‘The Gray Man’ Women Are the Heart of the Film

Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans may be at the forefront of “The Gray Man,” but it’s the ladies of the cast that are bringing the heat.

Based on the novel by Mark Greaney, the Netflix action film directed by Joe and Anthony Russo follows Gosling as CIA operative Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six. When a bounty is put on his head after he uncovers dark agency secrets, Evans’ maliciously-mustached Lloyd Hansen does anything and everything to take Six down.

At the center of the action flick is 13-year-old Julia Butters as Claire Fitzroy, a young girl who lost her parents and has a heart condition. The teen star steals the movie with her vulnerability and witty one-liners, spending most of her time with Gosling and Billy Bob Thornton, who portrays her uncle, former agency director Donald Fitzroy.

Butters — who received critical acclaim after starring in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — spoke with TODAY about channeling her emotions in action-packed scenes, especially when her character’s life is in danger.

“It was definitely very hard to be so emotional when you’re so happy and having so much fun,” Butters said at the Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday. “But I definitely know how to not think of sad things when I’m acting and becoming emotional.”

“I just put myself in my character’s shoes and think her thoughts and try to imagine what she’s going through. And then that gets me there,” she explained, adding that she “learned a lot of that from Ryan, by watching him step into character.”

For Thornton, he told TODAY that he quickly learned that Butters is wise beyond her years.

“Sometimes we tend to treat younger actors with kid gloves, you might say. And when I first met her, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute, she seems like she’s a college professor,’” he jokingly recalled. “And so I learned very quickly to not talk down to her … because she’s very intelligent and she knows her way around the set.”

Calling her “a totally professional actor” and “sweetheart,” Thornton said she made it “easy to play her protector.” If Butters is the heart of the film, Alfre Woodard brings the wisdom.

In the original book, Woodard’s character, former CIA chief Margaret Cahill, is originally a male. The notable change gives the story a more modern touch.

“We know that women are in charge in the offices, in the home, and in social situations women are in charge,” Woodard shared with TODAY about the book-to-screen switch. “And it makes sense that she would be. I’m wondering why it was a man in the first place.”

Co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely added that when trying to build a movie meant to appeal to a wider audience, the gender switch came easy.

“It shouldn’t be all dudes,” he noted. “So we added the Dani Miranda, Ana de Armas, character, we swapped Maurice out for Margaret Cahill. We wanted the opportunity to show that there were good guys and bad guys from all stripes working behind the scenes in the midst of the, sort-of, geo-political world we live in.”

As for de Armas, the Cuban star is no stranger to action movies. She had a brief, yet action-packed, role in James Bond’s “No Time to Die.” However, she never imagined herself being in the midst of the mayhem.

“The truth is, I never thought I was going to be an action actor. It wasn’t my thing,” she told Elle magazine, adding that the offers rolled in. “You have to be careful, because it’s not what I want to put the focus on. This is not where I’m the most comfortable, to be honest, because I feel ridiculous. And it takes a lot of work.”

In “The Gray Man,” de Armas plays Agent Dani Miranda, who becomes an unexpected ally to Six — and saves the day on more than one occasion.

“Basically, I feel like I trained for two-and-a-half months before the movie only for (one particular) scene,” de Armas told TODAY and a group of attendees at a screening days before the premiere.

“It was very satisfying for me,” she added of Dani being the unsung hero. “I think the cool part of it is that it was not part of the plan. Nothing that happened after Dani meets Six is part of the plan. She really has to put all the dots together and figure out how to get out of risking everything, her job, her safety, the mission. Everything that she’s been trained for.”

As for Jessica Henwick’s Suzanne Brewer, the CIA Senior Officer’s intentions are questionable. The actor goes up against Hansen and Regé-Jean Page’s cunning CIA Head Director Denny Carmichae.

And while her character is described as “ruthless,” Henwick wanted to “humanize” Suzanne — but also prove that she could stand on her own.

“Especially because you have these really loud characters on either side, and she’s quiet and stressed for a lot of the film. Then when she explodes, it feels so warranted,” she expressed in the press notes. “And even though she does something that we perhaps don’t like, we completely understand what led her to that point and she feels very human and relatable.”

“The Gray Man” arrives in select theaters on July 15 and streams July 22 on Netflix.