Interviews – Page 29 – MaryEWinstead.net

NextMovie Interviews Mary about Smashed, Justice League Role and Aubrey Plaza

on October 9, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

In another new interview with Mary talking about Smashed, Nextmovie asked Mary about how character driven and focused her role is in the upcoming movie. Read the full interview by clicking the link above:

For your first small, character-focused movie, there’s a lot of you in it. Your character is completely the centerpiece. You, you, you. That has to be intimidating.
It was terrifying, definitely, when I actually got it. Because it’s one of those things, you get a script and you’re like, “Yes! I’m going to make them consider me for this, I’m going to put myself out there!” And then when they go, “Yeah, sure, let’s do it”, you’re like, Oh… you sure you really want me to do this? Because I know I said I could do it but I’m not actually sure if I can do it.”

A few years ago, you read for Wonder Woman, for the “Justice League” movie that never quite happened.
It was like six years ago, but yeah.

It looks like the project is finally getting off the ground. Is that something you’d still be interested in?
I don’t know. Even back then, it was one of those things… there was no script, you sign onto it under the cover of secrecy. I definitely couldn’t do that anymore. At that point in my career, I was like, “Sure, sign me up, whatever the role is.” Now I’m much more careful about that kind of thing. Especially, you know, they want you to sign up for seven movies, even though you have no idea what it is that you’re going to be doing in those movies. That kind of thing is just scary for me. I very much enjoy my freedom going film to film, being able to choose what I do. It would take a lot for me to be able for me to sign on for the role.

I’m not totally sure that that’s the role for me. I feel like part of me would want to do it, to see if I could bring something interesting to it, but part of me would be scared that I wouldn’t be the right person for it. If I were to play a superhero type, I would want that person to be human — I’m not really interested in playing perfection. If it is to be this sort of perfect role model for the world, that does everything right all the time, that saves the day, it’s just not interesting to me as an actor.

You’ll be appearing soon in another movie with [“Scott Pilgrim” co-star] Aubrey Plaza — “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III” — has it been brought to your attention that you two have a crazy strong resemblance?
Yes, actually when I was promoting “Scott Pilgrim,” I had several people coming up to me going, “Aubrey, Aubrey!” They had just seen the movie and was like, “I played Ramona Flowers,” and they were like, “No, you didn’t, that’s Mary, you’re Aubrey.” I had them actually arguing with me over who I was.

Identity crisis! Maybe you should just give in and play sisters.
I think we could, I think we would be totally believable as sisters. I would love that, it would be a lot of fun.

Interviews Movies Smashed

ComingSoon Interviews Mary About Smashed

on October 9, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

Smashed is only a few days away from release in New York and L.A. (October 12), and more new interviews are slowly being released online. This one comes from ComingSoon. Below is an excerpt, and you can read the full interview by clicking on the link.

ComingSoon.net: What was it about this script or role that got you on board? Kate’s a very interesting character, that’s for sure.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Yeah, it’s such a no-brainer, everything about it. When I read the script, it was one of those things that I thought I’d never get the part, because the few times in my career that I read a role that great, every A-list actress in Hollywood is trying to get it. It’s such a competitive environment because there’s so few roles that good for women, so I thought I was really going to have to fight for it and really get my name in there and I was amazed with how easily they went for me and they were like, “Yeah, we think you’re great for the part.” It was kind of a shock because it was such a well-rounded readable woman, and it’s incredibly rare. Not even withstanding how great the script is and how well drawn the characters are, the simple fact that it was such a great, real human being to play, was all I needed.

CS: What was it like doing those classroom scenes? Those looked like they could be a lot of fun, partially because we get to see something we haven’t seen you do before but also dealing with kids.
Winstead: Those were so much fun to shoot. The kids were great, especially the kids that had real dialogue to say. They were such great little actors and they were so excited to be there. All the extras were hilarious, because I really felt like I was a teacher. I’d be standing up there and they’d be like (puts on a snarky kid’s voice) “How old are you?” Then I’d say my age and they’d go (snark kids’s voice) “Oh, you’re soooo oooold!” (laughs) It felt very my like I was really the teacher. This was between takes and they were making fun of me for being so old, and for wearing such ugly clothes and stuff like that. (laughs) Yeah, they were hilarious.

CS: What about working with Aaron Paul? When I first saw the movie, I hadn’t seen “Breaking Bad” yet.
Winstead: Oh, really? You’re like the one person. It’s so funny because it’s this little cable show, but it seems like everybody knows about it and everybody watches it. It’s such a phenomenon and he’s incredible. He’s such a great actor in that, he’s so great in “Smashed.” He’s so open and dedicated and one of the kindest people that you’d ever want to have around on set. Just willing to do anything that needs to be done, to be there for everybody and for the other actors.

Interviews Movies Smashed

Blackbook Magazine Interviews Mary and Director James Ponsoldt About Smashed

on October 9, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

Blackbook Magazine recently sat down with Mary and director James Ponsoldt to discuss their film Smashed. “Our goal was identification, not objectification—and the humor if it speaks to the fact that it’s really fun to be drunk and it’s not wrong to say that! There’s a reason people drink and we wanted that to be a part of the spirit of the film,” admits writer/director James Ponsoldt. Below is part of the interview the mag did between Mary and James. Click the link above to read the FULL interview:

How did you get involved with the film?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: I was looking to meet people who were doing films that were small and performance-focused and was sent two scripts and one of them was Smashed and I pretty much flipped out over it. I called the producer immediately and was like, “what do I have to do to be considered for this part,” and he introduced me to James, who I loved. So, I put myself on tape and did an audition tape and sent it to them. Yeah, it was pretty shocking and amazing that they actually cast me off the tape and didn’t audition anyone else. I feel really lucky that they put faith in me because usually that never happens.

So once you were cast, how did you prepare to become Kate?
MEW: Well, I had close to a month to work on it, which I was very thankful for because I knew I needed to do a lot of work to really to get to the places I needed to get to. So I started out going to a lot of AA meetings with Susan our co-writer and Elyse our producer, who was also in recovery. I was always welcomed into these open meetings and I went to every different neighborhood in LA basically and tried different meetings and I would see so many different types of people and I realized that if I took alcohol out of the equation that I could fit perfectly in those rooms with those people; they were completely and totally relatable. So that was kind of the first step in relating to the character and then once I started looking at my own life and my own issues, then it just kind of went further and further into becoming her because I kind of made my problems her problems and they kind of became one.

Was that frightening for you?
MEW: It was a funny experience because it all felt so real—the dark moments felt incredibly real or challenging and exhausting but at the same time, it was such a fun, relaxed set that I always felt comfortable and happy. It was a really surreal experience in that way because it was just my favorite place to be even though we were doing things that were sometimes emotionally hard. I always felt kind of relived and happy at the end of the day.

Interviews Movies Smashed

New Interview with Mary Discussing Smashed

on October 4, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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!

Gallery Updates Interviews Movies Smashed

Mary Attends Film Independent Screening of Smashed and New Interview

on October 3, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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.”

Interviews Movies Smashed

MTV Interviews Mary About Smashed

on September 17, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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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Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

A Good Day to Die Hard Interviews Movies Smashed

Mary Says She Wasn’t Expecting Another Die Hard Film; New TIFF Video Interview

on September 14, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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.

Gallery Updates Interviews Movies Smashed

NOW Magazine Interviews Mary

on September 12, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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!

Gallery Updates Interviews Movies Smashed

Mary Featured in The Lab Magazine!

on August 29, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica 1 Comment

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.

Gallery Updates Interviews Movies Showing Up

Mary’s Showing Up Interview

on August 3, 2012October 11, 2012 by Jessica Comments Off

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.