After being spotted out and about in London with Tom Cruise in recent months, talk of Ana de Armas’ love life is as hot as her career right now.
But it is actually another Hollywood heart-throb that the Cuban actress got butterflies over when they started working together.
In her new film, Ballerina, the 37-year-old joins the John Wick franchise in a spin-off story that sees her take the lead. However, Keanu Reeves does return as former hitman Wick – and de Armas isn’t afraid to admit he has left her a little “starstruck” over the years.
“I grew up being a huge Keanu Reeves fan,” she tells WHO. “I loved him in Speed, so to be in a movie with him is a big moment for me. And Keanu is as wonderful as you would imagine him to be. I love him.”
Ballerina is set between the third and fourth installments of the John Wick movies. “It’s a new story with a lot of new characters,” she explained. “We get to learn a lot more about the rules these assassins live by. We get to see the Ruska Roma and their influence on the world of John Wick,” she added of the powerful crime syndicate central to much of the action in the films.
In the movie, de Armas plays Eve Macarro, someone who she describes as “really awesome and very cool”.
“She is a ballerina-turned-assassin who was trained by Ruska Roma and who has a revenge mission all of her own.”
While de Armas is no stranger to action flicks, having been a Bond girl and gotten quite physical playing a spy in rom-com Ghosted, she says that Ballerina was “next level” when it came to shooting the stunts.
“I had to train for months just to be able to meet the demands of how intense some of the scenes were,” de Armas revealed.
“I did fight training, weapons training, stunt choreography. It was a lot. It was really hard but also a lot of fun. The stunt team were just incredible. They supported me so much. We all worked really hard to get those scenes right and it really paid off. It felt great to nail those scenes.”
The heroine, she believes, is no pushover, and if it came to a fight between Eve and John Wick, she may even be able to take down the hitman, who is reluctantly drawn back into the criminal underworld.
“I don’t know [who would win],” she said.
“They have both had similar training but they also have quite different fighting styles. Eve is a ballerina so she is more agile than John. She’s also really good at kicking.”
The movie was a reunion for her and Reeves. The actress first met the 60-year-old on the set of the psychological thriller Knock Knock in 2015. They also worked on Exposed the following year, but their scenes together in Ballerina are her “favourite”, she said.
“It was our last day on set and it was a really, really intense scene,” she said. “We were shooting until 5 am. We were all exhausted and emotional, not just because it was our last scene but because it was Keanu as John Wick for maybe the very last time. It was really special to be a part of that.”
The role also saw de Armas work with Oscar winner Anjelica Huston and Lance Riddick, who passed away from heart disease in 2023.
“We all had such a beautiful time sharing the experience of making this film together,” she said. “To work with Anjelica, Lance, Keanu, of course, and then also Ian McShane and Norman Reedus was just the best. I felt very lucky.”
Of course, luck will only take you so far in Hollywood. De Armas began her studies at the National Theatre School of Havana at 14, heading off to Spain upon graduation four years later. After a few years there, she packed her bags and headed to Tinseltown just a decade ago, joking she learned English from watching old episodes of Friends.
She quickly picked up gigs as Ryan Gosling’s love interest in Blade Runner 2049, then worked alongside Daniel Craig on Knives Out. Two years later, she was back on set with Craig in No Time to Die, making her only the second Latina actress to play a Bond girl after Talisa Soto in 1989’s Licence to Kill.
“I think Bond definitely helped people see me in a different way,” she explained of the action role opportunities like Ballerina that have come her way since. “I loved working on Bond and I’m really enjoying how I am getting more opportunities to work in this genre.”
Of seeing herself on the big screen in Ballerina, de Armas admits to being “amazed”.
“I couldn’t believe it was me up there,” she says. “Sometimes when you are shooting action scenes, you can feel a little clumsy and slow, but then you look at those scenes in this and it’s just incredible. To have been involved with this film from the very beginning as an executive producer and then to sit down and see the finished result is just amazing.”
Action is something she and Cruise may have bonded over, if rumours of their burgeoning romance are true. The pair were first spotted together on a night out in London on February 13, as well as being seen celebrating her 37th birthday together last month after arriving in the city together via his helicopter.
While Cruise, 62, didn’t join de Armas on the red carpet for the London premiere of Ballerina on May 22, he confessed to having been given a preview when he stepped out to promote Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning the week before.
“I saw [Ballerina], it just kicks a–e,” Cruise told Extra. “It’s right in that tone, it’s right in that Wick world, you’re gonna love it.”
Of de Armas, with whom he will be working on upcoming film Deeper, he added she was “very talented”. “[A] great dramatic actress, comedic, tremendous ability, learns quickly,” Cruise said.
The actress has recently been Down Under, too, filming Ron Howard’s survival thriller, Eden, last year in Queensland. Due out in coming months, she features in a supporting role alongside Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney.
After years of being the beautiful sidekick, de Armas is proud to finally be the one kicking butt in Ballerina.
“It’s been a long time coming but everything I have done up to now prepared me for this moment,” she says. “I feel very happy and very grateful that I was given this chance.”
Interview by Kate Ellis, additional text by Kylie Walters.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is in cinemas Thursday, Jun. 5)
