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Rihanna Goes Method for “Battleship” Role, Clucks Like Chicken

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Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 08/09/2011 at 4:58 PM News

Let it never be said that Rihanna isn’t taking her acting debut seriously. As Naval Petty Officer Raikes, Ri has to know the life of a hard-lived marine, so she and director Peter Berg are making damn sure she’s up to the task. Fandango.com reported that the Barbadian pop star has been training as a sailor in preparation for her performance. “One man drilled me, yelled at me, cursed me out, made me do pushups,” Rihanna related. “My best friend was there and I told her, ‘I’m about to do acting class, you’re gonna want to kill this man but please, just stay in the other room.’ She would come in and just look around and be like, ‘Did he just say F.U. to her?’”

In addition, director Peter Berg apparently got RiRi in touch with her inner mother hen. Reads the article:

Rihanna, as tough-chick sailor Raikes, is egging on two male sailors to go mess with one of the ranking officers, Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), but they’re balking, afraid of him. [Berg] has her repeat the line “Go mess with him!” over and over. The sailors refuse again. “Now cluck like a chicken!” Berg hollers at her. “Again!” He instructs the soldiers to bait her, and ad lib. He starts throwing them lines right and left. “What are you, Col. Sanders?” Rihanna starts to look mildly pissed, as her handlers watch, giggling, from the sidelines. Finally Berg gets the take he wants, and they break.

Pretty intense stuff for a movie based on a board game. Good thing Rihanna didn’t end up in Stratego: The Movie—she’d probably have to do all the same drills, but while wearing one of those goofy military hats. Yikes.