Recently I watched a 2021 movie called The Protégé, which features Maggie Q, and which left me thinking about the parts of her career that I’ve seen. It’s possible to read the film as a reminder of some of her work in action films and thrillers, even as a reflection on it.

Her character here, named Anna, was exposed to violence as a child and seems to have been raised as an assassin, much like the way her chara...