Adeline Rudolph was in Germany preparing for her green card interview when she was told that she had booked the role of Kitana in Mortal Kombat II. “I was told that I couldn’t give in my passport because I had to fly to Australia and start stunt-training for the film immediately,” the Hong Kong-born British actress has revealed in the run-up to the release of what is undoubtedly her biggest big screen outing yet.
Rudolph, 31, a model-turned-actress who has been a familiar face on television over the last few years — she has notable titles like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale and Resident Evil to her name — plays Kitana in Mortal Kombat II, which releases in cinemas worldwide on May 8. The fourth live-action film in the franchise — based on the landmark Mortal Kombat video games — sees Kitana make her debut as a character in this film, joining an eclectic ensemble cast led by Karl Urban as the redoubtable Johnny Cage.
NOSTALGIA & NEWNESS
For Rudolph, who spoke to t2 about her role in such an iconic action franchise, the opportunity to play Kitana — a princess-warrior who is one of the most enduring characters in the Mortal Kombat world — came with “both excitement and nervousness”. “I have poured my heart and soul into playing her. It has been a physical, mental and emotional journey,” she shared. Rudolph also shared that she hoped that Mortal Kombat fans “feel the nostalgia” (associated with the franchise) and that “new audiences can connect with Kitana’s journey”.
In Mortal Kombat II, that sees the return of director Simon McQuoid, who also helmed the 2021 outing Mortal Kombat, the champions of Earthrealm, joined by Cage, are forced into battle against one another as they attempt to resist the rule of Shao Kahn (played by Martyn Ford), whose rise threatens the survival of Earthrealm and its defenders. It puts him head-to-head against Kitana, a royal from the fictional realm of Edenia.
In the sequel, Rudolph told t2 that she was thrilled to learn that Kitana would be brought in as one of its main characters, especially when its prequel had a glaring absence of female characters. “Kitana’s presence is looming and all-encompassing in the world of Mortal Kombat and the latest film shows her in all her warrior-princess glory, something that I had to balance while also showcasing the vulnerable side of her,” Rudolph told t2. She added that being Kitana was “an easy ‘yes’ for her”, and that the casting process ran long. “In the interim, I got a lot of time and space to research the character and each and every aspect of her intrigued me. I was so happy that they (the makers) finally said that they wanted me to play the character.”
She mentioned that reading the script showed how important Kitana is, with her story deeply intertwined with Johnny Cage’s arc and the broader conflict between the realms.
FANTASTICAL YET GROUNDED
“Regal” and “poised” are two descriptors that Adeline often used in this conversation to describe Kitana. Maintaining that while doing the demanding stunt work in the film — Kitana is not only known for her powerful physicality, but also for her skilful use of bladed, fan-like weapons to fend off her adversaries — was something that the perky actress described as her “biggest challenge”. “Not having a formal martial arts background made me double down and train harder. I knew I had to give it my all, training in various action forms and disciplines because I had to get it exactly right if I wanted to bring authenticity to Kitana,” she said.
That included intensive and focused training in Wushu, Kung Fu and Tai Chi, all the while navigating the skilled use of her omnipresent fans as weapons. “I loved the fans. I couldn’t stop flipping them around,” laughed Rudolph. “Along with their use as deadly weapons, they also form the central core, the heartbeat of Kitana’s story,” she added.
In the conversation with t2, Adeline described the physicality of the role to be unlike anything she had experienced before, but she revealed how bringing “realistic emotionality” to Kitana was “equally difficult”, especially given how the character goes toe-to-toe, in combat after combat, with Johnny Cage, in ways that are more than physical.
“I spent time navigating Kitana’s arcs and trying to understand her emotional journey in this film,” she said. Kitana’s mix of power and empathy was an element that Rudolph said she had “to approach with a certain balance, making it all the more challenging and exciting”.
In an earlier interview, Adeline had said that she finds characters like Kitana enjoyable because they help her “find the human, the grounded elements of my characters in these hyper-sensational worlds and situations they find themselves in”. She reiterated that in her chat with t2, adding: “Even in such fantastical worlds, as in the case of Mortal Kombat II, I always look to ground my characters in strong, human emotions.”
Adeline confesses that she didn’t play much of Mortal Kombat growing up, but the cast and crew did have a go at the game while training for the film in Australia. “We played as each other (each other’s characters) and though I wasn’t very good at it, I did have a lot of fun. I did win a couple of times, though,” she laughed.
UPPING THE FEMALE QUOTIENT
Rudolph said that she is happy about the “updated female representation” in Mortal Kombat II, given that the 2021 film had only one notable female character in the form of Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, who also returns for the sequel. Besides Urban’s Cage, the testosterone-heavy core cast of that film comprises male characters Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), Kano (Josh Lawson), Kung Lao (Max Huang), Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), and Shang Tsung (Chin Han), to name a few.
In a global press conference held a few days ago for Mortal Kombat II, attended by select media, including t2, McQuoid highlighted how important it was to “up the female quotient” of the franchise, with Kitana, of course, taking centrestage. “If I really had to bring in strong female characters from the games, then Kitana was a natural choice,” he revealed, as was Jade, played by Tati Gabrielle, an assassin for Shao Kahn, a bodyguard, and a loyal friend/surrogate sister to Princess Kitana.
For Adeline and Tati, being on Mortal Kombat II, as Rudolph told t2, was an “extension of the sisterhood” that the two actors had already established on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, where Adeline played Agatha and Tati did duties as Prudence, both being students at the ‘Academy of the Unseen Arts’.
We rounded off our conversation with Adeline by asking about how much of a role — along with her deadly weapons and physical artistry — did Kitana’s costumes have in helping her slip into the part. The costume — put together by Cappi Ireland — combines Kitana’s regality with combat-ready comfort and features a blue corset, armour plating, and her signature steel folding fans. The idea, according to the makers, was to offer a new look that blends her classic Edenian assassin aesthetic with textured materials suitable for live-action, with a mask used to crown the look.
“Stepping into the costume was a ‘holy crap’ moment for me... it make me think: ‘I am Kitana... and this is really happening!’ The best thing is that despite being a corset, it was very, very comfortable,” she signed off with t2.
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