The Princess Virtual Press Conference
Released on Hulu this past Friday, The Princess is a sweeping, epic with an edge. Joey King (The Princess) Veronica Ngo (Linh) and director Le-Van Kiet discuss making this modern-day fairytale.
We recently got to attend the virutal press conference with actress Joey King, Veronica Ngo and director Le-Van Kiet as they talk about working together, their favorite roles, stunts and much more.
On what the experience was like playing the title role?
Joey King: It was absolutely incredible, though. I mean, this is something that I never… I haven’t felt this proud of something in so long.
On working with Joey King:
Le-Van-Kiet: The work was done for me. But immediately we were excited, because Joey just consistently impressed me dramatically, but also physically. And that was a real joy, because it made my job a lot easier, obviously. But it just melted into the movie. But exactly what Joey said. We just had so much fun, and it really oozes into the film.
Working on the fight scenes:
Veronica Ngo: And then I never seen a girl (Joey) fight like that before.
Joey King: It is such an honor, because Veronica is obviously extremely experienced in the action world, and she is just an unbelievable fighter. I mean, I knew I had so much to learn from her. She is so clean with her fighting. She is so admirable. It is just, like, it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful dance to watch her fight. And so, to hear this, it is so nice. It is so lovely to hear. I really knew that I had so much to learn, and I still have so much to learn. I saw your commitment when you train already. But, you know, see the final product in there, I was like, whoa. I could not sit, you know, on my seat. Amazing.
Performing The Stunts:
Joey King: I think that it’s worth saying though that, like, the only reason I felt like I could do these things is because Kiet and Veronica and the entire stunt team as well, they all lifted me up so much. No one made me feel like I couldn’t do anything. Like, my two stunt doubles, who became great friends of mine, they wanted me to do everything that I could. They wanted to train me to be the best that I could be. And so, everyone me, that’s what made me a good student. That’s what made me able to do all of it, ’cause I had such an amazing support system of people that believed in me. Because I was nervous, I’d never done something like this before. So, having all these people that believe in you and telling you, like, oh, you don’t know if you can do it? Well, I know you can.
Le-Van-Kiet: Every day she (Joey) came to work, she’s like, “No, I’m doing that, right?” And we all looked at each other and we were like, okay, I guess you are. And she’s even better than the stunt person. So why not?
Discussing Injuries On Set:
Joey King: It’s also about, like, you get hurt while you’re training, and, like, the training process helps you to not be head shy anymore when you get hurt, to go into the next take. So, like, there were a couple times I got kicked in the head and hurt my back.
Most challenging scene to film?
Joey King: It was actually a scene with Veronica. It was in the woods. We had a flashback sequence of us fighting together. And the reason why that was the most challenging scene is ’cause I don’t think we actually stopped fighting for 12 hours. All the cameras were kind of already where they needed to be, and we would just kind of move them around us. If I remember correctly, and, like, we wouldn’t cut sometimes. We’d just go right into another take and just keep fighting. And I was wearing leather pants. Oh my God, I think I, like, I, like, I think I lost like five pounds of water weight that day. I was so tired. And I went home and I was crying.
Veronica Ngo: Well, yeah, it’s actually the same scene. Joey already said it. I mean, for me, I am very concerned when I come into a fight scene with another actress, ’cause, you know, we need a lot of training. It’s better for me to fight with a stunt person. Like, you know, it’s easier, ’cause I know they can take a lot, and then I can really stretch on my movement, you know, and straighten them and do and kicks and punch as hard as I wouldn’t, you know?
On wanting to do a sequel or a similar film?
Joey King: I really did fall in love with, like, martial arts process. Of just, like, learning how to fight during this training of this movie. So, I would definitely not shy away from another film that has some sort of action elements and getting my hands dirty. I felt like I unlocked a new confidence in myself that I didn’t know I had, ’cause I didn’t think I could pull something like this off, and then I did. And so I feel like that just made me feel really empowered.
Favorite Scene:
Le-Van Kiet: Oh, wow. Shooting-wise, I had a great time with the kitchen scene. Yes, the kitchen scene with… By the way, Olga was fantastic in this scene, in terms of flipping it to another tone. But we had fun with it, and then because by that time in the movie your kind of tired of the fighting and your kind of already seen it all. So, we gave everybody a different flavor to it, and especially when Maura [PH] comes in, the character that Olga plays. It changed into a much more dramatic but fun element. So that scene was my favorite to shoot.
Experience shooting in Bulgaria?
Le-Van Kiet: It was exactly how Joey said. They’re great people. They are very committed. They’re very gentle. But they are the best at what they do, and we couldn’t have done it in any other place. They’re great builders too. Set team is great. We Page 20 of 23 shot it all in a set, and the majority of it. But it was, yeah, great support in Bulgaria.
Joey King: But my favorite thing about Bulgaria was what we’re all saying, the people. I mean, the people that we worked with, the stunt team there, and the crew there. And it was just like, they’re just people that I’ll never forget. I’ll always hold them in my heart. My trainer in Bulgaria, Rasa [PH], he became, like, almost like a father figure to me. He was, like, such a wonderful man.
Check back for our review on the film… coming soon!
Big film nerd and TCM Obsessed. Author of The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema from Schiffer Publishing. Resume includes: AMC’s The Bite, Scream Magazine etc. Love all kinds of movies and television and have interviewed a wide range of actors, writers, producers and directors. I currently am a regular co-host on the podcast The Humanoids from the Deep Dive and have a second book in the works from Bear Manor.