Nina Dobrev persuaded 'xXx: Return of Xander Cage' director D.J. Caruso to let her shoot some action scenes to impress her friends.
Nina Dobrev
The 'Vampire Diaries' actress plays the character of agent Becky Clearidge, a witty and sarcastic techie, alongside Vin Diesel who reprises his role as the titular daredevil operative.
In in the initial script, Dobrev, 28, didn't have many stunts or any gun fights so she took it upon herself to speak to Caruso about giving her some kick-ass scenes.
The brunette beauty - who suffered a nasty graze and severe bruising to her left thigh whilst filming one sequence, an injury she proudly shared with her Twitter followers - explained: "I spoke to the director and said, 'Come on, dude. I can't film this movie and have it come out in a year and have my friends see it and make fun of me because it's such a cool, big, action movie and I'm in the corner cowering the whole time. Give me a gun: let's think of something!' We shot it and it ended up making it in."
'xXx: Return of Xander Cage' is the third film in the 'xXx' franchise and it also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Rose, Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa.
Coming out of self-imposed exile after being approached by the CIA, Cage must recruit a new team of operatives to help him tackle villain Xiang (Yen) and his team as they race to capture a device that can hijack military satellites.
Dobrev admits she felt nervous meeting Diesel, 49, on her first day on set but that actually helped with her character.
In an interview with the Metro newspaper, she said: "My first day of shooting I was still a little bit nervous, but it worked because my character is supposed to be awkward - so my nerves lent themselves beautifully to the scene!"
'xXx: Return of Xander Cage' hits cinemas on Friday (20.01.17).
Tagged in Vin Diesel Nina Dobrev