Hollywood.com interviewed Mary, director James Ponsoldt and Mary’s co-star Mary Kay Place about Smashed. In the interview, Mary talks about attending AA meetings and smoking rock sugar as fake crack for one of Kate’s benders. Check out the interview below!
Last night, Mary attended the Film Independent screening of SMASHED with director James Ponsoldt and her co-star Octavia Spencer. You can see photos from the event in the gallery. If I get any HQs, I’ll let you all know.
Also, Neon Tommy sat down with Mary to talk about Smashed and the type of research she did for the film:
Regarding the casting of Winstead, Ponsoldt reveals, “I’ve been a fan of Mary for a long time. She’s this very still, constant, strong presence. She has a very tough role [in Smashed] because she has to be cold, but she also has a sly sense of humor…we wanted someone to be a surrogate for the audience who could find strength and go through a lot.”
“It was scary for me to take it on because I’d never done anything like that before,” admitted Winstead of taking on her role as an alcoholic.
When asked how she prepared for her role with co-star Aaron Paul, who plays her husband in the film (also an alcoholic), Winstead dishes on how the two went out and got drunk together.
“I did it because I wanted to experience what our dynamic would be like [when we were drunk] since we had to be like that a lot in the film,” she laughs.
She continued by saying that she knew the role would be challenging, both mentally and emotionally:
“I spent a lot of time in AA meetings,” mentioned Winstead. I went to so many in L.A. and there were so many places to do it and see different people from different backgrounds. It was so relatable and that was my first step…and then I had to figure out the problems in my own life.”
When asked why she didn’t do something like this sooner, Winstead explains, “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to play a role like this five years ago…the years of working and growing as an actor just kind of came at the right moment for me and I was finally confident enough and ready to do it.”
Though Winstead’s past roles have been starkly different from her role in Smashed, it seems they’ve set her up over time.
“All I’ve ever really want to do is be a real human being on the screen,” reveals Winstead. “So finally having that opportunity was really exciting.”
MTV recently caught up with Mary at the Toronto International Film Festival and interviewed Mary about Smashed. In the interview, she talked about watching the film develop, how to laugh at alcoholism, and the reactions from real addicts. You can view the video below:
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Mary Elizabeth Winstead has insisted she did not expect another Die Hard film.
The Smashed star is reprising her role as John McClane’s daughter Lucy in Bruce Willis’ fifth movie about the disaster-saving cop.
She said: “It’s a very brief appearance but it was really fun to reprise the father-daughter rapport.” She continued by saying:
“I keep thinking it’s got to be the last one, I thought the last one was gonna be the last one. So who knows… as long as Bruce is still up for it, I’m sure they’ll keep making them.”
Also, THR has posted a new online interview with Mary and her Smashed director James Ponsoldt.
With Mary doing tons of press for Smashed, NOW magazine has put up their interview with our favorite gal. Below is some of the highlights.Be sure to check out the gallery for a pic of Mary from the interview.
On filming Smashed in 19 days:
“I mean, you have no time to get out of character,” she says. “It wasn’t even like I made the choice of staying in character or anything, we just went so fast. We worked around the clock, but it was great. I really just felt like I was living this person’s life, and even though I was going through a lot of dark emotions and there were a lot of draining days, it never felt like work. I never felt like I was trying to figure how to play a scene or anything like that. It just always felt really natural, which was a huge relief.”
On how Smashed has changed her career:
“I haven’t done a big film since Smashed,” she says. “I mean, I did a cameo in Die Hard 5, but I [only] worked for a day, so I can’t quite count that. I’ve only done small parts in a string of really small films; I haven’t really made the leap back to big films yet … I’m moving towards just wanting to be a collaborative part of the process as much as I can. I would really like to just be filmmaker-focused on everything I do.”
Not that she’s utterly averse to larger productions.
“If it’s Edgar Wright, I would work for him any time. You know, he’s doing huge films right now.”
And Mary also said how she bonded with Aaron given the quick production process:
“We went out together a couple days before we started shooting,” Winstead recalls. “We went out and had dinner, and we went out and had a few drinks [laughing]. We tried to break down the barrier really fast, ’cause we knew we didn’t have a lot of time. We both went for it, and just completely, immediately clicked – to the point where after a couple weeks of filming, on Aaron’s last day, we were just like, ‘This is really sad that this is over!’ We felt like we’d had a relationship, we felt like it was real; it was a really surreal thing.”
SMASHED will have its TIFF premiere tonight! Can’t wait to see what Mary will wear!
With Smashed coming out this fall, The Lab magazine has done an interview with Mary with the questions being done by her Smashed co-star Nick Offerman. Below are some of the questions Nick asked Mary, and you can read the full interview here. Be sure to check out the lovely pics of Mary in the gallery. Love their interview! So charming and funny.
Have you been in a less comfortable scene than our driveway scene in Smashed?
MEW—I can’t help but think you were more uncomfortable than me. I watched as you slowly died inside and I felt the utmost embarrassment for you. In a good way!
If you were forced to tell me a name-droppy story that your usual humility would normally prohibit, what would it be?
MEW—I once had dinner with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening and he told me stories about Natalie Wood, Madonna, and Edie Sedgwick. I just dropped that on you so hard.
NO—I tried Twitter for a few weeks then promptly quit because I think it has a pernicious influence upon us. How do you feel about the social network Kool-Aid?
MEW—I come very close to deleting my Twitter account on an almost daily basis, but it keeps reeling me in. I’m quite terrified of my own reliance on technology/social media and admired your decisive move away from it. I am simply too weak!
NO—Which of your co-stars did you find more charming: me or Donny Osmond?
MEW—The only real memory I have of Donny Osmond is that we threw him a party at which we all wore purple socks. Apparently he likes his socks in a particular hue. And he has a dazzling smile, but no facial hair. I think we all know who wins this battle.
Mary’s interview for the documentary film Showing Up has been posted online, which you can view below. The film is about actors and actresses coming together to describe the audition process. I’ve also made screen caps of Mary’s interview, which you can view in the gallery.
A couple of new interview videos with Mary have been posted online, which you can now view below. The first two are just quick soundbites of her being asked one question, while the other was an interview question asked during the ALVH press junket:
Also, in it’s second weekend at the movies, ALVH came in 6th place this weekend making an additional $6 million for a total gross of $29 million.
Several videos of Mary featuring her and the cast talking about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter have come online. I’ve already capped some of the interviews, which can be viewed in the gallery. Other interviews still need to be capped, which will be done sometime in the week.
First, here’s a quick interview Mary did with VH1 on the red carpet:
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Caps here:
Alloy Entertainment cast interview:
Caps from a recent Joblo.com interview can be seen here:
Given that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is two days away from opening in theaters, a ton of new interviews with Mary talking about the film have come online. First up, here’s a bit of Mary talking to CBM about seeing the film for the first time and the film’s aging process. Click the link to read the full interview:
A lot of actors talk about not liking to see themselves on the big screen — how does 3D affect that? Does it make the whole thing worse?
I haven’t seen it in 3D yet! Tomorrow night will be the first time I see it. I’m curious! I’m a little nervous, because I don’t know what to expect. And just the period-piece elements, too. I’m excited to see how that comes into play in 3D.
The make-up in this movie is really stunning, too; the aging effects on you and Benjamin look seamless. Though maybe I’m a little vain, but if some wiz make-up artists showed me what I’d look like in 20 years, I’d freak out a little.
Oh, I know! I’d like to hope that maybe there’ll be some magic potion by then.
You still look gorgeous, though, which is kind of annoying.
[laughs] I was thinking, if this is the best-case scenario, if I don’t end up gaining 50 pounds by the time I’m that age … because you never know what’s going to happen! So it was like the best-case scenario to me. If all that happens is I get some crow’s feet and some wrinkles through here [points to sides of mouth], I can handle that.
Lucky Magazine also caught up with Mary to talk about ALVH and discuss fashion:
What exactly drew you to the part of Mary Todd?
Well, initially when I read the script, I wasn’t really sure to expect—just from the title! But I was pleasantly surprised about how real all the characters felt. And the character of Mary Todd was written in a way that was very strong, very take-charge—not at all the sort of passive, “token female” role you see sometimes.
Heading into the project, did you know much about Mary Todd’s life?
All i really knew about her was that she ended up being institutionalized when she was older, and I knew that during her time as First Lady, she was talked about for having a lot of breakdowns. So from what I knew, she was kind of a crazy person. But then the more I read about her, the more I learned that was only really true in her final years. There was a lot more to her than that.