Ronda Rousey is famously known for her efforts in the sports industry, but recently, she’s taken up more projects in another industry, namely literature. Earlier this year, the former WWE Raw Women’s Champion published her second memoir titled “Our Fight.” Now, she’s released a brand-new graphic novel, titled “Expecting The Unexpected,” that follows the action adventures of a newly pregnant hitwoman who is tasked with fighting off a wave of assassins actively trying to kill her.
Instinct Culture’s own Denise Salcedo spoke with Ronda Rousey about the graphic novel, which launched last month through Kickstarter. According to Rousey, the idea for this writing project stems from a backstage conversation she had with WWE manager, and former wrestling booker, Paul Heyman five years ago.
“I first started writing when Paul Heyman was asking me what kind of movie I would want to star in,” Rousey said. “It made me realize how passive I’d been with my movie career, just waiting for someone to hand me ‘Enter The Dragon’ and make me into Bruce Lee. No one wrote ‘Rocky’ for Sylvester Stallone, so I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to do something for myself.’ I know that I can’t play any character better than anyone, but I can be me better than anybody. So I just need to come up with a story that’s more me than anybody else could ever [do]. No one could do it better than me, so I ended up kind of writing mix between ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘John Wick.’ It’s like if John Wick had a bunch of bodily functions. Instead of never eating and never going to the bathroom, it’s that he’s always having cravings and always needs to go to the bathroom because he’s pregnant.”
Initially, Rousey envisioned the project’s title to be “What to Expect When Expecting the Unexpected.” Ultimately, the publishing team opted for a condensed version, and thus, “Expecting The Unexpected” emerged as the final title.
Rousey Took A Hands-On Approach In The Art Process
Beyond her storyline writing contributions, Rousey also worked closely with award-winning artist Mike Deodato Jr. to create the imagery for the novel’s fight choreography scenes. Though most graphic novel writers only write out their choreography sequences, Rousey went the extra mile to also physically act out many of them for Deodato Jr.
“It was just so much easier to act it out for him and be able to take certain screenshots of different sequences and things, because a lot of times in comics, it’s a lot of like punch- kick-energy kind of fight sequences. You don’t see grappling and things like that because it’s so hard to get across,” Rousey said.
Wanting to bring forth a “unique fighting style,” Rousey recruited some of her professional wrestling comrades and one of her Judo students to help in acting out specific fight choreography sequences at the Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy, based in Bell Gardens, California.
“[We] set up some scenes that are like, ‘Okay, just imagine this is a bathroom,'” Rousey recalled. “I know it’s like the front door of Santino’s. ‘This is the bathroom and then imagine this crash pad is this stall,’ and then we just pieced the whole thing together. It was really fun and goofy, and it’s actually turning out really, really great.”
As Rousey continues to take in the feedback from her debut graphic novel, she revealed that its sequel has already been written up, with the intent of releasing that one sometime in the future.