Loan Chabanol steals the screen as a femme fatale with a secret agenda in "The Transporter Refueled" -- but she swears she's more than a pretty face.
The former model reveals she was more than happy to put those days behind her, telling toofab's Brian Particelli that modeling "never defined who I was."
"I was so bored being a model," she says while promoting the new action franchise prequel. "I would always go out for TV commercials and enjoyed the process of acting. I feel like modeling never defined who I was. That's why I wanted to try something [different], I had no idea whether it would work out or not."
Despite doubt from some of her friends -- including one who flat out told her, "I didn't think you were going to make it" -- Loan quickly found work in films directed by John Tuturo and Paul Haggis, acting in films alongside people like Woody Allen and James Franco.
"You have to go after what you believe and believe in yourself," Chabanol continues. "People will feel that and want to do things with you. It's about who I meet and who I connect with."
In "Refueled," Chabanol's character pulls a lot of the strings, something you (unfortunately) don't see a lot of from women in action films.
"It was fun to play a character that's never been played before in an action film, in this sense," she says of the role."[With films like] 'Mission Impossible,' you're got great feminine roles and we're going towards that [more] now. I hope there's going to be more roles ... I just hope the men are O.K. with it!"
See Chabanol in action in "The Transporter Refueled," in theaters now!
