Smashed opens in the UK this Friday (Dec. 14) and Stylist magazine caught up with Mary where she talks about how she landed the part of Kate, alcoholism and horror films. Click on the link above to read the interview in full.
What drew her to the character of recovering alcoholic, Kate?
“I was craving the role,” she tells Stylist. “There aren’t actually that many roles out there for women and while I’ve had a lot of fun flying around in horror films I was getting sick of the niche and reputation I was becoming known for. When I saw the script for Smashed I didn’t think that I would be considered for such an incredible part. For one thing, I’d been having a hard time even getting meetings for smaller independent films because people thought I was too nice and not interesting enough. But once you’ve had a part like Kate, and once you’ve finished filming, I think it’s understandable that you don’t want to go back to playing the girlfriend or the wife.”
Mary also talked about how she had to examine her own life in order to relate to her character:
“I’ve always been a massive people pleaser – someone who tries to keep a happy face and put a positive spin on everything,” she says. “I’m very aware about that fault in myself and I know that I paper over certain things that aren’t so great in my life much in the same way that Kate does with her addiction. Seeing that in me helped with Smashed, though, as it gave me some degree of insight into what Kate might be going through.”
As for all the Oscar and award buzz she’s getting?
“I can’t buy into any of the Oscar hype. It’s such an outside chance and completely not what I was seeking from the role that I prefer not to even think about it. I think often in Hollywood there can be two types of roles for women – the strong and the sexy – and because I’m definitely not the sexy I was always more likely to be cast as the strong. Hopefully the more vulnerable side of Kate’s character, the side which makes the audience love her, will mean that I can move in a slightly different direction, though.”