After three years of waiting, Adrianne Palicki is finally seeing her remake of 1984’s “Red Dawn” — delayed by the same MGM bankruptcy issues that delayed “Skyfall” — hit theaters. It’s a sign that things are looking up for the actress after the end of “Friday Night Lights” and the failed launch of a new “Wonder Woman” TV series. With “Red Dawn” and next year’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” Palicki is definitely optimistic.
“Red Dawn” has had a number of release dates.
Thanksgivings for the last three years, yes. Pretty much.
Did any of your friends or family stop believing you that it actually existed?
You know what? I just stopped telling people I was in it. They were like, “When’s that movie coming out?” and I’d be like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. No idea. I never did that movie.”
How is it to finally see it coming out?
Sometimes I pinch myself. And now seeing posters places I’m like, “OK! See?” Every time I’m reminded or my friend will call and she’s like, “I saw it in front of ‘Argo!'” I’m like, OK, it’s happening. Because there were three years when it was going to happen and then it was not going to happen and then it was going to happen and then it was not going to happen. It’s just nice. Thank God finally people can stop asking me when this movie’s coming out.
What did you think about the decision to change the villains from Chinese to North Korean in postproduction?
China was a cool thing. It was ballsy. It’s big, and it’s kind of like that’s possible, you know? But I understand why they felt they had to do it. I don’t know, I think the biggest part of this movie that needs to be remembered is that it’s not necessarily as much a political movie as it is a movie to go to and have fun and watch big explosions and car chases. Because it’s very realistic. You know, six kids coming and taking back the country. Happens all the time. [Laughs] Whether you want to look at it as a political movie or not, there are a lot of parallels between what’s been happening overseas and what’s been happening in this movie, you know? People coming in and saying, “We’re going to now change your entire government because ours is better and we know better than yours. So take that!” I mean, there’s a devastation to it, too, for people who live this every day.
You’re also in the new “G.I. Joe” movie playing Lady Jaye.
“She’s a badass! Jinx was my favorite, I’ll be honest with you. I used to play with her. I wanted to be a ninja. Ninjas are cool! They know how to use knives. I would cut myself in half, though. I’m somebody who shouldn’t be a ninja.”
Real-life survival skills
The young characters in “Red Dawn” face a daunting challenge when their suburban town is overrun by the North Korean military and they must take up arms to defend it. But how would the actors behind the characters fare in such a life-or-death situation? Palicki is confident that Hollywood has sufficiently prepared her for the worst. “Now, after all the training I’ve had for this movie and ‘G.I. Joe’ and ‘Wonder Woman,’ I feel like I could really hurt somebody. Or, you know, an amount of people,” she says. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people pissed off who trained me if I’m just in the corner going, ‘Please don’t hurt me!’”
