Joey King on her ‘exhausting’ Oldboy-style staircase fight in The Princess

The PrincessTakes the familiar trope of a strong princess who is determined to end an arranged marriage, and makes it work. Joey King plays the role of the titular princess. She hacks at enemies and makes her way down an intimidating tower. Her rom-com trilogy is a favorite of King.The Kissing BoothThis was a completely new movie to her. But she fully embraced it, handling a lot of her own combat stunts; she tells Polygon she did about “85-90% of what you see in the movie.” That meant learning how to wield a sword, throw a punch, and get right back up after taking a hit.

“The harder it was, the more brutal it was, but the more rewarding it was in the end,” King says. “I did stuff that I never thought I could do.”

This movie features intense fighting sequences that include swords and fire, whips or ropes. Sometimes, the princess faces her adversaries alongside Linh (Veronica Ngo), her mysterious trainer. King is most impressed by a staircase sequence that sees the princess face enemy after enemy in an endless onslaught. King compared it to the famous hallway fight scene from Park Chan-wook’s OldboyThis is especially true when you consider the amount of endurance that’s required.

For your reference, this preview video contains a number of clips from the sequence.

“I think […] that was definitely the biggest undertaking of the whole movie,” King recounts. “It was the one that took the most prep, the most time, the most training, it was one that no matter what choreography we’re working on, on any given day, we would always take some time to prep for the staircase sequence. This was how it felt. Oldboy moment. It was massive. So it was quite a challenge to get ready for this and finally be able film it. However, I was so grateful to have the opportunity. It was so beautiful that we did the dance together. Every step was perfectly choreographed. It was exhausting.”

The Princess It is available now on Hulu and Disney Plus in certain non-U.S. territory.