Nifty at Fifty: This Year's Acting Contenders Show Veterans Kicking Ass

Given Hollywood's daunting leanings towards young people, 2022 has been an encouraging year for actors older muscle roles.

The lineup of muscular films directed by strong fiftysomethings included "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" by Tom Gormican. with 58-year-old Nicolas Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself through high-flying action sequences, generously paying homage to action movies from his past.

"Top Gun: Maverick" by Joseph Kosinski was perhaps the headline title for this quiet trend. Perhaps because we're used to seeing Tom Cruise do his own stunts with jaw-dropping acrobatics across countless action films, we often forget that our ageless movie star is now 60.

Gina Prince-Bythewood's ferocious "The Woman King" was another standout example of this group, with Viola Davis' Nanisca leading a group of female warriors protecting the African kingdom of Dahomey.

"When I first went there I thought, 'He doesn't there's no way I'm going to get through this," Davis confesses to thinking when she joined the cast. "I was 56. All the other girls are in their 30s. bake. I love Nanisca's physical strength. I felt shameless about it."

"As you get older, you feel like your life is over. But it's not finished at 50. So to have this opportunity in my 50s to kick ass on screen is amazing,” Ke Huy Quan says of the star of Daniels’ multiverse hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which finds Quan playing Waymond Wang in several different universes, including one that involves some awesome action sequences.

Quan is already the comeback story of the year; he was formerly better known as Short Round in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and Data in "Goonies". Having not acted in nearly 20 years, Quan prepared vigorously for the film, getting in shape and learning all the moves. To grab Waymond emotionally, he had to give himself permission to release his emotions that he had always internalized, in keeping with his traditional Chinese upbringing. He also has a full team of coaches. “Acting coach, body movement coach, voice coach. It was really something."

Quan's work behind the camera with Wong Kar Wai, one of his all-time favorite filmmakers the times, proved useful. "I saw him lead Tony Leung in 2046. And I honored him with a whole universe."

Working with action director Corey Yuen on films such as "X-Men" and " The One" was also an essential experience for learning the language of action.

"When I walked in front of the camera for the fanny pack sequence, I was doing it [behind the camera] for a long time."

Although she doesn't have traditional action scenes in "Triangle of Sadness" by Ruben Östlund, Dolly De Leon – whose capable Abigail achieves great power status among a host of incompetent shipwreck survivors – relishes her character's belated authority.

De Leon already knew how to do most of the things Abigail had to address in the Östlund satire . She could already start a fire thanks to a survival training program she participated in. When the director asked, "Do you know how to clean a fish?" she was also able to say yes. "Growing up in the Philippines, we weren't rich. My dad was a good provider, but he didn't make that much money. When I was 12 or 13, he brought fish home for dinner. And I was in charge of gutting the fish. I even know how to kill a chicken, remove the feathers and chop everything. I didn't have to study anything."

She adds, "The entertainment industry has been very focused on young people for a long time, probably because they look good. This perception that you can only be interesting if...