Summary

Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Daniella Pineda star in The Accountant 2, showcasing their action chops.

The film centers on a thrilling murder mystery solved with action and suspense.

The duo discuss the intense fight choreography and accolades at SXSW.

Neither Cynthia Addai-Robinson nor Daniella Pineda is a stranger to propulsive action. Addai-Robinson was the original Amanda Waller in DC’s Arrow and wields immense influence in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Pineda inhabited the famous Faye Valentine for Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop live-action adaptation, and befriended an island full of dinosaurs in the latter two Jurassic World films. Now the two must fight one another in The Accountant 2, the awaited sequel to Ben Affleck’s 2016 sleeper thriller.
Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) is forced to call Affleck’s Christian Wolff to solve the murder of somebody very close to her. With help from his estranged, extremely deadly brother Brax (played by Jon Bernthal), Chris applies four-dimensional thinking with discreet criminal activity to solve the twisted puzzle. The three draw the ire of the sharpest assassins in the world, including Pineda’s Anaïs, all intent on putting an end to their search. Also starring J.K. Simmons (Invincible) and directed by Gavin O’Connor (Warrior).
Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with Addai-Robinson and Pineda to discuss their experience shooting and screening The Accountant 2. In this interview, they talk about everything it takes to become an ice-cold killer, the similarities between extreme fight choreography and dancing, and proudly (nay, deservedly) winning their Audience Award at SXSW.
‘The Accountant 2’ More Than Deserves Its SXSW Audience Award

“You always want to be cautiously optimistic.”

COLLIDER: At what point when you were making this film were you thinking: “We are going to win the Audience Award at SXSW?”
DANIELLA PINEDA: I didn’t know. At some point while we were shooting, I think one of the makeup artists was like, “You know what? I’ve been hearing everybody talk. I think this movie’s actually gonna be really good.” I never believe that, and I was like, “Maybe it’s gonna be great.” People were starting to say that on set.
CYNTHIA ADDAI-ROBINSON: Yeah, you always want to be cautiously optimistic because you work in this industry, you know that you can’t predict things, and you’d be a fool to even try. But I know that for the energy and the passion and the thoughtfulness that everybody was bringing to the table, we certainly deserve that award, and it’s nice to see it with audiences.
Nowadays, when it’s harder to even get a movie into the theater and have the theatrical experience, this is definitely a movie to see in the movie theater. It’s just to be in the presence of people laughing and gasping and cheering. When you really think about it, even really great ones, there are not that many movies that you can have the range of emotion and the range of reactions and leave at the end feeling pumped.
I completely agree with you, but I also think it’s because more and more people, when they’re home and watching a movie, it takes five minutes, and all of a sudden, they’re on their phone.
PINEDA: 100%.
The movie theater makes you should shut off your phone and turn over to the experience.
Daniella Pineda Enters Her Villain Era

“It’s fun being Jaws.”

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

So, how much fun is it actually playing a complete badass?
PINEDA: It’s a lot of fun. I was just saying before I entered the villain stage of my career, which I didn’t really see coming. I’ve done a lot of comedy, so it was weird being stone-cold still, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun playing someone scary because you get to perform knowing you’re apex. It’s fun being Jaws.
You guys have a great fight sequence. When we spoke at SXSW, you talked about how it was a two-day fight. For people who don’t really understand what it takes to do a fight sequence like that, could you pull back the curtain? As actors and performers, what exactly is going into this for people who want to do what you do?
ADDAI-ROBINSON: We started learning and preparing, both for the physicality of it and also the choreography, before filming even started. You want to have as much time as possible. The fight was put onto the schedule towards the end of filming so we had the maximum amount of time. I almost equate it to when you see a dance number. I was just watching some dance choreography. When you see, say, the Super Bowl, and it’s this huge production, what you don’t see is all of the rehearsing and the very technical beat-by-beat, step-by-step learning. You work very hard to really ingrain it in your body so that on the day, it doesn’t look like choreographed steps. It needs to feel…
PINEDA: Organic, like it’s in the moment.
ADDAI-ROBINSON: It’s motivated by the literal in-the-moment circumstances and the feelings behind it. It’s like dance. The best dancers are technically brilliant dancers, but they throw all that away, and then it’s really this kind of interpretation, what’s flowing through their movement. Fighting, to me, is the same. There’s a technical aspect to it, but there are also these characters, and when they’re throwing a punch or some sort of move, it’s motivated by the force of their need in that moment. That only works if all the lead-up in the character work earns that fight moment, is what I would say.

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

PINEDA: Not to sound like a total gym bro, but I also feel like you gotta stay in shape. I’m finding myself, much to my surprise, I keep getting cast in very action-heavy movies. That means that, in between movies, and I could not work for a long time, I have to stay in shape. Because you can’t come into something and be like, “Now I’m gonna get in shape, cause then I’m gonna do the fight choreo.” That doesn’t work. You have to stay in shape, and then you do the fight choreo, and you can do that. It’s almost like getting fit to be able to go to the fancy gym. Like, “I gotta get in shape to go into that gym.” It’s a little bit like that. It’s not always glamorous. I was tired a lot.
ADDAI-ROBINSON: Well, even a five-minute fight takes two days. Several hours.
PINEDA: A five-minute fight is a long time.
ADDAI-ROBINSON: Twelve-hour days or whatever it is. I think to have that appreciation, even if it happens quickly in the moment, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat or a giant gun battle, there’s a whole army of people, especially out of our stunt department, that collaborate to basically bring you the best experience as a moviegoer that you can have so that you are viscerally in there on those fights. We are excited and happy that the audiences is verbally responding, I’ll say, to our fight sequence.
The Accountant 2 is in theaters now.

The Accountant 2

Release Date

April 25, 2025

Runtime

124 minutes

Director

Gavin O’Connor

Writers

Bill Dubuque

Producers

Ben Affleck, Kevin Halloran, Matt Damon, Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell Taylor, Scott LaStaiti, Michael Joe, Mark Williams, Alison Winter

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