Hailing from The Witcher: Blood Origin‘s Vicky Jewson, Pretty Lethal revolves around Zoe, Princess, Chloe, Grace and Bones, a group of skilled young ballerinas in the midst of a dysfunctional period, with them all barely being on speaking terms. When their bus breaks down in a remote forest on the way to a prestigious dance competition, they find themselves forced to seek shelter at a roadside inn run by a reclusive former ballet prodigy, who takes them hostage with her armed soldiers, pushing the dancers to set aside their differences and fight for survival.
Thurman stars in the film as the former prodigy and gang leader, Devora Kasimer, alongside Tell Me Lies‘ Iris Apatow as Zoe, To All the Boys‘ Princess, A Quiet Place‘s Millicent Simmonds as Chloe, Tarot‘s Avantika and West Side Story‘s Maddie Ziegler as Bones. Making its worldwide premiere at SXSW, Pretty Lethal has already garnered largely positive reviews from critics, currently holding a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In honor of its debut at the festival, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Iris Apatow, Uma Thurman and Vicky Jewson in our SXSW media suite for Pretty Lethal. When asked about the movie’s use of “ballet-fu” — a fighting style mixing martial arts with dance — Jewson began by recalling her love for “how specific [the script] was to the world of ballet,” taking the time to “meet some prima ballerinas to see if they really could fight back“:
Vicky Jewson: The first thing they told me was that they see their bodies and superpower as armor. I really believe that this was a movie about ballerinas first and foremost, and they’re not John Wick, they’re not fighters. So for every single fight move, it had to come from a dance move. And that’s what ballet-fu is.
This helped her get an idea of how best to put together Pretty Lethal‘s fight scenes with her stunt team, who have worked on everything from Ana de Armas’ John Wick spinoff Ballerina to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies. However, even as she let the film relish in its hard-hitting action, Jewson wanted to ensure that the movie retained its central message about the importance of teamwork.
The director went on to refer to a ballet saying that, “within a troupe, everyone’s competing for a solo, but you have to work together to succeed.” Jewson expressed that audiences “really experience that [idea] when you go on this journey” with Pretty Lethal‘s characters, as there is “a huge theme about going for a childhood dream,” even in Thurman’s villainous character:
Vicky Jewson: I think that’s what’s great about Devora’s character, is she’s stuck in that childhood dream, which is what makes it such an interesting devolution, and it’s what ultimately links them. And that, for me, was very clear about the messaging of the film. I wanted to make a film about women helping women, and about empowerment. I was saying that on set all the time.
Lana Condor: She would just come up and scream, “Empowerment!” And we’re like, “Got it.” [Laughs]
The Pretty Lethal Cast All Had Varying Histories In The World Of Dance
ScreenRant: So everybody else, did you have to train? Did you have a background?
Iris Apatow: As a young one, I did competitive cheerleading, which is very different.
Lana Condor: Were you a flyer?
Iris Apatow: I was a flyer. I was a flyer for a time, and it was terrifying. And it was another kind of sport that pushes you to your limit, and then beyond that. And you’re just expected to have it all together, look perfect, put on a smile. And I think that is just the same with ballet. It gave me a little prep for it, but there’s nothing quite like ballet, and doing it and coming into it, even with a little bit of experience, your body just can never … It takes so long to get to the point where you can be like some of the girls we were working with there. And it was just fun to get to watch them, honestly, because I realized very soon that I would not reach their level at all. I’m not even close.
ScreenRant: It reminds me of, like in Bring It On, when that movie came out, everyone kind of started to take cheerleading more seriously. Do you hope that this film will help people kind of see what ballerinas truly go through and get to do?
Maddie Ziegler: I think dancers, and ballerinas in general, are like the strongest athletes I’ve ever seen. I’ve obviously felt that through my experience.
Lana Condor: Oh my gosh. For me, Alvin Ailey is a great example. Alive Ailey Dance Company in New York City — when you go and watch them, you’re watching Olympians, athletes, just do the most amazing, almost impossible things with their bodies, and it’s so beautiful, and I just think it’s the greatest artcraft.
ScreenRant: Dance background here and here?
Millicent Simmonds: No dance background. I grew up playing soccer actually, so I didn’t have any sort of relationship to dance. It was a completely new world that I jumped into. And honestly, it was so challenging. It was so challenging. But I was lucky that I had a few months of training in Utah before I got on set, and so we had such a wonderful and very supportive team. So I feel very fortunate, thank God.
Vicky Jewson: They all signed up to ballet bootcamp. So, as well as training at home remotely, we set up a camp for five weeks out, and every day there were classes. We had a Lawrence Olivier Award-winning ballet director. We had our full stunt team, and everybody just put the hours in. It was really inspiring.
Iris Apatow: It was summer camp.
ScreenRant: What was ballet bootcamp like?
Avantika Vandanapu: Ballet bootcamp was great. Also, Millie’s so good. I know she’s like, I don’t have a dance background. She has so much grace, and is so nimble, and is like such an athlete. She had the best kick. But yeah, I grew up a dancer, it’s been like almost six, seven years since I left it. So it was really nice to kind of get to do it again. And yeah, Maddie and I were in ballet training in LA, and obviously that’s so hysterical to be like, “I did ballet too, and I’m going back to it,” and then you show up, and it’s Maddie in class. And Maddie was like, “Yeah, I’m rusty too.” I was like, “It’s not going to be remotely this day.” Rusty’s like me on my best day in class, at my peak, but it was so great to at least have some prep pre-Budapest, too.
Maddie Ziegler: Also, what a way to meet each other.
Avantika Vandanapu: I know, for sure.
Maddie Ziegler: First day we’re just like, “Hi, and plié.”
Avantika Vandanapu: And anyone who’s been in ballet class like knows it’s such an intimidating environment, generally, and so to meet someone under that pretense is for sure a little scary, but it was so great, and it was so nice to do that in LA before we got to Budapest, and had to get into all of it.
Lana Condor: Totally. And I will say, Maddie, to your credit, you were so helpful to all of us. You were always so encouraging, you were always so supportive. I remember my triple pirouette at the end, which I never got.
Maddie Ziegler: Yes you did.
Lana Condor: I got it in one take. But Maddie was just so encouraging, and so patient. I’ve never been good at it, but it takes me a second for choreography to sink into the body. Maddie’s very patient. She’s like, “It’s okay, you can do this.”
ScreenRant: Uma Thurman. I mean, tell me about just what it was about Devora, and her story, that attracted you.
Uma Thurman: Oh well, first of all, pointedly, I don’t dance in the movie. I danced in others, but because she’s pointedly an ex-dancer, it was a thrill to work with these wonderful young women, and Vicky. You know, looking at the script, this thing could have been anything. This is an incredible mashup of ballet, and a battle for survival. And then when I met with Vicky on Zoom, I kind of got an understanding that she was going to break this thing out, and make this like, intense female empowerment, pop art, hyper-violent action, I was like, “Whoa, this could be something special.” So I really just had to come along with the ride, and knowing the hard work that these young women were putting in, and the determination to do something poignant, and push yourselves to sort of show up for women and girls as power icons. I was like, “Yeah. I’ll go be the bad guy for that one.”
Maddie Ziegler: You were also like, the reference for us before you even signed on, we were referencing you, so it felt extremely full circle, and just a wild set.
Uma Thurman: Well, you were Kill Bill-ing away, girls.
ScreenRant: I was just gonna say, they’re Kill Bill-ing you this time.
Uma Thurman: We need a new generation of power women.
ScreenRant: I have had that Uma Thurman Fall Out Boy song stuck in my head ever since I knew I was doing this interview, ’cause it has the line, “Dance like Uma Thurman.“
Uma Thurman: I don’t know how it happened. I got kicked out of ballet class myself. I was too tall, my feet were too big, the teacher was just like, “Gone.” Ballet teachers are very mean. ‘Cause they have to teach extreme discipline and, you know, the method is tough, and I was kicked out. So the fact that I ended up becoming known for some who dances, is sort of funny.
ScreenRant: So, each ballerina has very unique qualities, and brings something different to the table. Can we just run through and just say what you think their kind of superpower is in the movie?
Iris Apatow: I think Zoe, what she brings, to at least her relationships with the other young women in the movie, is a real vulnerability, and you can see all that’s going on. It’s all an open wound, so I think that is something, because she doesn’t connect with them as much as they do with each other. So, I feel like that comes and or gives her room to bond with people, easier throughout the movie.
Avantika Vandanapu: I think Grace is sort of the moral compass of the group. And I think, in terms of how that translates to ballet and the film and the dance, I think for the majority of the film, my choreography and fighting is a little bit more restrained. Because she has such a devout spirit and such a righteous spirit, I think you start to see her come out of that a little bit in act 2, act 3. Which I think is fun, to see someone who’s so like, “I’m good, and I want to be good, and I want everyone to be good” understand that sometimes, being good does mean being the bad guy.
Millicent Simmonds: I love that, actually. I think for Chloe, her superpower is that she’s independent, and she has a lot of passion for the art form of dance itself. She grew up as a dancer, and so I think she only has eyes for dance, and so she obviously had to give up some other things, in terms of family, and her relationship with her sister, and I think this movie actually helps her open up her third eye, or something, and be like, “Oh my gosh, actually, I need the team. I can’t do this alone.”
Lana Condor: Similarly to Millie, I think Princess’ superpower is, quite frankly, her stubbornness and her attitude. ‘Cause I do think that, however stubborn and sassy she is, that gives her the drive to survive, because it’s almost like she’s annoyed and inconvenienced that they’re all about to die, and that’s what gives her the power to just keep going. But I think, similarly to Millie, and with Iris, is Princess has to learn that being a part of a team is better than being by yourself. And I think I remember when we were filming it with Princess, I felt really protective over you, because you were the youngest, right?
Iris Apatow: Yeah.
Lana Condor: The youngest in the cast of characters. And I felt like you helped bring out a softer side in Princess, because I felt like, “Okay, well, I can’t be mean to a child.” [Laughs]
Maddie Ziegler: And then for Bones, we talked about this so much, and why I connected with her so much, but her life has always been survival. She’s only had to fend for herself. She’s very scrappy, and dance is the first time that she’s felt at home. I think what’s really, really special about this is, similarly to you, and why our characters have such a beautiful arc, is because she goes in totally protecting herself, and that’s it. She has a one-track mind, and it’s to survive on her own, and by the end, she realizes she needs the group aspect, and the family to survive, and get through, and it’s okay to lean on others. I really loved that so much about Bones.
Be sure to dive into some of ScreenRant‘s other SXSW coverage with:
Pretty Lethal premieres on Prime Video on March 25!
- Release Date
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March 25, 2026
- Runtime
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88 minutes
- Director
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Vicky Jewson