Mary
Elizabeth
WinsteadSource

Now that The Thing is officially out, Cinema Blend has published a new interview with Mary. Click on the link to read the FULL interview. It’s pretty lengthy, but it’s a great interview.

You have a bit of experience in the horror genre thus far in your career. What keeps bringing you back to the genre?

I think a lot of my earlier work was more coincidence than anything, because I was just trying to work as an actor, and I kind of thought after doing a few horror films I thought “Oh I won’t do those anymore, I’ve done that thing.” But I just love horror films. I’m a big horror fan. And when I read a good horror script, I get really, really excited. So even though I might have someone saying, “Oh, don’t do horror films, stray away”, I just can’t help but want to do it, because a good portion of my favorite films of all time are horror films. I just keep trying to reach that level of greatness.

Does the tone of the movie leak on to the set in between takes?

It was a lot of fun. I mean, from what I remember it was just like, we are all a bunch of big kids, everybody in the cast was just like a big kid who loved to goof around and just play and stuff, which made it a really fun experience. For me it was hard work, like it was exhausting, so there’s a lot of working… and going home and sleeping and working… and going home and sleeping. So you start to feel kind of weird when you live like that for a long enough time. But I’m so lucky to be surrounded by people who have such great energy about them that I never got, like, tired on set. Everybody was making me laugh constantly, just having a great time. So it was great.

Being a veteran of the horror genre now, I also want to ask about acting in them, as fear is a very strong emotion. It’s not exactly easy to pick up without stimuli. And when you’re doing a film you’re asked to do it take after take, so how do you do that?

Yeah, I mean it is kind of tricky, you definitely have to figure out what would terrify you in a deep way, a more emotional way that you can connect with it. Then on top of that I would always have to be doing jumping jacks or pushups or something just because the adrenaline you would feel in that situation is so hard to just create from nowhere. So Joel and I would always be doing pushups with the flame thrower packed on our backs. [laughs] And like, dude, I was always jumping up and down. But the tough thing about doing those scenes is that by the end of a day, after doing it all, you do start to feel light headed. And you’re like “Ok, I made it, I’m going to go sit down,” I can barely pull my head up I’ve been breathing so hard.

Check out Mary’s hilarious interview with Young Hollywood talking about what else? The Thing!

A new interview is posted over at Screen Rant where Mary talks everything about The Thing and how it differs from Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, her flame-thrower training and more. As always, click the link to read the full interview, and below are some excerpts.

Did Kurt Russell’s performance in the 1982 film inform your performance at all?

“Not really, no. When I first signed onto it I was like ‘okay, I need to make this character funny or something, right, because it’s like MacReady.’ And then I was finally just like, ‘no, it’s not MacReady.’ I need to just not think about that, it’s nothing like MacReady. And just because she’s sort of the lead of this film, doesn’t mean she has to have the same personality traits as the lead of the Carpenter film.”

Is it fun to get your inner Ripley on?

“Yeah, oh definitely. I mean Ripley, she’s just one of the best examples, especially in the first ‘Alien.’ Because she kind of ends up becoming more and more bad ass. But in the first one she really is just a smart woman who knows what’s going on and who’s trying to convince everyone else that there’s something bad happening. She responds in a way that women would aspire to. She’s someone strong, independent and really put together. So I think that in that sense, Kate is similar. I definitely didn’t try to copy her performance in any way, but she is such an iconic character that you can’t help but have it in the back of your mind.”

Did this feel like more of a take charge role than your characters in Scott Pilgrim or Live Free or Die Hard?

“I guess it is – just in a different way, you know? In ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ she has more of a ‘doesn’t-give-a-shit’ type attitude. So I guess she’s take charge, but really just for herself, you know? And I think Kate is much more empathetic. She’s caring, and strong, and trying to survive but also trying to help as many people as she possibly can. I think for me, she’s a more easily relatable character than a lot of other characters I’ve played. She was a lot of fun.”

“It was super refreshing for me when I read it. I was like, ‘wow, there’s like no romantic sub-plot, there’s no shower scene, there’s nothing like that.’ I kept waiting for something to happen. Like at the end, she suddenly walks in undressing or something, and it just never occurred. And it was like, ‘wow, it’s not coming at it from that point of view. It’s just these people in this situation trying to fight for their lives, and the woman is no different than the men.’ That was really refreshing for me, and really refreshing to play, as well.”