Abbie Cornish is "Sweet Pea" in Sucker Punch

You might have last seen beautiful Aussie actress Abbie Cornish playing Fanny Brawne, sweetie to poet John Keats in the period romance Bright Star and she can currently be seen playing opposite hottie Bradley Cooper in the thriller Limitless. Starting this Friday, Abbie dons a hot leather outfit and grabs a shotgun to shoot her way to freedom in the all-girl actioner Sucker Punch.

We’re chatting with Abbie on a rainy day in Beverly Hills and the sleek blonde is dressed in head to toe classy back; pants and blouse. Like all the popular young actresses in the movie, she had never really kicked butt on film before and really got into it. Her character Sweet Pea is the voice of reason/caution in the film yet she joins the team of asylum inmates for a daring, if fantasy, escape that is, in more ways than one, a blast!

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about when you first met with director Zack Snyder about the role? Did you have to prove to him that you could do some real action moves? 

Abbie Cornish: Interestingly enough, we didn’t have to prove the physical part. I think Zack just had enough faith in the team that he employed to aid in that process.  Damon Caro, the stunt choreographer/coordinator, Tim Rigby, the wire guy, Logan Hood and Dave who trained us, are Navy Seals and they taught us how to use the guns and move with guns.

I think Zack just knew. He has such great instincts and I think he does expert casting in a way. So that wasn’t actually a prerequisite. I think he more wanted to find the girls and then hoped that in those three months (of training), we’d get it.

TeenHollywood: All the girls do some amazing stunts. Can you talk about bonding through all the training?

Abbie: Yeah, we bonded really fast. I think as actors whenever you get thrown in the deep end together, the friendship occurs quite suddenly, because you find yourself in these circumstances where we’d cling to each other because all you have is each other. There are moments where you laugh about it and moments where you share stories so it was incredible. Through those three months we trained hard, we were almost like stunt women, not actors for a while there. I kind of loved losing myself in it, and I loved the routine of it. I loved the meditative state I found when we were practicing martial arts. Yeah, I think it was a pretty amazing time for all of us.

TeenHollywood: You and Jena Malone, who plays Rocket, are sisters in the film. Did you two do any extra work together to form your relationship? It’s very convincing.  

Abbie: Yeah. The great thing was, obviously we’d work at work, but because we were hanging out so much on the outside, we got a lot of work done on the off-hours too. There were times where Jena and I would talk into the night about our characters and the relationship between them, and their past. And we’d find ourselves at airports nearly missing our planes because we were so deep in conversation. It was incredible. I guess the lucky thing is Jena and I have become sisters in a way, adopted sisters in real life, so you can see that on screen, I think, that connection. Even when we’re not actually addressing each other directly in scenes, you can see the connection. The same with all of us girls. We were all so close that it kind of pushed the film to another level in a way.

TeenHollywood: You are kind of the voice of caution in this, the big sister. Is that something you noticed when you first read the role; that you’re going to be pulling back when everyone else is gung-ho? Was that challenging or fun for you?

Abbie: Yeah, it was a challenge and I put a lot of thought into it. It was something that I was very concerned about before we shot the film. I felt like I had to give over to Sweet Pea, I had to let her be who she was. I couldn’t dance the line between wanting to express her sensitivities and a lot of the things that I knew were on the inside of this character because she’s learned to survive in this crazy environment. And out of all the girls, she’s the one that shouldn’t actually be there.

TeenHollywood: Did you work on the backstory of what happened to the sisters to get them sent to the mental institution?

Abbie: Yeah. The backstory is that something happened with Rocket that (Sweet Pea) took half the blame for, and so she’s in this crazy place trying to get out, trying to get her sister out, and in doing so is playing by the rules of the system, hoping that they’ll one day escort them out the front door and they’ll be on their way home. So she’s carrying the burden of her younger sister; to get her home safe.

TeenHollywood: Sweet Pea is sort of like two people; the quiet one inside the asylum and the wild warrior woman outside. That had to be an acting challenge.

Abbie: And there’s a moment where I kind of felt like I was between two countries, I was like on the border, I was like France, Italy, France, Italy, and so I kind of had to make this decision to just go with it, to let her be, to be tough, to be hardcore, to have that outer shell, to understand what’s inside and what’s outside, and then let that be the journey in a way, to freedom. She had to be able to be fearful and threatened and also be loud and roar. I thought of two animals; a lioness and an Arabian horse. A lioness in nature and the protection of her territory, her sister, and then the Arabian horse in the way she has decided to carry herself.

TeenHollywood: Very cool comparison. So, what was your favorite weapon?

Abbie: I loved the shotgun! The first time I fired that thing, it hit me in the side of the face, because you have to hold it up against your cheek. It has a kick-back, especially when you’re shooting real loads at a target. The first time, even though Logan told me to hold it up here (she holds imaginary gun not quite touching her cheek) for some reason I must have been about here (touching her cheek) so when it kicked back it whacked me in the face. It was like a grown man punching you in the face.

TeenHollywood: Ouch! That’s why you loved it?

Abbie: [she laughs] Well, it was the beginning of the relationship. We had to work it out. It was amazing. And then you get used to it, and then I’m like, ‘Okay, load me up.’ And Logan was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got five minutes left at the range, what do you want to do?’ I’m like, ‘Shoot, shoot. Shotgun, shotgun!’ Because we all had a turn at everything. But [I also liked] the sword, something about the fluidity of the sword that was kind of like dancing. Gosh I loved that

TeenHollywood: You sound like you really got into it.

Abbie: It’s kind of crazy how much we did love the smell of gunpowder though. It was amazing. After we finished the film, I remember going into this candle store and there was one candle that was called Gunpowder Metal Musk, whatever it was, and I was so excited. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, if this smells like gunpowder it will be amazing.’ And it was actually really disappointing, it didn’t really smell like real gunpowder, it kind of smelt like ash and old burnt wood.

TeenHollywood: You girls have all seen this together now. What was your reaction watching it?

Abbie: We loved it, we were blown away. We were the rowdiest audience members you’ve ever seen. We were like cheering each other on going Who-hooo doing catcalls and everything. Personally for me, when I watch myself in a film, I can watch it once and then I don’t need to see it again, and it always is a little bit like, ‘That’s me, that’s my face.’ This was entirely different. I loved it. I enjoyed it so much, especially seeing my close friends up there kicking ass, as well as myself. It’s like such a satisfying thing to watch, and just visually it was so exciting and so cool, I feel like I could keep watching this film, which is a really big thing for me to say.

TeenHollywood: What’s the strongest memory you take away from this film?

Abbie: When you ask that question, so many things flash through my mind, so many images, so many moments, I don’t know how I could possibly pick one over the other. It’s really hard. I could generalize and say the training or the friendships with the girls, but for me my memories are much more specific, much more detailed. It could be as simple as the smile on Zack’s face the first time we walked to set, the glimmer in Damon Caro’s eyes as all their choreography pieces were coming together. The sound of Jena’s laugh. I could go on forever.