{"id":22449,"date":"2021-05-10T13:03:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T13:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=193094"},"modified":"2021-05-10T16:58:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T16:58:03","slug":"sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_193095\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193095\" style=\"width: 2569px\" class=\"wp-caption alignfull -width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-193095 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Sisi.jpg-.jpg\" alt=\"Sisi Stringer\" width=\"2569\" height=\"2056\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA:<em> Mortal Kombat<\/em>\u2019s Sisi Stringer is unbelievably striking in person. The 24-year-old Australian actress shone at Chanel No.5\u2019s 100<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary dinner at Sydney-based French restaurant Felix on Wednesday evening; the house\u2019s SS21 pink and navy striped knit was complemented with Stringer\u2019s coiled curls and pillowy pout.<\/p>\n<p>With her hands in the air as she danced to Genesis Owusu\u2019s live performance \u2013 a sight for sore eyes given the year that wasn\u2019t \u2013 whispers around this editor circled, \u2018Who is <em>that<\/em> girl?\u2019 While all eyes were watching the pint-sized dancing silhouette in the dimly lit room, few recognized her as Mileena, <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>\u2019s most vicious and deadly assassin \u2013 and a pillar of complete fearlessness on the cinema screen a block down the road. Fewer still in the room that evening knew of just how big a star Stringer is set to become.<\/p>\n<p>As expected with anything related to video games, the <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em> reboot is polarizing. What is without question, however, is Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. Armed with two deadly sai, Mileena will sink her teeth into her prey (scenes that are not for the fainthearted).<\/p>\n<p>While the glamour of the evening with Chanel was far-removed from Stringer\u2019s on-screen alter-ego, get ready to see more of this beautiful actress. Mark our words, she is set to soar.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193096\" style=\"width: 2848px\" class=\"wp-caption alignfull -width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-193096 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Grazia-AUS.jpg\" alt=\"Sisi Stringer\" width=\"2848\" height=\"4288\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: For those who haven\u2019t seen the film yet, what is Mileena like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Mileena is vicious and unpredictable. She is a big fan favorite and the people who love her, <em>love<\/em> her. They love her so much. The fans are so passionate to the point where it\u2019s a bit crazy, but that\u2019s my favorite thing about them because I\u2019m also a bit crazy. She\u2019s an assassin, she is one of the champions of Outworld which is this dystopian underworld realm.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: Tell us more about Outworld.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: It\u2019s like a desert scape but it\u2019s all black and it\u2019s very gothic and otherworldly. Mileena is a champion of Outworld and fights on the side of Shang Tsung who is the sorcerer who created her as a clone of Princess Kitana (a Princess in the realm of Edenia, which is kind of like Earth but even more beautiful and prosperous \u2013 like where the elves live in <em>Lord of the Rings<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: But there\u2019s another side to her\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: It\u2019s really interesting that Mileena was created in the image of this beautiful Princess from this beautiful world because the video game&#8217;s creators then spliced Mileena with Tarkatan DNA. Tarkatan is this race of warrior creatures with big, scary teeth. So she has these bright, stunning, snake-like eyes then this horrific mouth and all of these teeth and scars. This makes her a terrifying threat. People look and see the threat as soon as she enters the room and then when she pulls out these weapons and it\u2019s just over for everyone basically. She\u2019s an expert ninja.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: How long did it take you to transform into Mileena every day on set?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Something that really helps me get into character is getting dressed, getting into the clothes, and then stepping on set and seeing all of the other actors in their costumes and how they interact with the space. One of the things that prepared me everyday was just sitting in the makeup chair and watching the layers of prosthetics that went onto it; all of these scars and horrible teeth in my mouth. It\u2019s really interesting sitting there for about an hour as they do this to you with makeup and prosthetics. So I\u2019m seeing my own pretty face in the mirror and then they\u2019re just layering and layering until I turn into something that is absolutely not me!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MORTAL KOMBAT Trailer (2021)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QJHY4ggYCk4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: What was the audition process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Being a young emerging actor particularly straight out of drama school, you do a lot of auditions and nowadays that process often involves submitting self-tapes. You send it off and you forget about it basically. It\u2019s never good to dwell on, \u2018Oh I really want this part, I hope it comes back to me.\u2019 You just do it, and you send it off. So I was just doing that and then when I got a response saying, \u2018Hi, can you tell us a bit about your physical background and if you\u2019ve done any martial arts training?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Oh cool, a bit of interest. Still not going to get invested in it though just because I don\u2019t want to be let down.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: You didn\u2019t want to get your hopes up&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: This request were building. But in the meantime, I\u2019m still doing auditions, sending them out and forgetting about them. Then I got a call from my agent saying, \u2018They\u2019d like you to fly you to Adelaide to meet them and do a physical test, a screen test and a costume fitting.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Wow, I cannot believe this.\u2019 I flew to Adelaide and we went through some choreography with some knives. As I have a background in dance that was quite easy for me to pick up. Even if it wasn\u2019t perfect, my potential was definitely obvious. Then, I came in for a costume fitting and they had already made a costume according to the sizing I had sent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: You knew then! Tell me about the questions you had about Mileena for <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>\u2019s director Simon McQuoid.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: I asked Simon what are we going to do with the sexuality of this character because in the games she is very heavily sexualized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"quotation-style\">&#8220;[In the video game], Mileena is basically wearing lingerie as many of the female characters do. She\u2019s sort of sauntering around, touching her hips and wiggling sexually. I asked what we were going to do about that.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Simon said, \u2018Oh no, no, no, we\u2019re not doing any of the racist, sexist stuff in the games. It\u2019s going to be much darker and deeper than that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: There are a lot of Australians in this cast. Who was better to work with: Jessica McNamee or Josh Lawson?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Honestly, we didn\u2019t have too many scenes together. I was only with them briefly. I obviously had my fight scene with Jess and that was so wonderful, it was truly so fun. There are four female characters in the film and two of them are the mother and the daughter and two of them are fighters and all the rest of the fighter characters are men. I think what the audience wants to see and what we want to play is a girl-on-girl fight. It\u2019s fantastic. I wish I could tell you more but you\u2019ll just have to wait to see it. It\u2019s very badass, it\u2019s two absolute bosses meeting in the middle and going ham. I\u2019m so excited about it. I did really enjoy the scenes where everyone was together in one room, that really gave me a buzz.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193098\" style=\"width: 1080px\" class=\"wp-caption alignfull -width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-193098 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/182402032_502524497840312_5518616895700186560_n.jpg\" alt=\"Sisi Stringer\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sisi Stringer attends Chanel No.5&#8217;s 100th Anniversary in Sydney, Australia on May 5. Credit: Chanel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: There\u2019s a lot of bloodshed in this film. Did you love action films as a kid?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: Yes. Absolutely, <em>absolutely<\/em>. Big Hollywood, big budget, explosions, monsters, aliens, all that kind of thing is what my family and I call \u201cbig dumbs.\u201d They\u2019re big dumb movies you know, they don\u2019t require a lot of brain power and they are just visually entertaining. I\u2019ve always really enjoyed the experience and it\u2019s kind of a ritual going to the theater and sitting there with your popcorn and watching this big dumb thing happen on a massive screen in front of you \u2013 and not having to think too much, not having to intellectualize the plot lines. I\u2019ve been doing auditions for some action films and television shows and I went back and started watching big dumb films like <em>Godzilla<\/em> and <em>King Kong<\/em>. I watched <em>Jurassic Park<\/em>, I watched <em>Avatar,<\/em> and that helped me come to terms with the pressure I put on myself to be a \u201cgood actor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: What do you mean by that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: There are those actors that are very serious, and I want to get very gritty and get very dirty and I want to really get into a role that I\u2019m passionate about. But when you\u2019re doing big dumb action films that are just pure joy and entertainment \u2013 I think that\u2019s enough for me to be doing some kind of good in the world. It\u2019s ok for me to be just entertaining at the moment. I\u2019m not trying to diminish the artistry it takes to make these films, but it\u2019s different. It might not be challenging the status quo and it might not be making you think about the world, it might not be challenging your own belief system but that\u2019s ok. It\u2019s ok to just be entertaining, and I don\u2019t have to be the best actor in the world, I don\u2019t have to have everyone take me super seriously. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve realized and that\u2019s something that\u2019s really taken the pressure off me as an emerging young actor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: You recently wrapped <em>Children of the Corn<\/em>, a Stephen King classic. What was the vibe on the set of that film like, versus <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: That was very different because I was playing a teenager. I was not playing an assassin in a hard leather armor costume and wielding swords and blood and guts and fighting on big sets. <em>Children Of The Corn<\/em> was actually closer to my own reality, it was fun to play, and [director] Kurt Wimmer is very passionate and also very collaborative, which was the same with Simon. Simon was very collaborative so I could just go up to him and say, \u2018Hey I\u2019m thinking about this\u2019 and he would say, \u2018Oh that\u2019s a great idea, do whatever you feel you have to do.\u2019 I love children and I love working with children and I got to hang out with a lot of cool kids on <em>Children Of The Corn<\/em>. I really enjoyed working with my co-stars and I really enjoyed getting into the emotions that you go through in a horror film because you see all this ghastly stuff. But the difference is, when you\u2019re playing a teenager seeing all this ghastly murder, it\u2019s traumatizing and it\u2019s life or death and it\u2019s terrifying. Whereas when I\u2019m seeing blood and guts and gore in <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>, it\u2019s an absolute joy!<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: Lastly, as your star gets bigger, is there anything about fame that worries you? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STRINGER: That\u2019s an interesting thing. I think it would be the loss of privacy. A lot of people say, \u2018If I could I would just do films and work and be successful and not be famous\u2019. But I\u2019ve come to terms with the fact that if you want to climb to the top of this career path, you are going to have to take the fame along with the money that you can earn and the success and the fulfilling work you can do at that point. They\u2019re all interconnected. I worry about stupid things that a person\u2019s done in their past, I worry about that stuff being brought up and being embarrassed. But we\u2019re human beings and I think people are mostly understanding, politically we\u2019re heading in a good direction so I\u2019m not worried. But if I ever got super famous like Lady Gaga and I couldn\u2019t go outside without being chased, then that would be horrible. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be that bad so we\u2019re ok.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: Time will tell. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"price-style\"><em>Mortal Kombat<\/em> is in cinemas now.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":22450,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[23,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-10T16:58:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/05\/Grazia-AUS-Cropped.jpg?fit=2848%2C1602\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2848\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1602\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/\",\"name\":\"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-10T13:03:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-10T16:58:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Grazia USA\",\"description\":\"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer","description":"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer","og_description":"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.","og_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/","og_site_name":"Grazia USA","article_modified_time":"2021-05-10T16:58:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2848,"height":1602,"url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/05\/Grazia-AUS-Cropped.jpg?fit=2848%2C1602","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/","name":"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-05-10T13:03:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-10T16:58:03+00:00","description":"As expected with anything related to video games, the Mortal Kombat reboot is polarising. What is without question, however, is Sisi Stringer\u2019s performance, which is being hailed as \u201ca moment\u201d by netizens who are passionately obsessed with the character. GRAZIA meets the Australian actress.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sisi-stringer-mortal-kombat\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Smiling Assassin: All Eyes On Mortal Kombat\u2019s Sisi Stringer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/","name":"Grazia USA","description":"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Grazia USA","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/22449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}