Haywire cast ducks as Gina Carano kicks booty

SheKnows sat down with Haywire‘sGina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas and Channing Tatum to talk about how hot — and sometimes kinda scary — it is to watch a female spy kick butt.  

Haywire, the new spy thriller from director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Traffic, Contagion) is more than just your ordinary action flick.

The film stars ex-martial arts pro Gina Carano as Mallory, a rogue agent desperate to get her life back on track. She’s a female spy who — for the first time ever — actually scares the bejesus out of her male counterparts.

What’s it like to punch a girl…?

When asked what it was like to punch a girl, co-star Channing Tatum joked that it’s the very reason they called him for the part — he was “happy to beat the crap out of a girl.” All kidding aside, Tatum, who is rather charming and starts each interview with a kiss (cheek kiss, ladies, he loves his wife!), was ultimately a bit timid when asked to break a bottle over Carano’s head in a fight scene.

“It’s very, very hard, actually,” Tatum says about getting in the mindset where he felt comfortable hitting Carano. “It took a lot of trash-talking from Gina to actually physically do it.”

What a charmer! He’s won our hearts forever.

Facing off with Obi-Wan Kenobi

Ewan McGregor, on the other hand, said his fight scene with the 29-year-old actress with iron thighs didn’t worry him at all. Although, Ewan added that he was lucky he didn’t have to really fight her. “It’s all make believe,” he says. “But I think [that] had we had to do something with contact like that, it might have been trickier.” McGregor plays Carano’s boss and ex-boyfriend in the film.

But, as we know from watching great action movies, the fight scene makes the warrior. So, what does Carano think about all the smack-downs she gave these tough Hollywood men?

Adreline rush!

“I’ve never felt so much adreline on a beach before,” Gina says about shooting the one-on-one scene with McGregor. (He’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, ladies!) And, well… we don’t want to ruin the film for you, but let’s just say without a light saber, he’s not as tough as our gal.

After Haywire hits theaters Jan. 20, it’s clear there will be a lot of young women looking up to this kind of female force. What’s Carano’s advice to young warriors wanting to kick man-booty like a modern heroine?

“You have to do it for the right reasons,” Carano says.