If there’s a Collider Ladies Night guest who’s been part of a Power Rangers production, you can bet I’m going to ask about it. At this point, the franchise includes 22 themed series (a total of 28 seasons of television), three feature films and more on the way via Netflix. Not only is it a hugely successful property with a significant fanbase, but the Power Rangers shows are also hugely unique productions in a very CG-heavy industry.

Yes, the usage of digital effects has increased over the years, but Power Rangers still leans into practical techniques far more than most modern productions. Given the fact that such a defining feature like that likely calls for a more unique approach to the filming process, I opted to dig into that with Rose McIver on Collider Ladies Night.

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Image via CBS

With her new show Ghosts thriving on CBS, McIver took the time to retrace her steps in the industry to sitcom headliner. In 2009, not only did McIver see the release of her break out movie, Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, but she also starred in Power Rangers RPM as Summer Landsdown, the show’s Yellow Ranger. Here’s what McIver said when asked for elements of the filming process that are specific to Power Rangers:

“One of the things that was uniquely Power Rangers was, when else do you ever go to work and fight giant monsters in rubber suits? I don’t know how they shoot it now, how much of it is CGI or mo-cap or what they could possible do to do it differently, but at the time it was literally —you don’t see that. When people shoot these big Marvel movies and things, it’s people covered in dots and in green suits or in black suits or whatever. This was literally somebody chucks on giant rubber head and fights in the New Zealand sun and humidity on a beach down the street from where I grew up. It was just such a uniquely practical show, I thought. It’s not as much in post-production as you would imagine. It’s really putting on giant costumes. It kind of feels very theatrical.”

Power Rangers RPM Cast
Image via Disney-ABC Domestic Television

McIver also took a moment to highlight the significant contribution of the stunt team:

“Every time I put on my Power Rangers helmet, a really wonderful Japanese guy would perform all my stunts. He had brace pads and hip pads and things, and he would do everything impressive, and then I’d pull the helmet off and it’s me. You could always see a difference between who’s who, but you’d pull the helmet off and finish out the moves, or you’d just fallen off a bike and you stand up. So it was really picking up the tail ends and pieces of everybody else’s really hard work. But it was just fascinating. It was such an unusual experience.”

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Power Rangers RPM
Image via Disney-ABC Domestic Television

While filming Power Rangers RPM certainly sounds like a one-of-a-kind process, McIver did walk away from the project with valuable lessons that still come in handy today. She explained:

“The thing that I have taken away that I still use is, I was always amazed because it’s such a huge stunt component so there [are] these really well-trained stunt teams that were there, and they would use the tiniest moments — I’d have like two minutes off and they’d lie down and do sit-ups or star jumps or something that’s incidental, like squeezing in conditioning. Maybe this is just my excuse so that I don’t have to dedicate a full hour a day to doing any kinds of workouts, but it is impressive what you can accumulate when you do little tiny pieces, especially in a busy shooting schedule. There’s not really an excuse not to do sort of 10 sit-ups every now and then, or something that makes you feel engaged with your body. And especially when you’re on set for significant stretches of time and you get so cerebral and so out of your body, it’s quite nice to just do little things that remind you you’re in a little meat suit yourself.”

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Image via CBS

Looking to hear more from McIver on her credits leading up to Ghosts? We’ve got more on Lovely Bones, Xena: Warrior Princess, iZombie and so much more in our uncut Collider Ladies Night conversation below: