The Workout is a 2025 found-footage action film where Army Ranger Wyatt Park, after his pregnant wife Becca is killed during a mob hit while they are filming a workout video, documents his relentless hunt for vengeance with his brother-in-law, Levi. The movie uses various camera formats, such as body cams and smartphones, to capture the violent mission to take down the mobsters responsible, providing an immersive perspective for the audience.
Ashlee Evans-Smith stars in the movie and stopped by to chat with us about it.
Today we’re talking about your new movie, The Workout, from director James Cullen Bressack. What was it that appealed about the script for you that made you want to jump on board?
I mean, the script itself is full of action and the character, Tank, is my character. I love everything about her. Her name, her grit, her background. And, fun fact, David Josh Lawrence, the writer, actually told me that he had me in mind while writing the character. So, I think that that was just a nice kind volley, so that character was something that I felt I’m definitely going to be able to get in touch with this girl because this girl is me. Not the former Army Ranger accolades. No, not that at all but just the inner Tank, the inner character. I think I’m a tomboy at heart, former mixed martial art, I guess, forever mixed martial artist, but a retired UFC fighter and I thought that this would be a great role for me. I had so much fun doing it. So glad I accepted for sure.
I was going to ask if you saw any of yourself in her. But what parts of your own personality do you see in Tank?
So, without giving too much of the story away, we all know for the most part that she is one of the guys. She’s a former Army Ranger. The two leads of the movie, Peter Jae and Josh Kelly, Wyatt and Levi, they all saw combat together. So, she’s always wanting to be one of the guys. Me myself, I was on the boys wrestling team growing up, I got into mixed martial arts. I’m maybe a little dolled up now, but in my heart, I’m one of the boys. So, this was fun. This was fun for me. I have so much respect for any women in the military, especially someone who could reach the top ranks like a female Army Ranger.
What’s interesting is that you come from a fighting background in real life. How difficult is the transition holding back your punches doing screen fighting to the real thing?
That’s a super fun question, because it’s actually pretty hard which makes for some fun times and some safety issues, I guess, but it’s nothing that just a little pullback can’t help. And thank goodness, my partner, boyfriend of 16 years is also in the movie. So, there’s this big, epic fight scene that we have in the apartment of one of the guys who’s also in the movie plays a bad guy. Him and I aren’t as finely tuned stunt actors, but we are professional mixed martial artists. So, if it looks really real, it’s because it’s pretty real.
Can you talk about some of like the pre-viz you would have done for that and working with the fight coordinators to put that together?
Yes. And this was, I have been in previous movies, very small roles, but for sure, this is the biggest, best role that I’ve had to date and thank goodness I got to work with one of the best. I mean, the only one I worked with (laughs), but I think he is probably one of the best because he’s been in the industry for so long. Stunt coordinator, Luke LaFontaine, so much fun. This guy has got stories for days, the first movie he was ever a part of, I know was The Karate Kid, the OG one. So just, right off the bat, like this guy has seen and knows a lot. And when he was showing me a lot of things that I learned on the job in the moment, he would always have some cool story to back it up or why you do this and why this stunt is crucial part of the story. It’s just not flowing out of his butt and just being like, let’s just do this cool thing. It all has to make sense and so, Luke LaFontaine was so fun to work with. And then, just in general meeting up in Los Angeles at a park and you look at us and you’re like, what are those people doing? But it’s like, no, we’re not weirdos (laughs). We’re really rehearsing for a movie, I swear. So, just a great time overall, being around all these people who have been in the industry for so long and then being a sponge really, and just trying to soak up everything in the moment and learn as much as I can, too.
How was James Cullen Bressack to work with? I’ve interviewed him before and he’s an awesome guy. How is he as a director?
I knew him as a friend before he gave me this chance to be in one of his movies. We met actually because he’s a huge MMA fan and I was doing the in-cage interviews for a local fight promotion called Up Next Fighting. Basically, the two fighters fight, the winner gets his hand raised and there’s me asking, “was that part of the game plan? Yada, yada, yada”. And so, James and I became friends at one of those events and we just chopped it up and talked about fighting. He’s a very jovial guy, very, very fun and silly, always, always joking. Literally, I remember a couple of times being on the phone with him before the movie; we had booked the part and things were going to film and he had joked around so much. I remember thinking like, is he being a director now? Is he still joking? And eventually I realized he’s pretty much always joking for the most part. But then I got to watch him on set and I was just like, oh, he took his goofy guy hat off and got down to business. It was very cool to watch a friend be so silly but then when it comes time to turn it on, he turned it on and, the director has to wear so many hats and choreographed this whole thing. It was impressive to see him in his own element.
The Workout uses some really unconventional camera techniques where your cameras are planted around the room and there’s like body cams and things like that. How is that to work with?
So, also my first time working with the body cams and as an actress and a stunt actor, you’re constantly, “OK, OK. So, the lines, right. I’ve got to my position, my body, right.” And then you put the body cam on and all that kind of goes out the window. You’re the camera person, but you’re also acting. But your kind of main focus is the camera work. And so it was, again, another very fun on the job learning experience and just another really cool thing about the movie itself that’s unique and different.
Was there anything that you got to improvise, in terms of dialogue or even any ideas you came up with for the action scenes?
I think that you’ve got to be a little more scripted with the stunts for safety purposes. And I do remember James, everyone telling me beforehand, “oh, every director is different”. So, I think I was surprised that James was someone who wasn’t nitpicky about saying the line exactly as is. If I wanted to add a little something in there that I thought my character could say or say, that was OK and I was like excited about that.
I kind of also learned that in the moment and also you realize that every director is not going to be like that, but you say you’re grateful for that. It took a little pressure off that you don’t have to be so strict with the dialogue. I did not improvise, though. Maybe I’ll feel more comfortable with future roles doing that and then I’d say a little bit of I won’t say improvising with the stunts. But my partner, like I mentioned, he’s a black belt in jujitsu. So, a lot of the jujitsu that’s in the apartment scene is, I think when you when you watch it, you’re going to be like, “oh, there’s a lot of like really fun mixed martial arts moves woven into the gunfighting and the different techniques that Luke LaFontaine put in there”. And so, I think it was really cool that my partner, the jujitsu guy, could come in there and they could collaborate and mix it up a little bit. So, that was fun. That was definitely a lot of fun, too.
You work with, of course, Josh and Peter. They’re the main characters movie. How were they to work with and how did you work with them to create the chemistry to feel like you were real-life friends?
Yeah, that that was something that I didn’t even think about doing until the director, James, had said, “hey, you know, your new character is buddies with these guys. So, I think you guys should go hang out”. And he literally set us up and kind of Homer Simpsons away from the situation (laughs) and just let us be bros. And we went to the bar and we shot some pool and we hung out If you know Josh Kelly, he’s like James, like very jokey all the time. So, I think when you have one of those in the group, it just it breaks the ice. Peter’s an actor. I’m someone who’s very easy going and I think I could get along with most people, find some common ground. So, it was just easy. It was so easy, as if we had previously been in the military together. I know what that would entail, but I feel like I could be one of the boys sometimes. So, that was fun and then Peter and Josh themselves, like, I did not expect them to be nice. Not that I have any preconceived notions about actors. (laughs) I just really thought, OK, these guys have the leading roles. They’re so busy. Why would they take time to go, “hey, young actor”, but no, they were great especially Josh even asked, “hey, if you need to run your lines before to feel comfortable”. And I’m just like, “did I just get lucky or what to have very, very kind co-stars be like, how do you feel? Do you want help with this? And so, I think that’s probably rare. I won’t get my hopes up for every role, but very fortunate to have Peter Jae, 20 plus years in the industry, Josh Kelly on General Hospital, just these guys that were willing to help me out.
Did you have to do any extra training like regarding firearms which you didn’t already know about?
I think that with what we had going on, that was probably not as highlighted as hand to hand or any of the other stunts. But so grateful that Josh Kelly, fun fact, he was an actual former army Ranger. He’s not just an actor and is someone who has jumped out of planes and he did the whole thing, you know? So before one of our scenes, I actually remember Josh being like, “hey, Ash, you want to do this?” And I’m like, “I feel like maybe we should have worked on this a little bit”. You know what? We’re going to be fine. So, I’d be lying if I said we did extensive training on that part, but grateful to have Josh’s expertise on set for sure.
How do you manage the downtime on, on set whenever it was long hours and you can be standing around for hours? How do you keep yourself motivated?
Yeah, in mixed martial arts, there is a phrase, I mean, it’s probably in everything, but, hurry up and wait. With cutting weight, you do all this work and then you sit around and you wait to jump on the scale with fighting. It’s the actual getting into the cage part. You get ready and then you just wait. So, it wasn’t too hard for me. I think that it made the transition pretty smooth, just kind of staying ready, you know? That actually wasn’t that bad. Now that you mentioned it, maybe someone else might go a little crazy, but kind of used to it, honestly.
What would you like audiences to take away from the film?
I mean, I think people will fall in love with the plot. It’s got a very cool twist and even the whole setup of the movie; the fact that the body cams are being used to record for someone who’s losing their memory. I think that’s really unique and if you keep that in your mind throughout the movie that this is all being documented for a future child because someone may not be alive. I think that’s something that some of the fans can really get into. The takeaway from it, that James Cullen makes very cool action films; keep watching his movies because they’re always going to be exciting and have a little twist to them.
Do you have anything coming up next that you’re able to discuss?
Not in the moment I finished. So, after The Workout, because some time has passed since filming, I was lucky enough to get a call back from another movie that I had done before the workout, a very small role. They needed some more scenes or something happened. So, they called me back like, “Hey, it’s a horror movie”. They’re like, “oh, we want to kill you” (laughs). I recently worked with director Marcel Walls, who I also met through James as well. Very, very cool person. And that horror movie is called Only Seven Days. It’s a werewolf/earthquake movie; I won’t ruin it, but it was super fun to make. It’s a gory horror movie.
That sounds like a cool concept. You had me at gory as well. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me anyway, and all the best with the film. Hope to chat with you again soon.
Thank you so much. I appreciate the interview.