Below is a new video interview Mary did on Monday during a press day for BrainDead. In it, she talks about the types of roles she looks for, her character’s relationship with Gareth (Aaron Tveit), how she chooses her roles today and the tone of the series.
Robert and Michelle King, the duo behind BrainDead (and another little show called The Good Wife), gave an interview with Entertainment Weekly and praised Mary’s work ethic and how much of an amazing person she is on and off the screen. Below is the excerpt:
Uniting all the themes is Winstead (Final Destination 3, 10 Cloverfield Lane), the 31-year-old actress whom the Kings praise for her presence on and off camera. “She’s a truly nice, genuine, grounded person on top of the fact that she can sell jokes,” says Michelle. “She can make unrealistic plot twists seem real.”
If that sounds familiar to King fans, there’s a good reason why. “What we got with Julianna Margulies on The Good Wife was not just someone who could do the comedy and do the drama, but was a leader on the set and kind of raised everybody else’s game,” says Robert. “And day players — she would raise their game by being so on the ball. We’ve lucked out with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She does exactly the same thing. People come to the set, and if they don’t remember their lines, they go into the trailer at lunch and they quickly get off book. Because Mary is doing this five days a week, and then she comes in and hits it out the park.”
The gallery has been updated with screencaps from Mary’s interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which aired March 11th. Check them out below:
And in case you missed the interview, you can also watch it here.
Into the Gloss did an interview with Mary where she talks about her hair, makeup and skincare routines. Be sure to click the link above to read the full interview and head to the gallery to see the new pics! Below is an excerpt from her interview:
“There are not a lot of things that I can say I stick to for a long time. I really like to try new things. I mean there are certain things, especially with skincare, where if it works, you stick with it. But when it comes to makeup, it’s like toys or something. I love peeking at makeup artists’ bags and seeing what they’re using on me, and I always ask a billion questions about what their new favorite products are. There’s this never-ending curiosity about what’s out there and I find it really fun.
I definitely have been doing this job long enough that I’ve seen things change in terms of the red carpet and how much pressure there is there to look perfect. I just think it’s so much more fun to try new things and be creative because perfection is boring. It’s fun to do my own hair and makeup for the red carpet—if there’s time, I like to just stand in the bathroom and turn music on and light candles and go through all the steps of my routine. It’s sort of therapeutic. And I also feel accomplished if I look at the photo the next day and I like it. It’s nice to be in control of how I look.”
I’ve added what seems to be the final batch of 10 Cloverfield Lane interviews Mary did promoting the film. You can find the previous interviews here and here.
Speaking with Thrillist, Mary gave tips on how to act scared when filming and doing stuntwork:
“I definitely have more confidence with [stunts] now. Sometimes too much. I think I can do things that I can’t really do. I have photos of my body some days after shooting where I’m literally covered in bruises. Like, I look like a spotted animal or something. Covered in welts. I’d be like, ‘I don’t even know how this happened. I don’t even know what I was doing that made it this bad.’ I think part of it is the character and just her desperation. Take jumping over a table: when you’re jumping over a table and you’re scared for your life, it’s not going to be the smoothest jump in the world, you know? I would end up knocking myself around a bit.”
Continue reading Final Batch of 10 Cloverfield Lane Interviews
Paige has posted a bunch of new interviews Mary recently did for 10 Cloverfield Lane, and I’ve added a few more which you can check out below. After the cut, you can hear a podcast Mary did with Joshua Horowitz and some other video interviews, including her interview with AOL Build:
Time.com Interview:
What kind of physical training did you do to prepare to play a total badass?
What I started to do in my off-hours was to put in a little time at the gym, because I’m not particularly a gym rat. Nothing crazy—a bit of weightlifting and cardio just to make sure I didn’t collapse halfway through shooting. I knew that once I was there, it needed to feel like this real girl who doesn’t have any special skills. She’s not a martial artist, she doesn’t come from any background where she would be more capable physically than anyone else, other than the fact that she’s just a tough girl.
How often do you read parts where you think, “That woman is a total badass?”
Very, very rarely. It’s rare to read parts with female leads in general when it comes to more mainstream fare, so that in and of itself was a rarity. When you get a script and it’s a female lead, you’re just hoping for the best—“Please let this be good, please don’t let this be stereotypical”—but you’re expecting those things because you’re so used to reading that kind of stuff. With this, every page was like, “She’s so cool, she’s still really cool, she’s smart, she’s interesting, she’s mysterious!”
What was your audition process like?
The casting came through my agents but it was a bit different. They called me, and they were like, “we don’t know anything about it, we are not allowed to read the script, nobody is allowed to read it.” It was this super-mysterious thing, they were just like, “someone is going to send you the script from Paramount and you are going to get this link and you are going to read it and as soon as you read it, it’s going to delete itself, so after reading it once you have to decide if you want to do this thing.” I read it and immediately loved it, but obviously wanted to meet with J.J. and Dan and talk about it. Once I met with them, I was completely on board. I loved that my agents were like, “we don’t get to have an opinion in this!”
Continue reading More 10 Cloverfield Lane Interviews Round 2
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: From Mercy Street to Cloverfield Lane – Interview Magazine
BROWN: When get a script, would you normally have your agent read it? Or would you talk to your family or friends?
WINSTEAD: Normally it’s just the agent and we have the conversation. Sometimes I open it up if I want a bit more of an opinion—sometimes my husband will read it, my mom will read it, my sister will read it. But usually it’s after the fact. Once I’ve accepted a role, I’ll let my parents and my sisters read it because they find it entertaining. If you let too many cooks in the kitchen it could cloud your vision of what you want to do.
Why 10 Cloverfield Lane Star Mary Elizabeth Winstead Is No Damsel In Distress – Bustle
Playing a well-rounded character like Michelle was a unique and welcome experience for Winstead, who describes the female characters she typically sees as being unrealistically strong or “a total mess.” But taking on the part of Michelle wasn’t all roses; the role required quite a bit of stunt work, as Michelle fights for her freedom, and, while the character is, without a doubt, a badass female heroine, she’s no superhero. “I ended up with a lot of bumps and bruises that I wouldn’t have on other films because I was just trying to play it very real,” Winstead explains.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Horror is a great place for strong female leads – Metro
When I do those films I’ve always try not to be exploited in any way, or play characters that go against anything I have within me in terms of my feminist nature. This was a script when I read it I knew immediately it was something I could take on. There were a couple of things in the script that in the wrong hands could go in a way I wouldn’t be comfortable with. But after talking to Dan [Trachtenberg, director], I realized he was someone looking at the story from her perspective. He’s not looking at it like she’s this girl in peril. He’s seeing himself in her as a person. She’s an everyperson. She’s not a damsel in distress. She’s an anybody in distress. She’s behaving in a way any of us would, as opposed to a certain type of woman.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Spring’s Coolest Shades – Harpers Bazaar
How did you handle being interrogated on your press day?
I had a couple of people who were really playing hardball. I can admittedly get really sucked into a conversation before I realize that people are just trying to get things out of me. A lot of people were casually asking, “So what are you looking at in the end of the trailer?” And you answer and then think, “Wait! Did they just catch me? Did I just let that slip?” We were all interviewed separately—J.J., the director Dan Trachtenberg, John Gallagher Jr., and me. Afterwards, we all huddled together to recap. “What did they ask you?” “What did you say?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Melanie Lynskey for The Talkhouse Film Podcast
On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead marks the release of her new movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane, by sitting down with Togetherness star Melanie Lynskey. Over the course of a frank and entertaining conversation, the two discuss everything from the inevitable insecurities that come from watching yourself on screen, to improvisation, their beginnings in the film business, the perils of making audition tapes, and their differing approaches to timekeeping.
’10 Cloverfield Lane’s’ Winstead Cracks Open the Bad Robot Mystery Box – Spinoff
The scenes we’ve seen with you and John Goodman are so intense — was it an intense sort of filming experience?
Continue reading Interview Roundup
Lots of photos have been added to the gallery! First, the premiere of 10 Cloverfield Lane in NYC, candids of Mary arriving at AOL Build Series, and TWO new amazing photo shoots for Harpers Bazaar and Interview! Check them out below. Additionally, you can read the interviews for Mary’s Harper’s Bazaar shoot HERE and her Interview Magazine interview HERE:
10 Cloverfield Lane premiere in NYC
Arriving at AOL Build Series
Harpers Bazaar (March 2016)
Interview Magazine (March 2016)
I have added two new 10 Cloverfield Lane TV spots as well as a new interview done by Joblo.com. Check back soon for new photos from her AOL Build interview and the New York red carpet premiere.
With 10 Cloverfield Lane just days away, new interviews with the cast of the film are slowly coming out. Below are two video interviews with Mary and her interview on Last Call with Carson Daly. Keep checking back throughout the week for a bunch of new photos/interviews as well as photos from the New York premiere taking place tomorrow, March 8.