Meet Gina Carano. A former MMA star, she's now knocking heads on the big screen.
She stars in Steven Soderbergh's new film, "Haywire," as a covert operative whose mission in Dublin hits the skids after she's betrayed. Starring alongside such heavy-hitters as Ewan McCregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Channing Tatum, she asserts her ass-kicking ability in the first five minutes of the film, which you can watch below.
The funny thing is, she was actually suffering from a tough defeat when she got a call about the opportunity to play the seemingly invincible fighting machine.
"I was actually training for one of the toughest fights of my life against [mixed martial arts fighter] Cyborg," Carano told co-star Ewan McGregor in a recent issue of Vegas Magazine. "It was the first major female-headlined fight ever, a huge, huge deal. And I lost in like five minutes. I was devastated and had a black eye. I hopped in my car from San Jose, where the fight was, and drove all the way to San Diego. I was going to hide out there for a month. When one door closes, another one opens, though: In that same week, my agent called me saying Steven Soderbergh wanted to meet me."
"Haywire" hits theaters on January 20, 2012.