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.”
“[Acting scared] is a lot about energizing. I tend to do a lot of silly, physical things to try to get there. I feel like if I can trick my body into thinking this is real, then it kind of helps the emotions. I do a lot of, like, causing myself to hyperventilate. It’s a lot of running in place and push-ups. If I don’t have a lot of space, I’ll get my body in a really weird position and hold my breath for a long time. I probably look insane. But it’s a trick as opposed to just being super organic, coming at it emotionally, which is really hard. I think fear is one of the hardest things to manifest out of nothing. You kind of have to do some little tricks sometimes.”
Mary also spoke with Loaded Magazine about what she loves about her character Michelle:
“What I liked about the character was that she could’ve been a man or a woman, it didn’t really matter,” Winstead says. “Of course, the dynamic of the reasons why Howard wants her there, being a woman plays into that in a very clear way you can’t really get around. The way she acquits herself and the way she behaves, she’s doing what any of us would do. I liked that about her. It didn’t feel like it was this stereotypical thing that happened to her so that she could cry, find her inner strength, be this fragile flower that blooms into a woman. She was just a regular girl trying to survive this situation.”