In a role at one point meant for a man, Emily Blunt owns it in Sicario.
"I do enjoy the physicality, it helps me understand that person - how they move, to get into their skin," says Blunt.
"The weapons training, the choreography of that SWAT team assault, that's all really transporting for me."
As FBI SWAT team leader Kate Macer, weapons training isn't the half of it - she finds herself buried in the brutal world of the drug cartels.
She thinks she's working for the good guys, but the lines between good and bad become increasingly blurred.
Although she previously proved her action chops alongside Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, for this self-deprecating Brit the idea of being an action star couldn't have been further from reality.
"The character is very different from me, and my Edge of Tomorrow character is very different from me," says Blunt.
"I just don't have any of that kind of courage that either of them show."
She stars alongside Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin; none of them short of an opinion and not afraid to share them with their director.
"Denis Villeneuve was very open to hearing an opinion, and he was dealing with three actors who had quite a spirited opinion. It's not our first Rodeo and I think some days he was like 'oh my god'", says Blunt.
As for Brolin, they almost didn't end up working together at all. He has another film Everest also in Kiwi cinemas and he almost passed on Sicario because of it.
"After Everest I needed a break, I needed to decompress," says Brolin. "I got Sicario too soon."
Thankfully, he did decompress. Sicario opened in New Zealand cinemas yesterday.
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