Action icon Milla Jovovich said that Protector, the action thriller that premiered at Busan International Film Festival, was "one of the most difficult productions I've ever been a part of."

ADVERTISEMENT
Jovovich stars as Nikki Halstead, a former special forces operative racing the clock to save her teenage daughter from a human trafficking ring in a revenge tale directed by Adrien Grunberg (Get the Gringo, Rambo: Last Blood).

"I have three daughters of my own -- one of them being literally the same age as my daughter on the screen," Jovovich said at a group interview in Busan last Thursday. "It was so difficult to play this part and survive every day with that emotion."

The role was also a full-throttle endurance test for the 49-year-old Jovovich, who is beaten, bloodied, battered and bruised on her way to piling up an epic body count of bad guys.

"I lost 20 pounds making this movie," she said. "It was one of the most emotional films I've ever made and one of the most difficult productions I've ever been a part of."

Jovovich said that she insisted on realism in the action sequences, which have her finding innovative ways to kill dozens of creeps from a shadowy trafficking organization known as The Syndicate.

"I don't want to do it if I wouldn't be able to do it in real life," Jovovich said. "It's about controlling joints, pressure points. In the military, you learn where you can hurt anybody ... if you know where to grab, how to disarm."

Jovovich, whose credits include six turns as Resident Evil's zombie-slaying heroine Alice, said she was drawn back to her first solo action leading role in nearly a decade by the compelling subject matter and cathartic storyline.

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
"Human trafficking is a huge issue that's been under the radar for so long," she said. "It's one of those subjects that makes people so uncomfortable that nobody really wants to make movies about it."

Despite the grim setting, the movie also plays out as a revenge fantasy, Jovovich said.

"I think this movie is every parent's worst nightmare," she said. "But at the same time, it's also very satisfying because it's everything every parent fantasizes about doing to the people who would hurt that child. Seeing Nikki go after these people ... and get the revenge that we all think they deserve was really important for me."

Protector screened in BIFF's Midnight Passion section, which is dedicated to genre films that blend artistic merit and mainstream appeal.

The version shown at Busan was a "first cut," Jovovich said, with additional scenes to shoot and final edits to be made based partly on audience feedback.

The story, by South Korean screenwriter Mun Bong-seob, won't be mistaken for a deep character study of anyone but Jovovich's Nikki, who handles much of the narrative exposition through voiceover. Protector also features Isabel Myers as Nikki's daughter Chloe, Matthew Modine as her former military commander and D.B. Sweeney as a loose-cannon police captain.

For Jovovich, the film marked her first visit to South Korea since promoting Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2016.

She recalled discovering a small bakery in Seoul on that trip with her husband, director Paul W. S. Anderson, where the pies were "so amazing."

"I would love to go back there, but since working on Protector -- it was such a difficult movie, I'm gluten-free now for my health," she said. "Maybe next time."

Protector, which is co-produced by South Korea's Blossom Studio and Anaxion Studio, is slated for release in South Korea in late 2025 with a wider North American release to follow.