I’m obsessed with war films, says Lana Condor

Lana Condor has “an obsession with war films”.

The 27-year-old actress – who stars alongside Chase Stokes in the new action-thriller film ‘Valiant One’ – has recently fulfilled her long-held ambition of starring in a war film.

She told Collider: “Weirdly, I have an obsession with war films. I love thrillers.

“I don’t know what that says about me, but they are more my comfort movies than anything else. I’ve always loved watching them, and I’ve always thought, ‘Man, I would love to know what it’s like to make something like that.’

“And so, when I got the opportunity to do ‘Valiant One’, it was the first time that our amazing producers and our amazing director and the production company and just someone in the industry, in general, believed I could do something so wildly different from what I’m known for, and that was really, really, really special to me.”

Lana feels “so grateful” to have been given the opportunity to star in ‘Valiant One’, which focuses on a group of US soldiers who are trying to escape North Korea.

She shared: “I was so grateful to them for believing in me. It weirdly was something that I was dying to do and I just hadn’t really been given the opportunity to do it until they came to me.”

The movie is especially meaningful for Lana because she comes from a “military family”.

The actress explained: “I did so much research on women in the military. I come from a military family.

“My brother is currently serving in Japan. My uncle is a general. My grandparents served. And I had done so much research on women who are actively in the military. Something that I found was that I was really blown away by the sense of equality in that space. To be honest, I was surprised.”

Meanwhile, Lana has revealed that she “lost 28 pounds” in preparation for ‘Ballerina Overdrive’.

The actress embarked on an intense fitness plan ahead of shooting the action movie, and Lana admitted that it was a more physically demanding role than anything she’s previously done.

The actress – who stars alongside Iris Apatow, Maddie Ziegler and Uma Thurman in the movie – told Collider: “‘Ballerina Overdrive’ is the heaviest action I’ve ever done. It was so intense. I trained for a year for that. I lost 28 pounds for that.”

The film follows a ballet troupe who have to escape for their lives after their bus breaks down en route to a dance competition.

Lana combined her regular workouts with ballet classes as part of her preparation.

She said: “I did two workouts a day, strength and then conditioning, and then a ballet class, every day. It was very intense.”