Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mary Elizabeth Winsteadis an American actress and recording artist, best known for her scream queen roles in the horror films The Ring Two, Final Destination 3, Black Christmas, Death Proof, The Thing, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and 10 Cloverfield Lane. She appeared as John McClane's daughter Lucy in Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard, the fourth and fifth films in the Die Hard franchise, Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Kate...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth28 November 1984
CountryUnited States of America
You do sometimes have to work on things where you love the cast and you love the filmmaker, and the role might not be great but it's fun. I'm totally down to do those things, and will continue to do those things, as well, but it at least has to be peppered with roles that are really interesting and that are hard.
There's a little wire work, which is so much fun. You can fly, it's amazing. But I've had to mostly just sort of kung fu, you know, ground work. Footwork and stuff like that.
So I get all the references and I totally get the humor and it's really fun. This - it's kind of a mash up of so many different genres and things that kind of, sort of are just part of youth culture right now. Music and action and video games, and it's kind of amazing to see it all piled into one film.
I think these are such different films that it's hard to compare, because with Quentin we were all just like, it was like a party every day, you know, it was like that film was just like silly, it was just really for fun, it was really, it wasn't, you know, to make a huge impact. I t was just we wanted to have fun and go to work every day and do a fun movie. And this is like huge, I mean, this is like huge studio film, there's a ton of action, it's like really hard work.
So, they have the same vibe of like that fun kind of spirit, but this one's a lot more serious. It's like, get it done, get it done right, you know? It's got to be perfect. We definitely do lots of takes on this.
I realized that the people weren't just characters but they were people and they were getting to do something that was so fun and I wanted to be a part of it.
It's always been a lot of fun for me, just to be in films that people see and they connect to, big or small. The big ones tend to reach a wider audience, so it's exciting to feel like you've got fans in countries, all over the world, who are watching what you're doing. That's really great!
Well we've got to do a lot of kung fu choreography, which was really cool. Like I have, you know, like the big hammer that I use, kind of like a staff in a sense. So I get to use that like a really cool weapon. Kung fu style. And it's just really fun to get to learn that and execute it in a way that looks cool on screen. It just feels really rewarding.
When you are playing someone who is dealing with issues on a really personal level, if you don't bring your own issues into the equation, it's not going to feel really personal to the people watching it.
Going forward, I would love to work with directors like Rian Johnson and Joss Whedon; people like that who are doing big films but do have really independent voices. That's kind of what I want to focus on, is always working with people with at least an independent point of view, even if it's not an independent film.
I can remember when 'Pulp Fiction' came out. I was, like, 10 years old. But I remember the impact that it had.
I was always telling myself I could handle a more complex role, I could handle something bigger and more interesting than the work I was doing. But I wasn't demanding that of myself. At a certain point, I realized it was never going to come my way unless I started taking more control of it. That's what I realized I had to do.
I acted in theater and I took film classes when I was 12 and just obsessed over it. I loved it and spent hours and hours in the film studio learning and watching.
I've never worn incredible clothes - I'm not used to playing someone so put together and fashionable.