Sophia Di Martino has punched her way to the top, notably joining the Loki cast in 2019 as Sylvie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and earning two MTV Movie & TV Awards.

Born in 1983, in Nottingham, England, Di Martino is also a host of the SPYSCAPE True Spies podcast and has nabbed leading roles in television shows like Flowers (2016–2018), Casualty (2009–2011), and Eva in the 2016 feature film The Darkest Universe. Where does she find the time?

We went behind the scenes to uncover five fun secrets about Di Martino’s success, her badass fighting style, and her enduring appeal.

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1. Di Martino’s punchy heroine

Sylvie's punch-first-ask-questions-later fighting style was inspired by Charlize Theron’s MI6 field agent Lorraine Broughton: "One of the movies we watched for stunt references was Atomic Blonde - the fight scenes in that are great. Charlize Theron is super strong and fights like a man. We wanted Sylvie to be a brawler; we didn’t want her to be too elegant in the way she fights because that’s Loki’s thing. He’s so balletic in the way that he moves, but Sylvie is more of a street fighter,” Di Martino told CNET. 

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2. Sophia Di Martino: Fighting fit

Sophie is in killer shape and put in a sizable amount of work prior to filming Loki. “We started prepping really early, I think it was January 2020,” she said, according to Cheatsheet. “First thing we did was get into the stunt gym and … start boxing training, sword drills, just like, working out, trying to get fit.” Di Martino had just had a baby, so she put a lot into it. “The stunt training and the fight training really helped me with her physicality, and we were all really keen on her being a really strong, sort of street fighter, almost,” Di Martino told Empire. “And I like the idea that she really enjoys fighting… Because she knows that she's probably going to win. Right? And that's where her cockiness comes through, maybe. And so that was part of it as well. And then as soon as you put the costume on, you're there.”
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3. Sparks fly between Di Martino and Hiddleston

There is undeniable chemistry between Di Martino and Tom Hiddleston but the smoldering actors didn't even have a chance to read together before Di Martino was cast. She was nine months pregnant and based in London while Hiddleston was on Broadway, so the A-Listers couldn't travel. Instead, they FaceTimed. “I literally just did one audition tape for this,” Di Martino told The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t really have an in-person audition; we didn’t do any screen tests… So it was quite a risk that they took, really. You never get a job of this size off a tape, usually. My agent couldn’t believe it.” 

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4. Sophia Di Martino’s smoking hot off-screen love life 

Real sparks fly between Di Martino and Will Sharpe, her long-term partner who wrote, directed, and starred with her in the series Flowers. (You might recognize Sharp from The White Lotus.) While they keep their private life private, the couple met in 2009 while filming the British medical drama Casualty. " I was a junior doctor and she was playing a paramedic in Bristol,” Sharpe told the Evening Standard in 2022, and things haven’t let up since. “We’ve been together for 13 years and have two children: three and one.”

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5. Preparing for Loki and stardom

To prepare for the role of Sylvie, Martino studied Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Loki - then dismissed everything she’s learned. “I watched all of Tom's stuff and I got to know as much about Loki as I could,” Martino told Marvel.com. “Then I forgot all about that and tried to create something unique.” Her instructions were to play with the character and have fun with it, so Di Martino followed her marching orders. “She's sarcastic,” Di Martino said. “She's sort of cutting to Loki, which is so fun to play.”