In the April issue of Vogue Magazine, director Peter Berg chatted with the magazine about Rihanna who stars in his upcoming Battleship movie and reveals the singer isn’t as tough as she seems.

The director says he picked Rihanna for the role of naval officer Cora Raikes because he was looking for an actress who could play “tough, urban, scrappy, funny” and for some reason the singer popped into his head.

He said once he meet the singer whose video persona intrigued him, he was amazed to find out that RiRi wasn’t such a badass after all.

He says,

“When you meet her there’s absolutely no resemblance to that sexy superdiva that you see in the videos. It’s a complete act, in my opinion. I am not saying she’s not a very sexy girl, but there’s so much more to her than that. She is clearly playing around with a character.”

And what made him decide to give the role to Rihanna? Well it was last year’s hilarious Saturday Night Live “Shy Ronnie” skit which wowed the director:

“Rihanna has a very strong presence – people are going to be surprised. Let’s put it this way: She kicks ass. She had to get into an eighteen-foot inflatable raft and sit behind a machine gun for six hours at a time in seven-foot swells.”

The director added, “We had rescue swimmers on Jet Skis and armed shark spotters because there were quite a few sharks out there.”

And how did Rihanna feel about the experience? Well the singer says she enjoyed every minute of filming the tough action sequences!

“There were all these people, cameras, and huge cranes out in the middle of the ocean and I got to do some stunts which was incredible. I loved it – especially diving into the ocean.”

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