After posting some of the more recent video interviews Mary did to promote Netflix’s “KATE”, below are some of the interviews she did with several outlets. The first one is with GQ. As always, click the links to read the FULL interviews:
You’ve worked with Bruce Willis, Kurt Russell, and Will Smith, who are all in the American Action Hero Mt. Rushmore. I’ve heard people talk about the American action star being extinct, but I think it’s because people haven’t realized that the American action star is a woman now. What’s gained when the lead in an action film is a woman?
You know, that’s an interesting idea. It does feel like that right now, like there is a heavy presence of women leading action films, which is amazing, considering that that was never the case before.
After years and years and years of wanting to be the Bruce Willis — rather than Bruce Willis’s daughter, as much as I loved that — and it feels like that’s now within reach. Ten years ago, it didn’t feel like it was. I don’t know how true that statement is going to be in the long run. But my hope is that you’re right. I’m game for it.
You’ve carved out an impressive niche in action and horror genre films, but is there any part of you that wants to take an Oscars swing?I mean, anytime people love what you do enough to give you some sort of accolade is amazing, but I hate the idea of calculating it that way. Like, I would never think of something as, ‘Oh, this is my chance to try to get an award.’ If I got the chance to work with a renowned filmmaker who makes films of that caliber, that would be incredibly exciting. But I mean, if not, then cool. I’m okay either way.
Mary also participated in a roundtable event with Men’s Health that featured Karen Gillian and Shang-Chi’s Meng’er Zhang.
Mary on if she ever thought she’d be working on action after shooting films such as BIRDS OF PREY and KATE:
I initially just wanted to be an actor, and I don’t think that the question of what genre of film I wanted to go into ever really played in my mind. I started as a kid, so it just didn’t occur to me to think in genres. In my dreams, I pictured more being a musical star or something, singing and dancing and that kind of thing. That’s what I grew up watching, and that was my idea of what it meant to be in movies.
Once I started working more, I realized that I liked playing parts that were very physical. That’s what’s drawn me more and more into doing action—I love getting the chance to really use and move my body in my work.
On which actors of filmmakers have inspired her career:
I’ve always been inspired by those iconic early female action characters, like Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien series. I think particularly just how grounded and smart she is in those movie. I’ve done a lot of horror films, so I think I’ve taken inspiration from her in those as well. I find it to be an interesting challenge to be placed in a genre film, whether it’s action or horror, and have these crazy things happening that are out of this world or larger than life, and to make them feel very real and lived-in, and to play women who use their strength but also their intelligence to save the world. That’s always what I keep being drawn back to, and I think that’s in part because of characters like Ripley.
Mary also did a podcast interview with Bloody Disgusting‘s Boo Crew. This was another interview which I really enjoyed listening to! Click the link above to hear it in its entirety. In it, she talks about the films she’s done throughout her career, why she’ll always return to horror films once in a while, the practical effects (& studio interference of adding CGI) to 2011’s THE THING, her musical career and more.
On Final Destination 3: “I think I was just really excited about the challenge of – I think it was one of my first horror films, if not my first horror film. So it was very exciting for me to think about entering into this storyline that was maybe far-fetched or unrealistic, and trying to make her really real and relatable. Just really believe it. So I just wanted to play her as very real… part of me looks back and goes okay, I took it really seriously, maybe more seriously than I needed to. Meanwhile, a lot of people are just watching it for the gruesome deaths, you know. But the emotional impact was very important to me, so that’s really where I was coming from. And what I was excited about.” On working with Quentin Tarantino in 2007’s DEATH PROOF: “[Quentin Tarantino] would tell me all the time… he’d take me aside and say, ‘I need you to know how great you are.’ I was 22 years old or something… my mind was blown, consistently. He would just build up his actors. He’s such a fan of actors. You could just feel that. And that’s an infectious feeling. When you feel that a director is loving what you’re doing, and he’s expressing that; it’s this adrenaline rush. It’s an unbelievable confidence booster, for sure.”