Amita Suman shares she underwent physical, knife training for ‘Shadow and Bone’

Amita Suman has shared she underwent training for her role as Inej Ghafa on Netflix’s upcoming series “Shadow and Bone.”

Playing a member of The Crows who fights well with knives, Amita revealed that she surprisingly had never worked with sharp weapons before.

“The only knife training I ever had was chopping vegetables. I’ve got a wonderful scar from that and my second knife scar was when I was on set during a fight scene. This is the Inej scar,” she said during Wednesday’s online interview with the press.

Before fully committing to the role, the Nepali actress shared that she also went to the gym a lot to give justice to the character.

“Inej was very physically capable. She’s an acrobat, an assassin, she can pretty much do anything and that required a lot of physical training,” she said.

“I said to myself, ‘I can’t respect this character if I don’t get the trainings and get strong, have great stamina and increase my flexibility.’”

She recalled her first day of lessons where she failed to do a stunt she was required to perform.

“I didn’t have the strength, the flexibility, but I wanted to work so I went to the gym a lot and by the time we continued filming the scene, I was able to do a basic routine.”

According to Amita, she owes what she knows to her stunt double who did all the “intricate and really cool stuff.”

With her efforts, she thought she managed to make it in the final cut.

“When I saw the show ... I think most of it was me, so I think I managed to really [capture] some cool punching [routines].”

Amita added that in terms of building Inej’s character, she made sure to portray her as an “incomparable” individual.

“As a brown actress, [this] was my first time playing something so new, unique, and well-rounded.”

She also talked to author Leigh Bardugo about creating a “scent” for Inej which would differentiate her from the rest of the characters.

“She doesn’t have a scent but I think smell evokes so many memories and emotions and I want to find something unique to her.”

With Inej being part of a different series in the book version, Amita said she wanted to create a whole new view of the character on “Shadow and Bone.”

“I didn’t wanna create Inej that you see in ‘Six of Crows.’ I wanted to find the journey from the beginning to end of her transforming into that.”

“Shadow and Bone” is a fantasy series based on Leigh’s Grishaverse novels and is set to premiere on Netflix on April 23.

Amita is part of The Crows alongside Freddy Carter and Kit Young. The series will also star Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux and Ben Barnes. – RC, GMA News