Ana de Armas Champions Original Female Action Films at CinemaCon: ‘Let James Be James — We’ll Do Our Thing’
Ana de Armas is making her voice heard in the ongoing conversation about women in action cinema—and she’s not pulling any punches. While promoting Ballerina, her upcoming John Wick spinoff, at CinemaCon 2025, the Oscar nominee called for Hollywood to invest in original female-led action stories rather than revisiting male-dominated franchises with gender-swapped reboots.
“Let James be James and John Wick be John Wick. We’ll do our thing,” de Armas said during an appearance at The John Wick Experience, a buzzy immersive pop-up celebrating the franchise’s violent, stylish mythology. “When you get a woman fighting, you’ll be surprised the things she can pull off.”
De Armas knows a thing or two about breaking expectations. She stunned audiences in 2021’s No Time to Die as Paloma, a Cuban intelligence operative whose brief but memorable sequence in the Bond film delivered not only laughs and charm but serious firepower—reshaping the mold of the so-called Bond Girl in just minutes of screen time. Many fans left the theater asking for a Paloma spinoff.
But de Armas doesn’t want to retrofit older franchises—she wants the industry to make room for new icons.
Her comments came in response to recent remarks from Dame Helen Mirren, who told The Guardian she never liked the way women were portrayed in James Bond films, calling the franchise “drenched and born out of profound sexism.” De Armas echoed the desire for progress, but argued that creating original characters like her role in Ballerina is a more empowering solution than simply altering legacy characters.
In Ballerina, which hits theaters June 6, de Armas plays Eve Maccaro, a young ballerina-turned-assassin seeking vengeance for her father’s murder. The film—set in the John Wick universe—also stars Keanu Reeves, the late Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, and Anjelica Huston.
The role required intense physical preparation. “When you’re training at this level, everything is important—diet, sleep, massages, physiotherapy,” de Armas said. “If you don’t get good recovery, you’re screwed. The intensity is so demanding.”
Though she doesn’t dismiss the Bond franchise—now under the stewardship of Amazon MGM—she sees Ballerina as a blueprint for the kind of storytelling she hopes becomes more common: gritty, grounded, and centered around complex women doing their own kind of damage.
“I’m sure Barbara Broccoli and Robert Wilson made the best decision for James Bond,” she said. “Whatever happens, that can go anywhere creatively.”
As Ballerina gears up for release, it’s already generating buzz not just as a thrilling action movie, but as a statement—one that reclaims space for women in a genre often dominated by men. For Ana de Armas, the message is clear: it’s time for women to lead their own action stories, not rewrite someone else’s.