Adeline Rudolph brings humanity to genre films
The actress on her roles in the latest "Mortal Kombat," "Hellboy" films, and why stuntpeople deserve more recognition
Adeline Rudolph plays Kitana in "Mortal Kombat II."
Courtesy photo
Words by Andy Crump
Midway’s arcade fighting game Mortal Kombat debuted in 1992 before being ported to the period’s dominant gaming consoles: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Sega maintained the game’s ultra-violence, including its finishing moves—maneuvers available at the end of a match that allowed the winner to, say, tear out the loser’s still-beating heart. Meanwhile Nintendo, the “family friendly” market option, palette swapped the game’s copious blood spurts for gray “sweat” and toned down the finishers.
The results looked ridiculous at the time and are downright quaint in 2026. In today’s Mortal Kombat games, organ removal alone no longer suffices; a finishing move is a dud if it isn’t lethal at least four times over. Simon McQuoid carries that philosophy into his Mortal Kombat movies, from the 2021 reboot (Paul W.S. Anderson started adapting the games for the big screen in the 1990s) to its sequel Mortal Kombat II (now in theaters), in which the brutal warlord Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) campaigns for dominion over Earth.
Shao Kahn starts the film by slaying King Jerrod (Desmond Chiam) of Outworld, one of the story’s settings, in single combat before his young daughter, Kitana (Sophia Xu), then claiming her as his own child. Years later, the adult Kitana covertly aids the thunder god Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) in protecting Earth from Shao Kahn. She’s also played by Adeline Rudolph, turning in a singular performance compared to the ones she gives in her debut film role, Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024), as well as on Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018). Rudolph’s Kitana is a study in contrast: she fights with balletic grace that belies the deep-seated rage she harbors toward Shao Kahn.
Recently, she talked with me about the character’s dichotomy, the creative satisfaction she finds in playing someone who is so much the opposite of her last genre film role, and why stuntpeople deserve their flowers.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Andy Crump: How did it feel being the person who gets objectively the coolest kill in the movie?
Adeline Rudolph: When it comes to Kitana's storyline, I think the reason that final battle is so impactful is because the opening sequence is us getting a glimpse into Kitana's trauma, and the thing that sparks this story of redemption, and revenge, and pain. In that sense, the payoff is so great because the audience actually gets to go on that journey with her, and get an idea of what this actually means to her—especially going back to the game lore and pairing that with the movie. All these characters are so complex and intricate and layered, and there's so much to pull from. I'm really happy that we got a glimpse into this specific arc of hers.
AC: Kitana, when she was introduced in the second game, was a sex symbol for teenage boys. The games have evolved, and the character has evolved into one of the most prominent figures in the series. Now, you’re a part of that evolution. I wonder what you think about that.
AR: Oh my gosh, 100 percent. A lot of female video game characters have been sexualized in the past, so to get to a point where that's evolving and there are stronger storylines in game lore, and where I get to portray one of these iconic characters, who also has so much lore in the video games now, feels empowering and amazing. We spent a lot of time with Simon, who was such an advocate for making sure that Kitana was yes, a princess, but also strong, grounded, vulnerable, deadly, and still poised. The amalgamation of all of those things is important for a character like hers that goes on this devastating journey in some ways. It’s amazing to portray her in a way that more resembles the modern-day woman in many ways.
AC: Karl Urban, as Johnny Cage, makes the joke that “I’m an actor, I have stuntmen for this.” Obviously you have stunt people for what you were doing. How much of (the action) did you perform yourself? Watching the action scenes’ blocking, it looked like you, more often than most would expect from studio action.
AR: Anything like a flip in the air or an insane kick in the air is not me. That would've taken so much time for me to learn. More than that, when it comes to those kinds of stunts, there's a lot of wirework that goes with them, so for liability's sake, even when the actors wanted to do them, they couldn’t. I'd say anything that was ground work or hand-to-hand combat, we learned the full choreography. The way that these movies are shot, from a behind-the-scenes perspective, you'll have your incredible stunt doubles and stunt team do the choreography, but you will be doing that same choreography. That way, the director can cut in and out, depending on what shot is being used or which stunt is being used.
I'd say honestly, probably most of the Jade (Tati Gabrielle) and Kitana fight was us. There were some stunt elements where there was a wire, but besides those, all the other sequences were pretty much us; just about anything with the ribbon was me. I'd say it was a good mix. We tried as much as we could to do as much as we could, but of course anything that was extremely intricate was done by my incredible stunt doubles, Zia (Kelly) and Yeye (Zhou). I'm so grateful to them, and our stunt coordinators (Jade Amantea, Damien Bryson, Kyle Gardiner). They were so patient and great.
There’s this insane stunt in the Baraka and Johnny Cage fight, where Johnny gets flung into the air and falls through a roof. That was a real stunt done by Garreth (Hadfield), Karl’s stunt double, who is amazing. Yeah, there are some gnarly stunts in there that deserve big applause.
AC: The reason I bring up the stunt work has to do with Hellboy: The Crooked Man, which isn’t as stunt-based. I'm curious what draws you to roles like Bobby Jo and Kitana. You could say they're genre movies and they share DNA, but Hellboy is its own thing, Mortal Kombat is its own thing, the stakes are different, and the characters are looking for different things.
AR: When it came to Hellboy and playing Bobby Jo, what I initially liked was that she was a frazzled, out-of-place, very studious BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) agent who goes on this journey, and everything's new to her. All these monsters and everything else are scary and threatening. As she goes on that journey, I liked her evolution of becoming stronger. So that in itself, finding herself in this fantastical world that she's unfamiliar with was really intriguing to me.
On the flip side, with Kitana, she lives in this world. Shao Kahn? Seen him before. Baraka? Okay. There was something intriguing about a character who feels lived in, in this world, so the focus can be on her emotional arc and how she feels about these other characters being scared of combat. Even in the fight with Johnny Cage, you can see she has no fear. This is a Tuesday afternoon for Kitana: “Alright, let’s get this over with. No, I’m not going to finish him.” That’s her first moment of defiance towards Shao Kahn. While exploring a character who, in that sense, is ruthless and powerful, it was fun to play into her vulnerability.
With Bobby Jo, you start with vulnerability. Then she hardens up. With Kitana, she has underlying strength and she breaks down at the end, which is why that fight is so feral compared to the dance-like choreography at the beginning.
AC: Those characters do seem like opposite sides of the same coin; I’m curious if you’ll keep flipping that coin going forward in your career. You have more story to tell, as far as who you are as a performer. Do you see yourself going back and forth between those two axes, or do you want to go in a new direction?
AR: I 100 percent would love to do another Mortal Kombat movie. Kitana has been such a gift to me, and I want to keep exploring her and the story, because there's so much to tell. There are so many directions we can go in. In addition to that though, listen, if I can do a movie where absolutely nothing happens, it’s just a mellow drama, I'm here for it. I would love to dive into a rom-com. There’s a psychological thriller that I did called Perfect Girl, which is a K-pop thriller and a very different side of me than what I've played before. I'm excited for that, as well as Neagley season one, the Reacher spinoff—again, a very different character. No mystical monsters, but maybe real life human monsters.
Maybe this is why I get cast in a lot of genre films—I like to strip down the heightened stakes to a human level. Honestly, for something like Mortal Kombat, I like the personal challenge of having to do stunt choreography, something that's completely out of my comfort zone. But any character I can dive into that lets me explore something I haven't explored yet within myself, or within a character, is something I welcome.
Published on May 19, 2026
Words by Andy Crump
Bostonian culture journalist Andy Crump covers movies, beer, music, fatherhood, and way too many other subjects for way too many outlets, perhaps even yours: Paste Magazine, Inverse, The New York Times, Hop Culture, Polygon, and Men's Health, plus more. You can follow him on Bluesky and find his collected work at his personal blog. He’s composed of roughly 65 percent craft beer.