Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead was well known to horror movie fans with her early roles in a string of movies in that genre including Final Destination and Black Christmas. But she broke into the mainstream last summer with Live Free of Die Hard.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Cast in the role of McClane's daughter Lucy he was thrown into the well established franchise and her career has since been on the up.
Her new role takes her into a new genre of the dance movie in Make It Happen which follows Lauryn as she tries to fulfil her dreams of becoming a professional dancer.
I caught up with Mary to chat about her new film, her career so far and what lies ahead for the young star.
You are starring in new movie Make It Happen what is it all about?
Basically it's about a young girl named Lauryn, who I play, who has dreams of being a dancer, it's her passion and she dreams of going to The Chicago School of Music and Dance. but she is from a small town in Glenwood Indiana so she has to make the move to Chicago to follow her dreams.
Once she gets there she auditions and she doesn't get in it's pretty humiliating and she doesn't want to go home and face her failure so she stays in Chicago and ends up working at a cabaret, burlesque club and dances there and learns a lot about herself, tones her skills and keeps following her dreams.
And what was it that drew you to the script?
Well the dancing was a big draw for me because I trained as a dancer most of my life and just the opportunity to do that in a film was really exciting to me so I thought 'why not'. (laughs)
Was burlesque something new for you and how comfortable were you performing it?
Yes burlesque was pretty new to me, I trained as a ballet dancer so most of the dancing was different for me, but I thought that I did have some structure of training that I could fall back on.
But it was a challenge I had to do quite a lot of training lots and lots of hours and the choreographers gave me a lot of tough love but in the end it worked out.
Well that sort of leads me into my next question what sort of preparation did you do for the film?
I had to do a month of training of about eight hours a day or more and it was pretty intense they wanted me to do everything so I was ding the tricks and all the crazy stuff that my body hadn't done in years. It was rough after the first few days I wasn't sure if my body was going to make it through it was so beaten and busied and twisted I could barely walk. But I somehow pushed through and by the end things were coming a lot easier to me and I was ready to film it, amazingly enough.
A lot of people will compare Make It Happen to the likes of Step Up and Save the Last Dance but how does it differ?
I think those film are always about a guy and a girl and them dancing together and finding each other this story is simple in the sense that it is just about this one girl and her struggle as a dancer. Also it doesn't take place in high school it takes after school when you are really trying to make it in the world of dance.
I know a lot of dancers, my sister is a professional dancer, and I really felt like I could relate to that story and that struggle of how tough it is to be a dancer and why they keep struggling and they keep doing because they are passionate about it even though sometimes it's not as rewarding as you would want it to be.
Director Darren Grant is better known as a music video director so what was he like to work with?
He was great he had a really great eye the film really looks great because he knows how to film those sequences, the dance sequences and the editing and to keep the viewers on their seat and their eyes pleased. He's worked with Beyonce and Destiny's Child so he knows what today's generation want to see and how to bring a new take on things.
You were known as a scream queen with movies such as Final Destination 3 and Death Proof is this a genre of film that you enjoy and how desperate were you to branch out into different genres for fear of being type cast?
For some reason I never feared being type cast I just take my roles based on the character, and the script, and the people that are doing the film and whether or not I think it would be fun to do the film.
I really love being part of the horror community it was something that I really enjoyed and really liked having those fans, the are really enthusiastic about those films, it was really fun to be part of that community so it wasn't something that I was particularly worried about.
But as an actor you do want to challenge yourself and step outside what you have done in the past and that what I like to do, I like to jump around and try different things and stretch myself. I'm most likely won't do horror for a while but it's just because I have done it already you move onto the next thing.
And what was it like working with Quentin Tarantino on Death Proof?
Fantastic he is brilliant and so much fun to be around and such a sweetheart I loved every minute of working with him. I still see him every now and again I will see him at the movies or something like that (laughs) it's really cool to be able to know him and be part of that posse of people that have worked with him. It's amazing and I hope to know him for a long time because I really love him.
Most people will know you from last year's Live Free or Die Hard what was it like stepping into such a well established franchise?
I don't think I realised how big a deal it was until after because i got thrown into it at the last second, they were kind of weren't sure if they were going to have a daughter in the film or not and right at the last minute they decided to go with the character, so they threw me in there and I was like 'cool I love the Die hard franchise I'll do it'.
Once it was over I started to realise the anticipation factor and what a big it was it was kind of overwhelming but I was so excited that I got to be a part of it.
How did you find working on such a big blockbuster?
It was different because they take so long to shoot and because I had a supporting role I would come in for a day and do a scene and then I would be gone for a month and then I would come back for a day.
It was different because you are not there on set everyday bonding it's such a bigger scale it's such a different thing to get into. But i just thought it was so cool to be around Bruce Willis and all that I was just this shy intimidated girl all the time but it was a really cool experience.
And what was he like to work with?
He was great he was really sweet to me and really kind he gave me lots of good advice but of course I couldn't shake the intimidation even though he was very sweet.
I read that you screen tested for the role of Wonder Woman can you tell me anything about that?
Yeah It was quite a few months back I tested for that and it's one of those things that leaked out onto the Internet and there's was all this speculation on whether I was going to get the part and all this stuff, it ended up going to an Australian actress who is beautiful and very Wonder Woman esq hopefully that all works out for her.
Finally what is next for you?
I'm doing a film called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for Universal it's a big comedy action movie directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera. I'm very excited because again it's breaking out into new genres so it's really cool for me.
Make it Happen is released 8th August
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead was well known to horror movie fans with her early roles in a string of movies in that genre including Final Destination and Black Christmas. But she broke into the mainstream last summer with Live Free of Die Hard.
Cast in the role of McClane's daughter Lucy he was thrown into the well established franchise and her career has since been on the up.
Her new role takes her into a new genre of the dance movie in Make It Happen which follows Lauryn as she tries to fulfil her dreams of becoming a professional dancer.
I caught up with Mary to chat about her new film, her career so far and what lies ahead for the young star.
You are starring in new movie Make It Happen what is it all about?
Basically it's about a young girl named Lauryn, who I play, who has dreams of being a dancer, it's her passion and she dreams of going to The Chicago School of Music and Dance. but she is from a small town in Glenwood Indiana so she has to make the move to Chicago to follow her dreams.
Once she gets there she auditions and she doesn't get in it's pretty humiliating and she doesn't want to go home and face her failure so she stays in Chicago and ends up working at a cabaret, burlesque club and dances there and learns a lot about herself, tones her skills and keeps following her dreams.
And what was it that drew you to the script?
Well the dancing was a big draw for me because I trained as a dancer most of my life and just the opportunity to do that in a film was really exciting to me so I thought 'why not'. (laughs)
Was burlesque something new for you and how comfortable were you performing it?
Yes burlesque was pretty new to me, I trained as a ballet dancer so most of the dancing was different for me, but I thought that I did have some structure of training that I could fall back on.
But it was a challenge I had to do quite a lot of training lots and lots of hours and the choreographers gave me a lot of tough love but in the end it worked out.
Well that sort of leads me into my next question what sort of preparation did you do for the film?
I had to do a month of training of about eight hours a day or more and it was pretty intense they wanted me to do everything so I was ding the tricks and all the crazy stuff that my body hadn't done in years. It was rough after the first few days I wasn't sure if my body was going to make it through it was so beaten and busied and twisted I could barely walk. But I somehow pushed through and by the end things were coming a lot easier to me and I was ready to film it, amazingly enough.
A lot of people will compare Make It Happen to the likes of Step Up and Save the Last Dance but how does it differ?
I think those film are always about a guy and a girl and them dancing together and finding each other this story is simple in the sense that it is just about this one girl and her struggle as a dancer. Also it doesn't take place in high school it takes after school when you are really trying to make it in the world of dance.
I know a lot of dancers, my sister is a professional dancer, and I really felt like I could relate to that story and that struggle of how tough it is to be a dancer and why they keep struggling and they keep doing because they are passionate about it even though sometimes it's not as rewarding as you would want it to be.
Director Darren Grant is better known as a music video director so what was he like to work with?
He was great he had a really great eye the film really looks great because he knows how to film those sequences, the dance sequences and the editing and to keep the viewers on their seat and their eyes pleased. He's worked with Beyonce and Destiny's Child so he knows what today's generation want to see and how to bring a new take on things.
You were known as a scream queen with movies such as Final Destination 3 and Death Proof is this a genre of film that you enjoy and how desperate were you to branch out into different genres for fear of being type cast?
For some reason I never feared being type cast I just take my roles based on the character, and the script, and the people that are doing the film and whether or not I think it would be fun to do the film.
I really love being part of the horror community it was something that I really enjoyed and really liked having those fans, the are really enthusiastic about those films, it was really fun to be part of that community so it wasn't something that I was particularly worried about.
But as an actor you do want to challenge yourself and step outside what you have done in the past and that what I like to do, I like to jump around and try different things and stretch myself. I'm most likely won't do horror for a while but it's just because I have done it already you move onto the next thing.
And what was it like working with Quentin Tarantino on Death Proof?
Fantastic he is brilliant and so much fun to be around and such a sweetheart I loved every minute of working with him. I still see him every now and again I will see him at the movies or something like that (laughs) it's really cool to be able to know him and be part of that posse of people that have worked with him. It's amazing and I hope to know him for a long time because I really love him.
Most people will know you from last year's Live Free or Die Hard what was it like stepping into such a well established franchise?
I don't think I realised how big a deal it was until after because i got thrown into it at the last second, they were kind of weren't sure if they were going to have a daughter in the film or not and right at the last minute they decided to go with the character, so they threw me in there and I was like 'cool I love the Die hard franchise I'll do it'.
Once it was over I started to realise the anticipation factor and what a big it was it was kind of overwhelming but I was so excited that I got to be a part of it.
How did you find working on such a big blockbuster?
It was different because they take so long to shoot and because I had a supporting role I would come in for a day and do a scene and then I would be gone for a month and then I would come back for a day.
It was different because you are not there on set everyday bonding it's such a bigger scale it's such a different thing to get into. But i just thought it was so cool to be around Bruce Willis and all that I was just this shy intimidated girl all the time but it was a really cool experience.
And what was he like to work with?
He was great he was really sweet to me and really kind he gave me lots of good advice but of course I couldn't shake the intimidation even though he was very sweet.
I read that you screen tested for the role of Wonder Woman can you tell me anything about that?
Yeah It was quite a few months back I tested for that and it's one of those things that leaked out onto the Internet and there's was all this speculation on whether I was going to get the part and all this stuff, it ended up going to an Australian actress who is beautiful and very Wonder Woman esq hopefully that all works out for her.
Finally what is next for you?
I'm doing a film called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for Universal it's a big comedy action movie directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera. I'm very excited because again it's breaking out into new genres so it's really cool for me.
Make it Happen is released 8th August
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Mary Elizabeth Winstead