Rihanna Getting 'Battleship' Role Linked to Overcoming Chris Brown Incident?
Rihanna, 24-year-old Barbadian pop star, may have been cast in her new "Battleship" acting role due to the way she overcame her domestic violence incident with singer Chris Brown.
Peter Berg, the director of the "Battleship" movie that premiered Friday, recently told Entertainment Weekly why he sought out Rihanna to take part in the movie. The director said he saw something special in the star, after she conducted an interview with Diane Sawyer about her violent altercation with 23-year-old ex-boyfriend, Brown.
"..What first caught my eye about Rihanna was an interview she did with Diane Sawyer after the Chris Brown incident, where she was very articulate, very poised, obviously a smart girl who talked about a very traumatic experience. That was a legitimate, violent, real experience that would traumatize anyone," Berg explained. "I thought she handled herself very well. That was the first time I really remember Rihanna kind of coming on my radar, someone that was more than just kind of a sexy girl that sang hip-hop songs."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Still, Berg said he made Rihanna endure an audition before she received the part of Cora Raikes, a weapons specialist and crew member on the USS John Paul Jones.
"She read all the roles in the movie. She read Liam Neeson's role in a Valley girl accent, just this really kind of crazed, slightly off-balance Valley girl, which is very funny. She improvised. She cried," Berg told EW. "She did it as if she was drunk. She did it as if she was a nun."
The director said the singer did not get any special treatment at her own request, and that she was forced to work on a ship with no bathroom other than the ocean. Berg also revealed that the entertainer performed her own stunts in the movie.
"I mean, there are scenes later in the film where she's sprinting all over [a battleship], and it's, you know, tight little corners. The girl is extraordinarily agile," Berg revealed. "That's all her, getting slammed against walls, you know, being able to take a hit, throwing punches, shooting. She did all of it."
Although Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker star in the movie, Berg said Rihanna did a good job for her first acting role.
"You know, it's not bad that she happens to be one of the biggest stars on the planet. I won't deny that, you know, I'm thrilled, but the reality is, she, you know, for her first film, and I said to her 'This is a great first film for you,'" Berg told EW. "She's just perfectly fine. She does a really solid job. I couldn't be happier with her."
