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NPO sits down with the star of the TNT movie.

Yancy Butler, star of the movie Witchblade—inspired by the red-hot comic from Top Cow of the same name took a break from her frenzied schedule and spoke to NPO about the upcoming film. 

NPO: We've seen the movie and it's great. Are you surprised at how good it is?
Yancy: You know what? It's a great picture. This thing had the potential to be, uh, rather cheesy, and in fact , it's a wonderful, wonderful presentation. I'm in everything but five frames, so I'm pretty aware of what was going on, and I watch it and I'm literally agape at what they did. I'm really proud of it.

NPO: Did you do all of your own stunts?
Yancy: And lived to tell the tale, yes! It's so funny, the silliest things happen. I was running down the street after the bad guy, and I stubbed my toe pretty badly! It's always when you're pulling into a shot and you end up running over the camera guy! It's the silliest of things that you get hurt on. But, other than that, it actually went well.

NPO: The special effects were great, very Matrix-like.
Yancy: Oh, absolutely, people have likened this to John Woo and Matrix. I think it's just a sign of the times and what's technologically available to us right now. It's really amazing.

NPO: You're no stranger to action films, you were in John Woo's Hard Target with Jean-Claude Van Damme, but this is the first time you've been the action. How do you feel about the role of Sara Pezinni?
Yancy: I'd been looking for a role that was written well, and one of the things that appealed to me is that there's a dichotomy to [Sara], a duplicity in her nature in that she's both very vulnerable and strong. Often with these action films a woman - if she's a "strong woman" - will be very mean-spirited, aggressive and out for vengeance. Often comic book characters, both male and female, can become kind of caricatures of themselves. Our director, Ralph Hemecker, brought it to a much more realistic level. My character—along with the audience—is finding out what the heck this thing is on my wrist and what I'm going to do with it.

NPO: How do you think the film will be received by fans of the comic book?
Yancy: We've actually already won over a huge population of them. We just came back from a comic book convention and the reception was wonderful! Not only was it amazing. I mean my deepest exhale was Mark Silvestri being totally ecstatic in the casting, because I was concerned, you know. The fans have lived with her for three or four years longer than I have, and [I'm] giving this character a voice and making her move. It was a huge sigh of relief that they were happy.

NPO: So what's the kookiest thing that a fan has come up to you and said so far?
Yancy: I think fans were screaming out, "Are you gonna be wearing the thing later?"...the metal bra, the claw bra, I call it.

NPO: So what's this we hear about the Witchblade series?
Yancy: Well, this was conceptualized as a series originally. Personally I think it'd be rather silly of them not to make it into one. First of all, the movie kicks ass, it's extremely lucrative and marketable. I mean, 'tis the season! And it's a good story! Ralph Hemecker, our director, and our director of photography, Anghel Decca, they're just such innovative storytellers! I've seen multi-million dollar pictures that honestly, I don't think, are shot as well.

NPO: So, if the film does well...
Yancy: Then I'm in. I will in fact be Sara Pezinni.

NPO: Are we ever gonna get to see you in the full-on Witchblade outfit?
Yancy: You do see a full-on Witchblade outfit. I think you see one that's a little more user-friendly. One of the things that people have always been asking about the costumes is why we deviated. Well, we're not acting in a cel, we actually have to move!

NPO: You screened the film in Chicago at the Wizard Convention. What was the audience's reaction like?
Yancy: The response was just phenomenal! To hear people laugh, it was just the best thing, you know, to get a kind of instantaneous reaction.

NPO: What projects do you have coming up?
Yancy: I have a film that I might be doing in the interim, but I have couple of things coming out, something on A&E. Joe Mantegna's doing a Robert Parker series for "Spencer for Hire," I've got that coming up soon. I have a Disney thing. I did a comic thing for kids called "The New Adventures of Spin and Marty." I play a very Cruella DeVille-type character.

Don't miss Yancy in any of her upcoming projects...