Built Texas tough

Once called the "face of women's mixed martial arts," fighter, model and actress, Gina Carano, looks to land a knockout blow with her first action film, Haywire.

The director and cast were on hand last Friday to show exclusive footage of the fighter's transition from the cage at San Diego's Comic Con.

Born in Dallas, Texas, the 29-year-old Carano stars alongside Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) and Ewan McGregor in director Steven Soderbergh's female revenge movie.

"I saw Gina fighting on TV. I tuned in out of curiosity, and literally thought, ‘why doesn't someone build a movie around her?' I'd never seen someone fight like that in a cage! Then two years ago exactly I took the train here to meet her to talk about being in a movie," Soderbergh said.

That conversation took place shortly after Carano's August 2009 defeat to Cristiane Santos on Showtime's Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg. The main event marked the first time two women headlined a major MMA bout.

"I had just come off the Cyborg loss, so I was a little bit bummed," Carano said. "I had a black eye that I was trying to cover up with makeup, and I picked [Soderbergh] up from the train station and we had an amazing four-hour talk—not really about anything but about life and experiences. And then at the end of it he said, ‘this either going to happen really fast or it's not going to happen at all.' And it happened."

With the Ocean's heist series and Traffic under his belt, Soderbergh saw the potential in Carano to create a legitimate female action star—a woman more lethal than G.I. Joe, Channing Tatum, or for that matter, any actor out there.

"I felt it would be interesting and unusual if we created a female character who performed physically, for real," Soderbergh said. "No doubles, no cutting away. The rule was it had to be real…the result is that the film's fights are shorter than you're probably used to seeing in movie. In a realistic fight scene, somebody's gonna get the drop kick and it's over."

Tatum, the self-admitted gentlemen who was taught not to hit a woman, said he was reluctant to hit Carano when a scene called for him to smash her in the face with a ketchup bottle.

Carano would soon coax him out his gentlemen ways.

"She called me a female p-word and then I had to do it for my masculinity. But then she hit me twice as hard and I didn't want to hit her anymore… She pretty much kicked my [butt]."

It didn't take long for the audience to understand Carano's fury, as Soderbergh's footage showed an intense, fast-faced brawl in a hotel room between Carano and Fassbender as the two smashed and destroyed everything in their surroundings—ending with Fassbender's submission and shot to the face.

Though protective measures were taken, Soderbergh said padding did little to cushion Carano's punches and knees to the gut.

"She actually knocked someone out in rehearsal," Tatum said.

The fight scenes may come easier for Carano, but it's the acting part that she said has really opened her eyes to the entire filmmaking process.

"I just stayed open to it. I had to learn a lot about acting. I got acting 101. It ruined movies for me for a couple of months, but now I appreciate them even more."

It's too early to tell if Carano has the acting chops to compliment her fighting skills, but Haywire certainly earned the appreciation of several fans in attendance. The verdict will be known when Haywire releases January 20, 2012.