Quinlivan scales new heights with Hollywood debut Skyscraper

In her Hollywood debut, Taiwanese actress-model Hannah Quinlivan makes quite the entrance.

Her first job on the big screen? Tasering co-star Dwayne Johnson - and kicking major ass.

Sporting short-cropped hair and a dark leather jacket, Quinlivan plays deadly assassin Xia in the upcoming action blockbuster Skyscraper, which opens here on July 12.

It follows a former FBI agent (Johnson) who lives and works in the newly-built tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, but must rescue his trapped family from there after it is taken over by terrorists.

"It was really fun playing her because you won't be a villain in real life, so it's a very good experience being a bad-ass," Quinlivan told The New Paper in an interview at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Hong Kong. Sitting in the 108-storey-high hotel room - an appropriate interview location considering the film's title - the soft-spoken 24-year-old cuts a completely different figure from her icy alter ego.

"I like being someone that I'm not," said Quinlivan, whose father is Australian and mother Taiwanese-Korean.

"She (Xia) is really bad. It's good to act bad sometimes and I think her character is quite strong."

While most know her better as the wife of Mandopop superstar and Taiwanese actor Jay Chou, 39, Quinlivan has slowly been accumulating acting credits.

She was previously cast in several television and film roles in Taiwan, before going international last year with the Chinese-British co-production S.M.A.R.T. Chase, starring Orlando Bloom, Simon Yam and Lynn Hung.

And when the opportunity to be in the same movie as Johnson came through to her agent, Quinlivan couldn't pass it up, even though she had just given birth to her son Romeo, who is now one.

"I did casting three days after the C-section," she said. "I really wanted to do it because working with Dwayne, it's a dream come true. So I thought, yeah, I'm going to do it anyway."

Quinlivan, who also has a three-year-old daughter Hathaway, ended up filming her audition tape while in a wheelchair.

"I did two guns with my hands... and my face was like a mean face, and then saying my lines," she added, gesturing and mimicking gun sounds.

"My legs couldn't move, so I had to move with my hands and all that."

The effort paid off as by last September, Quinlivan was off to Vancouver, Canada, for two months to film her parts for Skyscraper.

"In the beginning I was really nervous because it was my first time (on a Hollywood set). I didn't know what was right or wrong. But they really just take care of everyone," she said.

Her initial nervousness while filming with Johnson also quickly went away.

"Dwayne really created a very comfortable, welcoming set," Quinlivan said. "He is so warm and nice... (Dwayne) is what he is actually. Like on social media, he is what he is. He is really that in real life."

Playing the role of an assassin meant that Quinlivan also had to undergo about a month of training to prepare for her action sequences and stunts, which both she and her body double performed.

She did a lot of boxing to keep in shape and Chinese gongfu as well. "To be pretty when I'm fighting," she said.

One particular fight sequence with Canadian actress Neve Campbell, who plays Johnson's wife, takes place inside a car, and Quinlivan said they trained especially hard for it in order to become familiar with the narrow and small space.

Her husband Chou, who made his Hollywood debut as Kato in the 2011 superhero action comedy The Green Hornet and has starred in several Chinese-language action flicks like Initial D, Kungfu Dunk, The Treasure Hunter, True Legend and The Viral Factor, also pitched in.

"He actually gave me some advice for fighting, to help me stay safe," Quinlivan said.

"It was the first time that I shot a gun too... so he taught me, like, you have to shoot the gun before you go on set, you have to get the feeling of how the gun works and how it shoots," she added.

The couple - who started dating in 2011 and got married in 2015 - and their two kids were never far from one another when she was filming Skyscraper.

"I knew that I was going to miss (the children) so I brought them with me. Both (Hathaway and Romeo) came. Jay came quite often too."

Chou, who is also a fan of Johnson, got to meet him several times on set, and during a press event in Beijing earlier this month.

For now, all looks rosy for Quinlivan at home and at work, and she would like to continue her budding acting career.

"It is really a life experience and I really do enjoy being every character that I am (playing) and to learn (from) them," she said.

"Like for Xia, I think I learnt more martial arts and how to fight. When I walk (away) from the movie, I still have that skill."