Ioan Gruffudd in SEVEN SNIPERS | ©2026 Monster Pictures Studios

In the new film SEVEN SNIPERS, opening Friday June 5, Radha Mitchell stars as former elite sniper Kris Hendricks, code-named Voodoo Child when she was on active duty. Kris is now retired from the military, raising her rebellious teen daughter Anja (Annabel Wolfe) on their small farm in rural Queensland, Australia.

But when Kris has reason to believe that an old adversary known as the Dragon (Tim Roth) is coming for her, she calls in a favor from her old squad. Like Kris, most of them are no longer serving, but their bonds are strong enough for them to show up.

One of their number, Milk, played by Ioan Gruffudd, was often there for Annabel when she was growing up and Kris was away on missions. He is now part of the small group that arrives by helicopter to defend the farm.

Australian Mitchell is a multi-award-winning performer, whose many film and TV credits include HIGH ART, PITCH BLACK, MAN ON FIRE, FINDING NEVERLAND, MELINDA AND MELINDA, SILENT HILL, THE CRAZIES, OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, and THE ROMANOFFS.

Welsh actor Gruffudd (his full name is pronounced YO-wan GRUFF-uth) is also an award winner, including for his performances as the title character in multiple HORATIO HORNBLOWER telefilms. Some of his other movie and TV credits include BLACK HAWK DOWN, KING ARTHUR, the 2005 and 2007 FANTASTIC FOUR feature films, immortal forensic pathologist Dr. Henry Morgan in ABC’s cult favorite FOREVER, regular mortal forensic pathologist Daniel Harrow in the British series HARROW, and Elsbeth’s Scottish boyfriend in ELSBETH.

SEVEN SNIPERS movie poster | ©2026 Monster Pictures Studios

SEVEN SNIPERS is written by Andrew O’Keefe and directed by Sandra Sciberras. Joining from separate locations, Mitchell and Gruffudd get on a Zoom call to discuss their involvement with the film.

Along with costar Ryan Kwanten, Mitchell and Gruffudd are among the executive producers of SEVEN SNIPERS. Mitchell explains that this came about after they were already attached to the project as actors.

“We were attracted to the script, and I think they offered that to us as a credit, and I accepted that,” Mitchell laughs. “But my actual producing was fairly limited on the project, other than maybe just to help it get its funding initially, when they were trying to raise the money.”

“Just as Radha said,” Gruffudd affirms. When he came aboard during preproduction, “From an executive [producer] standpoint, the movie was already up and running. Thanks to Radha and other producers, they found their financing, so my involvement on that side of things was more on a creative level and helping to bring my character in particular to life.”

While people talk in SEVEN SNIPERS, the film is more action- than dialogue-driven. Even in scenes where no one is running or shooting, emotions are often expressed wordlessly. Were the actors looking for roles that allowed them to convey what they were feeling through face and body language without having to speak about it?

Both of them laugh.

“Yeah,” Mitchell says at first, then amends, “No, that sounds so lazy. But it’s not lazy at all. It’s very physically demanding.”

She found it refreshing. “There’s a part of me, and maybe I’m a kook, but I’m just like, ‘The words, yadda-yadda-yadda, the words.’ What is fascinating to me is just experience, the emotional, the visceral, what’s under the words. And after so many years [of acting], you kind of find the words are interchangeable, and they could be lots of different words. To me, what people are feeling is the power of the drama. So, I like this sparse aspect of the story, that the writer had really constructed a very syncopated plot. It unveils itself in a very elegant way, but the text is very pared back.”

For Gruffudd, “Having played the leading man, specifically playing a forensic pathologist [in both FOREVER and HARROW], with lots of dialogue and lots of scientific and medical words to remember, I think there’s joy to be had in both of those worlds as an actor. I think there is a real joy to be found in the stillness that one needed to play Milk as a character, the unspoken words, and I think the confidence and the experience as an actor to really embrace that, and to trust that you don’t have to fill the gaps or the silences. You can just let the camera do the work.

Radha Mitchell in SEVEN SNIPERS | ©2026 Monster Pictures Studios

“And when you do have lines to speak, they have somehow more resonance, especially from Milk in his scenes with Anja, played by Annabel Wolfe. I thought those scenes were very poignant, amongst very dramatic and violent scenes. You had that lovely juxtaposition there of the gentleness of the character and the humanity of these soldiers who are thrust into these impossible situations. So, yes, I did enjoy that very much.”

In SEVEN SNIPERS, we know Kris loves Anja fiercely, but there is no discussion of Kris making the choice to have a child. Was there ever any dialogue that was cut about Kris opting not to have an abortion, especially given the circumstances?

“I don’t think that was an option,” Mitchell replies I think she’d been captive, there was an opportunity to get out of that, and there was a lot of mess left behind, but I don’t think that there was a doctor around to resolve the situation. And I also think that’s kind of complicated, isn’t it?

“So, I think she certainly loves her daughter. And then the pain around [Anja] coming into the world is another layer to their relationship that can’t be really addressed until it’s forced into the light. But that was never on the table of conversation, because I think the situation was just so extreme.”

What kind of training did Mitchell and Gruffudd do in terms of handling weapons and overall being able to move like professional snipers, even ones who had been out of the field for years?

Despite looking extremely fit in SEVEN SNIPERS, Mitchell relates with a laugh, “I saw the movie, and I was like, ‘Gee, I wish I was a gym rat.’ And maybe one day I will be. But I felt like, the story is about people who stepped out of that life being forced back in, and re-remembering themselves.

“In this case, Kris has sort of tried to buffer herself against that potential future, so she’s been living [an isolated existence that is like a] fortress and doing what she can to maintain herself. But when this situation arises, she has to become who she was. I liked that aspect to it, actually, that they were snipers maybe twenty years ago. Coming back to who they were, that coming back to oneself is interesting to me.”

As for the physical side of the character, Mitchell continues, “We did a lot of weaponry training. A lot of it was done while we were shooting, because just the nature and constraints of the budget and the time that was available. But we had an ex-military person who was doing our costumes. We had a guy called Joey, who was a trained sniper, who was with us a lot of the time, who trained us in preparation, and then was there on set a lot of the time just to monitor. We weren’t making a documentary, so I’m sure there are things that you could pick at.

“But there was a real desire to be authentic, and to make it believable, and he was certainly there to reference and to show us things. There are moves that we were learning about how to move through grass and stay camouflaged, and just the carrying of the weapons themselves, aside from the kind of the science of the wind and all these elements that you have to take into account that he was educating us to.”

Gruffudd adds, “As Radha mentioned, the very nature of filmmaking in this day and age, sometimes you’re dropped in the deep end, with not much time to prepare. But we were very fortunate. I had a week of preparation with Joey, and the armorers themselves are also ex-military, so at any given time, we could rely on their expertise to help us to look the part during any particular scene.

“One thing I found quite interesting was, I thought I fit, and I have been looking after myself, and I had been training, bulking up a little bit to play this part, but I certainly wasn’t prepared to be in all that gear and all the fatigues that they wore and to carry around that weapon in the heat of the Australian Outback,” Gruffudd laughs.

“It gave me reverence, really, for the real men and women who serve in these zones, like in Iraq and the Middle East, in those searing temperatures, that they have to remain cool and calm, although they are probably working in sweltering heat. One of the elements that I enjoyed about the film was that we didn’t shy away from the fact that we were sweating quite intensely every day. You can’t put that kind of fake sweat makeup on. This was real sweat, and I think that came across and lent itself to help heighten the situation, that when there is so much heat, your senses are heightened and the aggression is heightened. So, I think it added to the violent nature of the story.”

Without getting too spoilery, Kris and Milk both lose longtime comrades, but cannot let their personal feelings impact their ability to continue to fight. How was that to play?

Mitchell offers, “Well, Kris is a professional, and she’s seen carnage, and she even deals with the corpse of someone who she’s loved in a very kind of detached way, because she’s a survivor. And I thought that was a portrait of character, and significant, to have that scene. Particularly Kris is so traumatized from the past, and she’s so determined to protect her child, and to survive. So, she can override her own emotional state if required.”

Gruffudd concurs. “Yes. When you speak to soldiers, you realize that that is their work, that is their job, they are very matter of fact about what they do. As artists and actors and as viewers, we put a lot of emotion into these stories, because they are stories and they are films, and by their very nature, they want us to feel something.

“I suppose it’s a little bit like a surgeon and a doctor. [In real life], everything in the operating room becomes very, very quiet when something serious is happening. Whereas when we play doctors on television or film, everything becomes very dramatic and busy and frantic to heighten the emotion of it for the purpose of telling the story.

“So, there were moments in the film, specifically for Milk, where we did see his emotional side and his love for Kris and her daughter Anja in amongst the severity of handing the pistol to [another character], knowing that [the other character] was not going to survive. Milk couldn’t stop him from leaving the safety of the farmhouse, but he wanted to give him an opportunity to maybe have a chance. But I think he knew deep down that he was going to perish out there.”

What do Mitchell and Gruffudd both most want audiences to get out of SEVEN SNIPERS?

Mitchell considers. “It depends on the audience. I think there’s something very inspiring, very interesting to see women soldiers and focus on a character like Kris Hendricks. I think it’s a very interesting way for women to see themselves. And in terms of just the entertainment factor, I really hope that, aside from the lioness aspect of the story, it’s very entertaining, that it holds your attention, that people appreciate the syncopation of the story, and that they’re satisfied by the end.”

Gruffudd opines, “I hope people will leave the movie theatre feeling satisfied and entertained, obviously, first and foremost, but they’ll have a lot of questions that will open a lot of discussions amongst their friends and their family and people who’ve seen it. Because what I loved about the script was the fact that there were a lot of things that were unsaid that we were able to bring to our characters, our backstories. I hope those moments of silence that we have in a very fast-moving movie open a lot of discussion about the military and the bravery of the men and women who serve and protect us. I hope it will bring up a lot of conversations about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“And I hope that they will have to watch this movie again, if it comes on their screen and they happen to come across it, flicking through the television, that it’s one of those sort of cult classics that they’ll always want to watch, time and time again.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actors Radha Mitchell and Ioan Gruffudd on new action thriller SEVEN SNIPERS

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