In filming Uncharted, Tom Holland might not have expected to beat up on by his co-star Tati Gabrielle during action sequences but the actress brought such intensity to her original character that Holland was accidentally on the receiving end of her in-character kicks. Gabrielle portrays Braddock, a hardened mercenary who clashes with Holland’s Nathan Drake throughout the Uncharted movie. As it turns out, she brought black belt-level karate skills to set and was encouraged to unleash them.
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“I mean, it was not my intention to… Like, so here’s the thing, because I have a martial arts background, I was always taught, you know, either control of like, not touching, or hitting at all, or like you gotta hit them,” Gabrielle laughed in an interview with ComicBook.com. “And so, stunt fighting, it was a hard thing for me to like, with my muscle memory, work out, like, ‘No, just graze him. Like just like tap him a little bit. You don’t have to like kick him.’ And I feel so bad. He’s such sweetheart ’cause he took it like a champ. But, yeah, like, I was not trying to beat up Spider-Man. Please, those who love Spider-Man don’t hate me!”
Holland opened up about the first encounter. “When I first met Tati, I thought, ‘How is she going to play this scary villain?’” he said. “And then we had our first day on set and she came to life, and I got it. There’s a fight scene between the two of us, she was kicking me in the chest and it really hurt. I asked, ‘Do you have any martial arts training?’ And yeah, she’s a black belt in karate.”
In fact, Gabrielle seems to have swept a few people off of their feet with her performance. Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer joined ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast where he revealed his surprise of the intensity she brought to the film. “She’s such a cool actress. I will be honest, I wasn’t familiar with her prior to starting to look for someone who could play that role,” Fleischer said. “And she auditioned, and I was completely blown away by her screen presence. She’s surprisingly young, but she has a maturity that I think is just really impressive. She also, having spoken to her, you can attest that she’s like this giggly, high pitched voice kind of girly girl, which is anything but the character that she plays in this movie. So, it’s a testament to her talent and the character that she created that she was able to transform herself to become Braddock.”
Are you excited to see Uncharted? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Watch ComicBook.com’s full Uncharted interview with Tati Gabrielle on our official YouTube channel! Uncharted hits theaters this weekend.
