Alba: Sin City character’s a warrior

Jessica Alba loved playing a “powerful warrior” in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

The actress reprises her role as exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in the latest instalment of the Sin City franchise, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.

And the star admits she was eager to return to the role and show how her character had grown.

“In the first film, she starts off as a little girl, and she’s a victim. She’s kidnapped, and then, later, she was tortured. And she gets saved by Bruce Willis’s character, [John] Hartigan,” Jessica explains to Collider.

“But then, this one picks up after he has killed himself. The love of her life is gone. She’s devastated. She’s an alcoholic. She’s still dancing, but she’s not happy about it. But it was cool to be able to take someone from this sweet, innocent, naive victim to this very powerful warrior, who takes her life in her own hands and gets revenge.”

In addition to Bruce, the actress shares the screen with Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Rosario Dawson and Josh Brolin, who plays alcoholic private investigator Dwight McCarthy.

And Josh admitted it was a challenge to take on the role originated by neo-noir graphic novelist Frank.

“As an actor, doing it for 30 years, with every movie, you’re trying to figure out a way to make it more naturalistic and more organic to humanity. When you have lines like, ‘Never let the monster out,’ it’s hard. You have to find the cadence, and the cadence doesn’t come to you. It’s the kind of movie that you really have to dive into. You can’t really manipulate the movie. You can’t manipulate Frank Miller’s mind. It’s impossible,” he said.

“Many have tried,” Frank mused.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is slated for US release this Friday.