Maggie Q starred as the title character in the CW action-thriller series ‘Nikita,’ the second television remake of Luc Besson’s 1990 film ‘La Femme Nikita.’ The show ran for four seasons from September 9 2010 to December 27, 2013, and followed Nikita, a woman trying to take down a shadowy government agency known as the Division. It remains a favorite among fans for its attention to detail in delivering top-notch action sequences and compelling story arcs.
Q recently spoke with Collider to discuss her upcoming film ‘The Protégé.’ During the interview, she took time to discuss ‘Nikita’ and how she was displeased with the show’s first stunt coordinator, wanting to raise the “expectations” of the show’s action.
“I admit I often find myself always pushing people further in fight scenes than they expected to go,” Q said. “When I started on Nikita, we had a certain stunt coordinator, fight coordinator, and I really tried to get what I wanted out of him. You gotta kind of know what you’re dealing with and who your audience is, right?”
She continued, “So you can kind of ask and expect something, but then you have to gauge whether this person is capable of giving you that or they’re just not giving it to you, right? Because those are two very different people. And so what ended up happening for me was, because I felt that my expectation was not going to be met, I had to bring on someone who I believed was going to get the job done, and I did.”
Q explained, “I knew I couldn’t keep him because he was a huge movie guy, but what I knew would happen was that if I brought that level in, we’d now set the standard. The bar has been set. We’re gonna go into a second season. I can’t keep him. He’s gonna go on to do like, Sherlock Holmes, all these big movies that he does, and I now have a standard that’s undeniable. And so when we hired in the second season after I lost my guy and he went back to his movies, that’s exactly what happened.”
She added, “I attracted coordinators who were like, ‘Oh, okay. Well, this is gonna be a huge challenge for me,’ and then the guy who ended up coming on and staying with me for the rest of the run of the show, I didn’t know if he could do it in the beginning, but because that standard was set, he was the one who was like, ‘Okay. I know what you can do, I know what you expect, I’m here.’ And that guy became really one of the best assets for the show and that was really, really exciting.”
“I’m so proud of him and I’m so proud of what we did together because it was a grind,” Q concluded.
Though nominated for several awards, ‘Nikita’ only managed to secure a 2011 Teen Choice Awards for Q’s co-star Shane West and 2012 Best TV Action Series at the IGN Summer Movie Awards.
The show also starred Lyndsy Fonseca, Aaron Stanford, Melinda Clarke, Xander Berkeley, Noah Bean, Tiffany Hines, Ashton Holmes, Dillon Casey, and Devon Sawa.
Check out the promo from the CW for ‘Nikita.’