Category: Interviews

Even more interviews with Mary have been posted online discussing her new film Faults. With Shockya, Mary, Riley & co-star Leland Orser talked about the run through process of pulling the project together, the real-life cult deprogramming practices that inspired the film, “Faults” star Jon Gries’ experience in participating in an actual deprogramming effort, the three stages of Winstead’s character, the challenge of shooting a good portion of the movie in a single location, and more. You can view the interview below:

Secondly, Daily Actor caught up with Mary & Leland and you can read some of their interview. Click the link to read it in full.

Can you guys tell me about the movie and your characters real quick?

Leland Orser: Well, I think it’s a black comedy is what I’m saying it is, although at first I thought it was a thriller. I play a down on his luck cult deprogrammer psychologist. I think. And I am… essentially when you meet my character, Ansel Roth, I’m so down on my luck I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my family, I’ve lost my house, I’ve lost my career, and I’m essentially living out of my car. And that’s when you come into the picture.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yes. Well, I play a character named Claire who’s in a cult and my parents come to Leland’s character because he is, as I think he’s already said, a sort of… an expert on cults and mind control and deprogramming. And even though he hasn’t done deprogramming in quite some time, they convince him because they’re gonna pay him to kidnap me and deprogram me. She’s sort of mysterious and I don’t really wanna give too much about it away. So I’m gonna keep that part simple.

Did you sort of research anything cult like people or people who have been in cults?

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yeah, I think Leland and I both read Ted Patrick’s book, or one of Ted Patrick’s books, which was Let Our Children Go. Is that what it was called?

Leland Orser: Yeah, yeah.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Which was great. And he is sort of one of the people in this time period of the 70s kind of cult boom that loosely inspired Leland’s character. So that was a great book to read. And I tried to watch a lot of videos on YouTube, whatever I could find, specifically from that era of people in cults or people who had just gotten out of cults because there was something I think about that time period that was so specific the way people were just sort of falling like flies into these, you know, cults and sort of the youth particularly why they were so attracted to that idea was interesting to me.

Examiner recently caught up with Mary to talk about her new cult film, Faults. As always, click on the link to read the interview in full. I’ve posted some highlights below:

Tell us about your role in Faults.

I play Claire, a young woman who has been indoctrinated into a cult. When her parents hire someone to kidnap and deprogram her, we learn a lot of things about her that I’d rather not give away!

What was the most challenging aspect of working on this film?

I think the character was incredibly challenging for me. She has so much going on inside of her, but doesn’t show any of it. On top of that, I knew that Riley wanted it sort of dead pan and underplayed and I wanted to hit that style he was going for, while at the same time hint at the emotions trying to get out underneath. Not an easy one!

Tell us about working with director Riley Stearns. What was that process like?

It was horrible and I refuse to work with him again.

Truthfully, it was pretty awesome. We are married, and were warned by many people that working together might put a strain on our relationship, but it was really the opposite. We know each other so well that we always know what the other is thinking and going for, and so it makes for a pretty easy going working environment. I’m forcing him to write a role for me in everything he does from now on.

What new projects do have coming up that you can mention?

I have a couple other films coming out this year: Alex of Venice, which will premiere at Tribeca next month, and Kill the Messenger with Jeremy Renner that will come out later this year. Very excited about both of those projects and currently reading and looking for the next project to jump into.

Mary is at SXSW for the next few days premiering the film, so check back often for tons of new updates & pics!