Model turned actress Cody Horn has been rubbing shoulders with some of Hollywood’s big names for years—which makes sense since her father, Alan F. Horn, is the former president and COO of Warner Bros. and current chairman of Walt Disney Studios. The young actress plays an LAPD officer in the upcoming End of Watch alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña and America Ferrera, and this week she appears opposite Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike.

We talked to Horn about her working endeavors with Steven Soderbergh, whether or not she would date a stripper, and what’s her favorite weapon of choice after shooting a bunch of them in End of Watch.

Fandango: Every movie you’ve worked on you’re surrounded by handsome men.
Cody Horn: Right? It’s not a bad way to go about my career.

Fandango: Your character Brooke in Magic Mike is pretty rational. You can almost call her the voice of reason. Are you a bit like Brooke?
Horn: Yeah, I tend to be the one that sits back and looks at what is the rational thing to do. Although, I did have times in my life where I was a bit hazy, I feel like that I’m more like Brooke than say the boys in this film. [Laughs]

Fandango: Speaking of boys, would you ever date a male stripper?
Horn: I think one of the things that you can take from the movie is you’re more than your job. I…I don’t know. I’ll leave it at that.

Fandango: Steven Soderbergh is the biggest director you’ve worked with so far. Was the experience intimidating?
Horn: Soderbergh doesn’t have any air of pretention around him whatsoever. He’s really just there to make a movie. He has that dry humor and wit about him that makes you realize you shouldn’t really take things too seriously.

Fandango: You shot End of Watch before Magic Mike, which explains why you’re just as chiseled as Channing Tatum’s body. What sort of training did you undergo for End of Watch?
Horn: I love fitness. I love to exercise so I was doing two to three days of mixed martial arts, lifting weights, running, yoga and bar method. I was eating all kinds of protein.

It was the best pre-production experience of my life. America [Ferrera]and I decided that we didn’t want to be two actresses showing up with cups of coffee ready to play cops so we went to the gym every day before we showed up to work. If our call time was at 6 a.m. we would be at the gym at 4 a.m. We trained with police officers, shot guns, went on ride-alongs, it was absolutely spectacular.

Fandango: What can you tell us about End of Watch and your character? It sounds like you get to kick some butt in the movie.
Horn: It’s a totally different movie for a different audience. It’s about the LAPD, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play two police officers who kind of get in over their heads, in downtown LA. America Ferrera and I are police officer partners.

My character is a former marine and her father is the captain of the LAPD. She has kind of a chip on her shoulder because she’s had to prove herself along the way. She has this mentality where she thinks that because she’s a pretty girl with blonde hair she has to be ten times badder, ten times stronger and ten times more intense than everyone else.
As a result she has these manhandling moments. [Laughs] Nothing too crazy, I accidentally cut up a guy’s arm with handcuffs once.

Fandango: We heard about a “full circle moment” with you and Jake Gyllenhaal. What was that all about?
Horn: It was really a pleasure to work with Jake. We actually went to the same high school. Although, I didn’t cross paths with him, we missed each other by a couple of years, I had heard about him in film study classes through teachers that helped start his career. It was just great to work with him because he was like an entity that I had seen growing up and all of a sudden we’re making a movie together.

Fandango: It seems like physically challenging roles are your cup of tea. After your experience in End of Watch what would say is your weapon of choice?
Horn: I don’t know if it’s the physicality that comes with dramas but I would love to ride a motorcycle, shoot guns and beat people up. that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I got to shoot a rifle and shotguns for End of Watch, and I realized that in a moment of insanity you can shoot a person to death, you might be weaker than your opponent but if you have a gun, you win. When you’re fighting with your body it’s just you so my weapon of choice would be my hands. Cinematically I think it looks awesome and it’s real.

Fandango: At this stage in your career what are you focusing on the most?
Horn: I think it’s all about finding the right people. Right now I’m really focusing on characters and storylines. I’m trying to decide which worlds I want to be in and which worlds I don’t want to be in. I’m at such an early stage of my career that it’s more about choosing the worlds than the people.

There’s also not a lot of written material for my age group. Even though I’m 24, ever since I cut my hair short people think I’m 17. I went to the museum with my parents and they asked, “She’s an underage teen, right? She can get in for free.” I was like, “sh*t.”

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