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Brian Truitt, USA TODAY August 27, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Starring as the title warrior of the fantasy action movie "Red Sonja," Matilda Lutz emerges from a pool of fake blood, slathered in liquid that matches her crimson hair, a changed woman ready to slash her enemies.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Lutz lives for getting caked in grime and covered in whatever for her art. "For people, it's very hard to understand why I love it," the 34-year-old Italian actress says, laughing. "I don't understand their point of view because I love being dirty.
"It's so much fun for me to leave reality. Life can be so boring sometimes, so it's fun to get to do things that are outside the box and crazy."
It's a mind-set that helped convince "Red Sonja" director MJ Bassett that Lutz was her perfect "She-Devil with a Sword" for the new movie (available to rent and buy Aug. 29 on demand). "That's my kind of actor," Bassett acknowledges. "When you find somebody who's your kindred spirit, you go, 'Yep, that's it. Come play.' "
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Matilda Lutz rocks a sword as well as some chainmail bikini armor in the new "Red Sonja."
"Red Sonja" centers on a heroine who's been seeking the tribe of people she lost after a barbarian attack when she was a little girl. Now a protector of animals and a champion of the downtrodden, Sonja runs afoul of the tyrant Draygan (Robert Sheehan) and ends up enslaved alongside other gladiators for sport, ultimately leading a revolt alongside her new compatriots.
"I love that she tries to be invincible, but she's actually allowing herself to feel the pain and channel it," Lutz says of her character.
Bassett says that Lutz brings "compassion and humanity" to Red Sonja, created by pulp writer Robert E. Howard in the 1930s and adapted into comic books by Roy Thomas in the '70s. "Yeah, she can chop your head off and stab you and fight dragons, monsters and things," Bassett says. But at the same time, the movie is "about empathy and it's about trying to save a world faced with destruction."
While Lutz was initially unfamiliar with how much of a pop-culture icon Red Sonja was, Bassett says she grew up a fan as "a child of the video boom in the '80s" who always loved sword-and-sorcery tales. Even those who aren't into comics or fantasy might recognize the visual of "that big busty barbarian woman in the chainmail bikini with flaming red hair, with a sword probably hacking the head off a snake."
Red Sonja has been a fixture in comic books since the 1970s.
As a trans filmmaker, Bassett wanted her Sonja to be a real, complex personality in a fantasy world rather than a woman "drawn by men for men" or, conversely, a feminist icon. "There's going to be people who push back and say Matilda's not physical enough (or) hasn't got big enough boobs or whatever it's going to be, and MJ didn't understand the character," she says. "It's like, well, I've been chasing an opportunity to make my version of the character since I was a teenager."
Bring up that "not physical enough" bit at your own peril. To play Sonja, Lutz put on 13 pounds of muscle through weight training and a diet where she consumed 2,600 calories a day, "which for me was a lot," she says. "I was eating all day, basically. That was the hardest part." And while she had a sports background, Lutz found herself diving into sword fighting, martial arts and horseback riding all for the first time.
"I love animals (but) it's nerve-wracking to be around horses. They're so powerful," Lutz says. "I had all this training with the horses on the ground with no saddle, no bridle, where I had to lay down with the horse and feel his breathing and sleep with the horse." She also learned to connect with the animal through "little gestures, like touching him in front of the leg and he would kneel down."
As for Sonja's swordplay, Lutz started with a prop plastic sword and even that was "so heavy," she says. "I have a small wrist and I couldn't do the things and I was like, 'Oh, my God, will I be able to do this?' And then little by little I just realized that I was so determined in getting there. I was so eager to do everything I could."
Bassett confirms that enthusiasm: She was wowed watching Lutz fighting dudes "relentlessly" in a forest fire sequence that felt like "standing inside an oven," all while clad in "skimpy" armor.
"There's nothing she wouldn't do," the director says. "The actress and the character become one in the same at that point. Yeah, she has little wrists and she's not the biggest, bulkiest person in the world, but it doesn't make any difference when you are dedicated and committed in that way."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Red Sonja' star Matilda Lutz transforms into fantasy icon
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