Tyler Perry is recognized by the LA Times for having “the talent to move beyond the world of Madea…” in Alex Cross (2012). As co-star of this James Patterson detective thriller, do you feel typecast as Perry’s police colleague who’s targeted and tortured–the ‘tough-as-nails action girl’?

It’s an honor to earn a reputation as a woman who’s totally believable in an action role. That’s hard to do. It started with Alias. Working with Jennifer Garner, who is both a woman and so well established as an action hero, was a platform for me. Those fight sequences were my first taste. And then I got lucky with a bunch of physical roles [GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Conan the Barbarian, and P2, where she’s abducted in a parking garage and ‘kicks ass’ to get away] after that. It will never impede me from doing anything else. I don’t think people will be like, “Oh, she’s an action girl, she can’t do drama.”

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