Before acting, there are a lot of different endeavors that people can pursue. Many actors have a background in sports of some sort. Not all of them are traditional and Pitch Perfect star, Rebel Wilson can definitely attest to that.
When she was on with Jimmy Fallon to promote the third installment of the Perfect movies, she told a story about when she entered a Mixed Martial Arts tournament on a whim. The results weren’t as pretty as you’d hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wue0mxSMteA
“When I was 18, I went in an all-style martial arts free-fighting tournament. Yeah, I trained for six months. I really liked that show, you know, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid – that was awesome – and I think I thought it was going to be fun like that. … I was young and stupid then. So anyway, so I trained for six months, and in the first round – the competition was held in Johannesburg, South Africa – and I versed a girl from Soweto in the first round, and she was like, built.
“And then we’re fighting and doing it, and I was having fun at first. And then the referee blew his whistle, and that was the end of the first round. So I went to go back to my corner, and as I turned and looked away, she went (makes punching motion) and smacked me right in the middle of my face. And then I started crying, like hysterically crying. And I said, ‘I want to quit the fight,’ ’cause it was just a joke, I didn’t mean to be here. And then my sensei said, ‘You can’t quit. It would bring shame on the dojo.’
“So he said the quickest way to get out is to just lose three rounds, so I had to let the girl hit me, like clear punches three more times. And I lost the fight, and I cried for three hours straight. And I’ve never been in a fight since. But then when I read the script for Pitch Perfect 3 and it says Fat Amy suddenly becomes an action hero, I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got it. I remember the skills.’”
We have absolutely no gripe with Wilson here. If you’re getting hit after the end of a round, I would want to quit too. Also what kind of tournament is this that would allow for such a moment to happen? There are rules and regulations, this doesn’t seem to meet any of them.
Luckily for her, she found comedy and she found acting. Now she is starring in major motion pictures. Who is the real winner here?
