Franky Monet On How Fans Will See A Different Side Of Her In "Unchained"

NXT superstar Franky Monet (f.k.a. Taya Valkyrie) sat down with Wrestling Inc.'s Nick Hausman today on The Wrestling Inc. Daily to discuss her upcoming movie "Unchained." Monet, who recently signed with the WWE and debuted on NXT, discussed how she got involved with the project.

"I was approached by the director, Raphaello," recalled Monet. "He sent me this script and [he] thought I was really good for this part of Regina. I read it, I thought it was really fun and really different than anything I'd ever done before and I wanted to give it a try. We filmed this in the fall of 2019. It was supposed to come out last year, but obviously the world decided to do otherwise. So, we waited a long time for this and I'm excited for everyone to see it. It finally comes out July 2 on Amazon Prime."

"Unchained" is about a group of women who are kidnapped and forced to fight for their lives in an underground fight club. Monet continued to discuss the dark nature of the film and elaborated more on her character.

"I play a villain who is a huge part of them ending up in this fight club," disclosed Monet. "I won't try and spoil anything for you because I really want everyone to see it. But it was really different from any character I've ever played before. She was very stripped down, there was no glamour. It was all fighting in dirt and all that kind of stuff you expect in a fighting-thriller-action movie. I'm excited to be a part of something that has a woman as a lead. There are a lot of women, and stunt women, in this film and I was excited to be a part of that."

Monet was also asked about her fight scenes during the movie. Monet said that while she doesn't have a lot of them due to her character being the one that organizes the fighting, the ones she does have are very intense.

"My character was basically the one that was making them fight, so I don't have a lot of actual action scenes," admitted Monet. "But all the fight scenes I was a part of were super intense. I'm really proud of all the women. Some of them had never had experience doing something like this before, and they all really went all out to make sure everything looked believable, exciting, and as thrilling as it can be. I'm excited to see what people think, since it is such a different version of Taya, and now Franky, that you see regularly on your Tuesday nights."

Monet was also asked if she enjoys playing a villain in films.

"Absolutely!" answered Monet enthusiastically. "Who doesn't want to be a bad guy? Every good guy needs a crazy bad guy, right? There's always got to be a villain to have a hero. Throughout my career I've played a lot of villains, but this one is completely different. It was really interesting to study who Regina was and how I felt she should look, speak, and carry herself. I'm just really thankful that the director Raphaello entrusted me and saw something in me to be able to take on this part."

During the interview Monet was also asked if she would be able to continue doing outside acting projects now that she is signed with the WWE.

"Well, I actually still have some things that are coming out," shared Monet. "John Morrison and I wrote a horror short three years ago. It's finally in its final stages of post-production. Hopefully it will be for all the horror film festivals in the fall. He directed it, I produced it, we both wrote it together. It has tons of people that you'll recognize within the movie and it was a really fun passion project that we did together.

"Hopefully I do get to continue doing projects like this. You know, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I just love performing and trying all these different kinds of art forms and expanding myself as an artist and continuing to learn. I feel like when you're in front of the camera and being put in these different situations, it's the best opportunity to learn and evolve. As an artist that's super important to me, so I hope I get to continue to do stuff like this."

Monet was later asked about joining the WWE and how it feels to have so many of WWE's production tools at her disposal to film promos and vignettes.

"It's an absolute dream," beamed Monet. "I have access to the greatest brains in professional wrestling [like] Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Sara Amato [Sara Del Rey], Norman Smiley, Matt Bloom, and everybody. It's just a crazy feeling and it validates all the hard work I have put in over the last 10 or 12 years to get to this point. I feel like I'm learning something new every day, and they're really pushing me creatively and physically. So, I really look forward to what is going to happen through the rest of this year in NXT. I've only been there for three months, but it really has been a dream come true to finally be somewhere that I've wanted to be for so long. I take nothing for granted and I'm going to try to just absorb as much knowledge from all these crazy-creative people that I can."

"Unchained" featuring Taya Valkyrie (aka Franky Monet) will be released On Demand on July 2. You can follow Franky on Twitter @FrankyMonetWWE. You can find the full audio and video from her conversation with Nick via the embedded players below:

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