Interview: Actress Tracey Birdsall talks ‘Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter’

Low budget indie Sci-Fi action movie, Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter is now in theaters across the US and on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Starring acclaimed actress Tracey Birdsall (pictured, on the left, below), the film gives the actress a chance to flex her action-heroine muscles. We had the opportunity to fire some questions over to Tracey about her love of the film, the evolution of the script, and the future of the franchise.

How exactly did you get this role in Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, Tracey? I read it was fashioned as a vehicle for you?

I had worked with the director before, and he wanted me to “lead up” one of his films, so Rogue Warrior was the result of that collaboration. We delved through a dozen or more scripts to find one that could be re-written as one that we both wanted to produce. Rogue Warrior was that perfect combination between artificial intelligence/robotics, sci-fi, and also a character-driven journey. It met all of the criteria that we both were interested in bringing to life. It wasn’t really thought of as a vehicle, as much as it was a project that we both wanted to do – and could do together.

So I’m guessing by that there were some re-writes. How much did the script change before it went before the cameras?

The script went through massive re-writes both in pre-production and in post-production. Neil re-wrote the script after each cast member was set in stone. He also had to do a major re-write when we were in post, doing re-shoots, as one of the actresses didn’t respond to our emails and calls about re-shoots. Rather than seeing that as a huge negative, he saw this as an opportunity to make the movie even better. William Kircher was brought on at this point (The Hobbit) and brought such strength to a newly devised character.

Did you ask for any changes or have suggestions where Sienna is concerned?

Every comment or suggestion I made was taken into consideration, I’ll say that. At the helm of the film, of course, was Neil Johnson. All final decisions were his. Many changes in the character development were mine, but they all had to go through approval. Neil runs his ship very much like a studio when it comes to veto power. Although we have all the creative liberty in the world, he looks at everything as a whole – and thus has veto power. It’s really the best of both worlds when you think about it.

There are a multitude of strong significant females in movies through the years, did you re-watch any of these before tackling the role? Maybe some Aliens?

I watch a lot of movies. I’m constantly inspired by great acting roles. That said, I didn’t want to prepare Sienna after an existent empowered female, so I didn’t. I have decades of watching films to draw upon, but I wanted to make Sienna her own woman, her own strength, with her own motivations. I purposely didn’t watch again any movies while preparing, as I didn’t want her to be fashioned after other strong female roles. She needed to be an individual with her own purpose, her own motivation, her own wants, desires, and unique visions.

Did you do all the stunts yourself?

Yes, absolutely. So much fun!

Thats awesome, So how heavy were those weapons!?

Some of them were quite heavy! I have very small wrists so no matter how strong I became, my wrists were sore most of the time. A couple of the weapons were so heavy that they actually knocked me over at times, which was pretty hilarious…

So I also hear there is a TV series spin-off afoot? Is that still in the works? If so whats the latest?

It is! As soon as we are done with The Time War re-shoots and post, that’s the first thing we will be focusing on!
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Thank you Tracey for your time…. We want everyone to check Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter out it looks great!