Maggie Q, left, joins Shailene Woodley in the new action film "Divergent".
In the new action film "Divergent," the only actor who doesn't do any fighting is Margaret Denise Quigley — you might know her better as Maggie Q. Casting an actor so well known for her ability to handle action scenes and not have her do any stunts is the worst use of a performer since super singer Idina Menzel was the only actor in the movie-musical "Enchanted" who didn't sing.
Maggie Q admits that it was hard to keep her action side under control. She says she would often find herself chatting with the stunt coordinators about how they would be handling certain scenes.
Despite not having a lot of action scenes, she says she was drawn to the film knowing where her character is going in the sequel.
"The potential for growth has to be there. It's almost like making a decision in television. A pilot can be great but if it has nowhere to go, it's hard to accept that show," Maggie Q says. "This was much like making a decision in television taking a film like this."
The main theme of "Divergent" is whether a person is born to follow a certain path. Maggie Q believes that she was born to pursue a career in entertainment but that destiny was not fully realized during her early years.
"I was not born into a creative family. I wasn't born into a family who had been exposed to entertainment in any point in their lives," Maggie Q says. "So, it wasn't an option for me when I was young. I didn't think being a creative person was something you could do and actually make a living.
"In my heart of hearts, I've always been a creative person. I was always pushing the creative envelope. I'm the only one of five kids who did that, so it took a minute for people to understand it."
Her first creative outlet was when she started modeling at 17. It was while she was in Hong Kong that she started working with Jackie Chan, who saw her as an action star. Since making her debut in the TV drama "House of the Dragons" in 1998, Maggie Q has become one of the top action film and TV actors.
Before "Divergent," Maggie Q starred in the CW Network series "Nikita." Despite a strong fan base, the CW canceled the show after three seasons. Maggie Q holds no ill feelings toward the network or the studio that produced the series.
"Warner Bros. actually fought real hard for me to get that fourth season where we could wrap up the show," Maggie Q says. "I thought we made a great show but we were just on the wrong network. We couldn't find our audience in the way that we should have for that kind of show.
"People who did find it, appreciated it for what it was. At the end of the day, for me, it was just that I had to put my head down and continue to put everything I have into it and make the best product possible."
Fun for all
You can count on at least one news story after the opening weekend of "Muppets Most Wanted" that will report with great surprise how well the family-oriented movie did at the box office. There's always a sense of wonderment when family movies do well. The surprise is that anyone would be shocked that family movies draw large numbers.
Families are always looking for movies that are both safe and fun for children while being entertaining for the adults. Producers Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman — who run Mandeville Films and Television — understand this and have built a career with all kinds of family-friendly movies from "The Proposal" to "Muppets Most Wanted." They also have sold six TV projects to ABC.
There's something that Lieberman and Hoberman understand that so many producers aren't getting.
"I think it's pretty simple. At least in my head. Both David and I like to make movies for everybody that kids can also enjoy as opposed to making movies specifically for kids," Lieberman tells me. " 'The 'Muppets' is a perfect example of not pandering or talking down to kids. When we are telling stories or presenting something to an audience, we want to tell stories to people and not specially to children. That's the goal."
The Muppets are a perfect vehicle for such broad humor. But, doing a project with an entertainment franchise that comes with such a legacy can be a little daunting. Lieberman chose to ignore the responsibility when he produced the 2011 feature "The Muppets."
He only started to feel the pressure of the legacy when after "The Muppets" was released, the press started talking about how horrible it would have been if they had done a bad job with the franchise.
"For the second film the pressure was there. We knew that everyone embraced the first movie so we had to do the exact same thing so people would embrace this one," Lieberman says. "You want to make every movie work, but this movie in particular. But, you can't let those things influence you as a filmmaker. Once you start trying to figure out what people want, then you are in trouble."
All they wanted to do with "Muppets Most Wanted" was to honor the legacy while make a fun film for the entire family.
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