I loved Wonder Woman for many reasons, but the Amazons were definitely one of my favorite parts. Rather than having “the one girl on the team” like in Justice League, Wonder Woman gave us an entire furious host of female warriors who supported, mourned, and challenged each other. “When we first shot the scene when all the women are riding horses together,” said Gal Gadot, “I was holding Patty [Jenkins]’s shoulder, watching the monitor, and I told her, ‘I can’t believe we are shooting this.” Same, Gal. Same.
It took four intense months of boot camp training for the actresses and athletes who played those Amazons to get ready for their epic fight scenes, and now this video gives us a glimpse into their process. “Training 25, 30 women to become Amazons … The bar is extraordinarily high,” said Mark Twight, who designed and executed the physical conditioning regimes for both 300 and Wonder Woman. “We took a similar tack on 300. Part of the job was to make it look like these guys had grown up training and fighting together. I was like, ‘Okay, this will be 300, but with females.'”
The Amazons came from a variety of backgrounds—Wushu fighters, actresses, boxers, policewomen, Olympians—but they all trained together to prepare for the film. I loved watching this video so much because of the way they talked about training together, building camaraderie, and supporting each other’s goals.
“I’ve been training for many years,” said Madeleine Vall Beijner, “but I can see the change in those girls who haven’t. It’s like they become Amazons, because they do things they think they couldn’t do. And then when they do, it’s like they grow from the inside.”
“We all come from different areas,” said one woman, who was once a competitive boxer. [Her name placard weirdly doesn’t show up.] “There are a couple of us that are actors, a couple of sportspeople, etc. So there’s strengths and weaknesses within the group, and we help each other through them.”
There’s a whole lotta #fitspo fitness videos floating around at this time of year, and while they all aim to be inspiring, some of them can feel unhealthy to me. What I most love about the Amazons’ video is the attitude it pushes toward fitness and exercise. It’s not about hating yourself or achieving a perfect body. Instead, it’s about helping yourself and your friends to push through challenges and do things you never thought you could do. That’s a timely reminder around the New Year, when so many people are setting fitness goals for themselves.
Training like an Amazon isn’t about punishing yourself. It’s about building yourself and other women up. And I can’t think of a better New Year’s resolution than that.
(Via Nerdist; image: screengrab)
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