Sunday Reads: Paula Patton Dishes on Her Role in This Summer’s Blockbuster, ‘Warcraft’

Paula Patton is no stranger to action movies. She gave rockin’ performances in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise and 2 Guns with Denzel Washington, but she says playing Garona Halforcen, the half-orc, half-human kick-ass heroine in Warcraft was “the most challenging role of her career.” The first movie based on Blizzard Entertainment’s wildly popular “World of Warcraft” video game series was a decade in the making. Re-creating the filmic fantasy world of Azeroth in a way that would please legions of gamers as well as draw in audiences not familiar with WoW plotlines required some complex planning, but it all came together when Duncan Jones, who previously helmed the highly regarded science fiction films Moon and Source Code and knows WoW lore inside out, came on board. Jones, aka Zowie Bowie, son of superstar David Bowie, agreed to cowrite and direct the daunting $160-million Warcraft adaptation for Legendary Pictures and Universal (3D), which releases the film in North America in June. Joining Jones were the cast that would bring the epic fantasy to life, led by Patton (Garona), Travis Fimmel (Lothar), Ben Foster (Medivh), Dominic Cooper (King Llane Wrynn), Toby Kebbell (Durotan), Robert Kazinsky (Orgrim) and Daniel Wu (Gul’dan).

Here, we catch up with Patton to discuss the movie, her early days as a director and producer, and why playing Garona came at just the right moment in her life.

How did you become involved with Warcraft?
When I read the script, I absolutely loved it and the character of Garona. I was intrigued by the project, especially since the director was Duncan Jones, but I was also like, ‘How am I going to play her?’ Then Duncan and I met. He showed me the art and we discussed his ideas. In some ways, it scared me to death, but I thought I could do it.

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