The world premiere of “The Thing” is happening tonight, and tons of new interviews are coming out with Mary talking about the film. Speaking with Moviefanatic, Mary talks about what it was like working with her co-star Joel Edgerton, the type of research she did, how “The Thing” differs from her other horror films, and more. Check out some of the excerpts below and click on the link above to read the full interview:
Movie Fanatic: You’ve done a lot of horror movies. What, for you, makes this The Thing different from others you’ve worked on?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: To me it evokes a time period of my favorite horror films which are from the ‘70s and ‘80s. I feel like it had a little bit more of that classic, slow burn. The first half of the film is really kind of slow and suspenseful and then when the terror kicks in, it kicks in and it doesn’t let go. It doesn’t feel so modern and slick to me and that’s one thing I was really excited about going into it. And also the character was just so refreshing that it was just a no-brainer. I had to do it.
Movie Fanatic: The Thing is more dramatic, and less jokey than a lot of horror films. Was that also an appeal?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead:I feel like it’s a horror film for adults and I don’t think we get a lot of those. Most horror films now are made for teenagers; they’re about teenagers. I’ve done a couple of those horror films so there’s nothing wrong with that but the older I get the more I starve for more adult material. So that was one of the things that I really liked about this film and the character. There was a real maturity about it, I felt.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: He is! I’m very happy for him because he’s the most deserving person in the world. He’s so talented, smart, funny, easy to work with, relaxed and down to earth, not pretentious in the slightest bit, just a sweet, fun guy, and he’s Australian. He’s just great, I love Joel.
Movie Fanatic: How did you research the role of your character, a paleontologist?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead:I hung out with a paleontologist in Toronto a little bit and it was really fun. They have a really fun job and it’s really exciting. It was almost more like Indiana Jones than it was clinical. It was really relaxed and casual. There’s fossils hanging around and they’re picking them up and throwing them around, “Hey, catch this fossil.” It was really cool. So in that sense it would be a lot of fun… It was a lot of fun to be able to play a character as a woman in a movie that is that smart, that is strong, that is that put together, and not be neurotic or shrill or sexy or whatever the thing that women usually are in movies.