Chloe Moretz gets to have some serious fun in “Kick-Ass.” As Nicolas Cage’s foul-mouthed sidekick, Hit-Girl, she whips knives around like Twizzlers, annihilates rooms full of gangsters, and works her way through an arsenal of comically large firearms while laying down some vigilante superhero justice — not a small undertaking for a 13-year-old.
“I did all of my own stunts. Well, besides run up the walls — but I hope you knew that,” says the actress, who genuinely has a bit of the endearingly dry edge she put to work as the tough little sister in “500 Days of Summer.” “I can flip knives, guns, all that stuff. But it doesn’t really work in real life. I tried it on my brothers, but they just grab me from behind and yell, ‘I got Hit-Girl!’ Real mature.”
But we’d be careful if we were them. Not only does she have some disturbing weaponry skills, Moretz has the kind of perspective that should make adults who claim the part is too violent for a child (and there will, no doubt, be some) foolishly blush. “It’s a role, you know?” she reasons of the numerous bodies and F-bombs she drops in “Kick-Ass.” “That’s why it’s called acting — it’s not meant to be taken seriously.”
In fact, Moretz was proud to rep superwomen with such in-your-face tactics. “Girl empowerment, right?” she reasons. “And the coolest thing about Hit-Girl is that she didn’t have an actual superpower, so it’s sheer strength.”
