If you’ve been keeping up on your Victoria’s Secret stars over the past ten years, you probably know Doutzen Kroes, but for the uninitiated: She’s a Dutch model who was one of the lingerie brand’s marquee names in the late aughts. She left her Angel wings behind two years ago to pursue other opportunities, which, at the time she made the decision, probably did not include putting on a full suit of fantasy-warrior armor and striking men down with a sword while on horseback. This is 2017, though, and the #resistance takes many forms, so when you go to see Wonder Woman this weekend make sure to keep your eyes sharp for the Vogue Netherlands cover star taking down men on the beaches of Themyscira. “The challenge was that I had to ride with one hand and have the sword in the other hand and kill a person at the same time,” she told Entertainment Weekly, adding, “Which sounds horrible, but it was so fun to do!”
Other women with day jobs who pitched in to become Amazonians include an Olympic bobsledder, a heptathlete, a police officer, one former Miss Greece, a CrossFit Champion, and a professional fighter from Sweden named Madeleine Vall Beijner (who could probably also star in Thor: Ragnorak using her actual middle and last name). To become a convincing screen warrior, Beijner actually had to learn how to look affected by physical pain, since she’s been taught not to outwardly register the impact of blows in pro fights. Yes, to be an Amazon warrior, Beijner had to be less tough than she is in real life, where she apparently has the nickname RoboCop. See the Dutch Angel and the Swedish RoboCop fight alongside an Israeli Defense Force veteran in theaters Thursday.
