracted to kill Las Vegas kingpin Buddy Israel in Smokin’ Aces. The goal for Alicia’s transition into acting was to turn her image upside down and appear in a way you’ve never seen her before.

The singer songwriter took the advice from director Joe Carnahan who encouraged her to break away from the nice girl and play a character who can stand up to any man.

“Don’t do one of those girly movies where you’re like the love interest. You need to be someone tough, someone strong and she’s all of these things. She’s kick ass. She definitely is kick ass and she’s definitely tough and strong. I feel like she’s kind of the brains behind it all. She’s the one that sets up the plan and what we’re gonna do and how we’re gonna execute it. She’s pretty incredible. She’s like the little 2007 Foxy Brown with a twist.”

One of the key elements for Key’s character was firing automatic weapons. Despite all the action surrounding her Alicia was proud of how she mastered the guns but her dainty piano hands will never be the same.

“I mean it was tough. It was definitely, definitely tough. My hands were killing me. I had a lot of bruises and scratches because of the kick back of the gun. While you’re reloading you scrape yourself a lot. I wore gloves a lot as well while I was training because it was pretty damaging. It was amazing to see yourself getting better at it. To see how you’re actually adjusting to it. How you can hold this and make it work right at that target right there and be accurate. It’s crazy. I would say of everything was to be able to reload in the middle of all that action and do it smoothly one take where it’s a constant thing and it’s not like a chop and an edit. I was proud.”

Alicia had motivation from co-star Ryan Reynolds who was a natural during the shoot-out scenes which fueled her even more to be better.