Every now and then, a movie drops a character so effortlessly badass you forget every femme fatale stereotype you’ve ever seen. In The Accountant 2, that character is Anaïs, played with steely charm and stone-cold precision by Daniella Pineda. She’s not just a supporting assassin with a good aim—she’s the film’s heartbeat, throwing punches and challenging power dynamics with the same sharp edge. Anaïs doesn’t just kill, she commands the room with calm fury, proving you don’t need a cape to be iconic.
We first meet her in a smoky bar, where she’s calmly sipping a drink and waiting for J.K. Simmons‘ Ray King. Within minutes, bullets are flying, bodies are dropping, and Anaïs is ghosting out of danger without breaking a sweat. It’s the kind of intro that says: Don’t mess with this woman, unless you’re ready to die trying.
But what makes Anaïs work so well isn’t just how lethal she is, it’s how real she feels. Pineda didn’t fake the fight scenes. She trained in Muay Thai for months to embody the physicality of a world-class killer. This wasn’t about looking cool. It was about moving with purpose, weight, and grit.
Director Gavin O’Connor and the stunt team built the choreography around character beats, not spectacle. Anaïs fights like someone who’s been in a dozen bar brawls and walked out of every one. Her blows land hard, fast, and personal. There’s no wire-fu here. No slow-motion pirouettes. Just ruthless efficiency, like a human switchblade. And the stillness Pineda brings to Anaïs is just as powerful. She’s cool under fire, unbothered by chaos, and never has to raise her voice to dominate a scene. It’s a vibe that walks the line between mystery and menace, grounding every action beat with emotional weight.
Let’s talk representation. This character isn’t just another edgy girl with a gun. She’s a Latina assassin with agency, depth, and no need to flirt her way to dominance. Anaïs doesn’t seduce, she survives, and she does it with a quiet, feral confidence that redefines what badass can look like. Her violence isn’t romanticized. It’s a choice. A language. A shield.
Behind the scenes, that energy was forged through sweat equity. Fight choreographers taught Pineda and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (who plays Marybeth Medina) not just how to hit, but how to feel the hit. Their brawl inside a seedy bungalow is a scene-stealer, balancing raw scrappiness with sharp technique. This isn’t just a fight scene, it’s a showdown of ideologies, a brutal negotiation between two women fighting for their own codes.
Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth, a law-and-order type, meets Anaïs with the kind of moral discomfort that makes every exchange tense. It’s a chess match with fists. And it works because these are two women who fight for different reasons, but neither one is backing down.
For Pineda, it’s a breakthrough moment. We’ve seen her shine in projects like Cowboy Bebop and Jurassic World, but Anaïs is the role that shows off her range. She’s terrifying without theatrics, funny in her own unbothered way, and never once feels like she’s acting in someone else’s movie.
The Accountant 2 isn’t lacking firepower, but it’s Anaïs who makes it feel personal. She grounds the spectacle with real-world edge. And in a genre that often forgets to let women throw real punches, she fights like hell and leaves a mark that lingers long after the smoke clears.
