TeenHollywood.com, June 25th, 2007
She's that very pretty girl-next-door brunette that all the guys wanted to date. We've seen 22-year-old Mary Elizabeth Winstead in horrorfests Final Destination 3, Black Christmas and The Ring Two and the high school superhero film Sky High but, earlier in her career, she was on Broadway in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with Donny Osmond so her talents are many. We most recently caught Mary as the sweet actress playing an abandoned cheerleader in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film Death Proof.
Mary phoned us from New York where she's attending the premiere of her latest film Live Free or Die Hard in which she plays Bruce Willis' daughter Lucy. We wanted to know all about her role in her first big action film, what is Bruce really like and what's the scoop on her next film in which she plays a hip hop dancer! Mary let us know that she's thrilled that her whole family have joined her in New York and they'll take in a performance of "Chicago" on Broadway followed by some sightseeing. Let's talk Die Hard...
TeenHollywood: Had you watched the original or other Die Hards?
Mary: Yeah. I've seen them. I had seen the first one and then, when I got the role, I went back and watched them all again and was just reminded of why they are considered some of the greatest action films of all time. They're so great!
TeenHollywood: You play Lucy, John McClane's [Bruce Willis'] daughter and you get captured by cyber-terrorists. Are you a pro-active captive in the movie?
Mary: I definitely am. They wanted her to be a McClane and she's got to be feisty. She's got to fight back and she's got to have a bit of an attitude so that's what I did and it was a lot of fun. I got to be part of the legacy of the McClane family so it's really cool. I was kind of a damsel in distress but it wasn't your typical kidnapped girl role in the film. It was the girl who really fights back throughout the whole thing.
TeenHollywood: What was the most challenging scene to shoot for you?
Mary: The first day was kind of tough because I'd been cast at the last minute and, of course, my first day, my first scene is this big fight [argument] scene with Bruce. It's one of the opening scenes of the film where we're estranged and I'm really mad at him for not being in my life for most of it and so I'm yelling at him and saying I don't want to talk to him anymore. So, just meeting Bruce Willis and having to yell at him right off was kind of nerve-wracking.
TeenHollywood: Yeah, 'Mary, meet Bruce. Yell at him'.
Mary: [laughs] Right, pretty stressful.
TeenHollywood: Do you actually get to work with Bruce much?
Mary: Throughout most of the film he's trying to get to me. In the finale, which lasts quite a long time, that took quite a while to film so I was with him a lot because it was such a long-term sequence for us. So, every day was back to working with Bruce which was really cool.
TeenHollywood: Was he what you expected?
Mary: He's not what I expected in the sense that I was afraid he would be extremely intimidating and maybe treat me like I was beneath him because he's such a huge star but he was really down to earth. He really took me in and he was telling me how proud he was of me all the time. He didn't have to do that. He's a really cool guy. But, he is what you would expect in that he's really cool and he is that charismatic person that you see on screen. He's extremely soft spoken. I don't think I've heard him speak much louder than a strong whisper.
TeenHollywood: Do you have any scenes with Justin Long [who plays hacker Matt Farrell]?
Mary: A little bit. We kind of get thrown into the plot together at a certain point. We're stuck and have to fight it through with each other. He's so funny. When you see him in the Mac commercials, he's just playing himself. He's hilarious all the time. It's like his brain is never down. He's always on. He's always got something smart or funny to say. He amazes me.
TeenHollywood: Was there any hanging out off set?
Mary: I think it was an exhausting shoot for everybody so, for the most part, people were going to work, giving it their all, then going home and crashing and recharging for the next day.
TeenHollywood: What was it like working with director Len Wiseman?
Mary: He's really soft-spoken and really mellow. He had so much on his shoulders with the movie. It's a huge budget, huge franchise and he really just ran with it and kept his cool throughout the whole thing. He was really affable and fun to be around. He was under so much stress that I just found that really amazing that he was able to be so calm and collected throughout it all and just be really a cool person to hang out with and talk to.
TeenHollywood: Did you have to do any fight training for the action stuff?
Mary: No. She's scrappy. She's not a trained fighter. She's just feisty and she has it in her so I got to throw a few punches and head butts and things like that but no roundhouse kicks to the face or anything like that.
TeenHollywood: Did you get to suggest anything for your character either in action or dialogue?
Mary: When I first read the script, I wasn't sure in what direction they wanted me to go but I said to myself, 'I have to make her strong. Even though she's been kidnapped, I can't make her whiney. I can't make her sort of annoying. She's got to be a strong, tough girl'. And, once I went into it, that's what they were looking for as well so we matched up as to what our ideas for the character were.
TeenHollywood: I know you've done horror films but is this your first big action thriller movie?
Mary: Yeah, definitely. I was a very different ballgame for me. I was in awe of it the whole time. It was such a big scale and a huge movie. I felt very small; a little person on such a big film but it was so fun and I'm proud to be a part of it.
TeenHollywood: How did you come to the project.. big auditions or did you just get a call?
Mary: I auditioned for it a long time before I was cast. There were so many evolutions in the script. At first, there wasn't even a character of Lucy, then there was but it was a really small part. I think there were also different people who were attached to it. Eventually, my audition tape was found by the director. I believe the casting director showed him a bunch of my other work and other auditions that I've done just to show more of a range. And, kind of, at the last second, they threw me in there. So, I didn't even have time to let it all sink in. I just had to go to work.
TeenHollywood: And yell at Bruce! In the film, terrorists using computers try to shut down the U.S. infrastructure. How computer-savvy are you?
Mary: I'd like to think I'm pretty savvy but now everyone is, especially in my generation. So, I don't know if I'm exceptionally savvy. But, I do know my way around a laptop and I have my Blackberry which I'm kind of addicted to.
TeenHollywood: Do you think too many teens and young people are just glued to screens these days and not actually interacting with the real world outside? Did you play outside when you were a kid?
Mary: Oh yeah. I was constantly doing something [outside] and now, I suffer from it [being addicted to electronics] as well. I'm constantly on computer or my phone or watching something on TV or a DVD. It's like constant. You've got to get that fix. There's got to be something to watch, something to look at, something to feed my brain with. It would be nice to get out and do something more adventurous from time to time.
TeenHollywood: Are you still taking some classes online when you can?
Mary: I really don't have time anymore. I tired to do that as long as I could but it gets to the point where you have to turn in a paper. Even online you have deadlines. When I was in high school, of course, I was allotted time, about three hours during work to do schoolwork but now, I don't get time. You're working. I don't think of myself as an uneducated person. I learn something every day.
TeenHollywood: We hear that you play a burlesque dancer in your next film Make It Happen? Wow.. is that a far cry from your original classical dance training? What is that like?
Mary: I start shooting in August. I start rehearsals as soon as I come back to L.A. from New York. I'm excited. It's kind of a Flashdance-esque story of a girl; a hip hop dancer trying to make it in the real world of dance so she's having to learn ballet and jazz and cabaret and all these different things and she's not trained for it. The burlesque is really more cabaret at a club; just theatrical pieces and fun dance sets. It should be a lot of fun.
TeenHollywood: You have a dance background so what did you have to learn that was new?
Mary: I'm having to play someone who is a hip hop dancer who is classically not so good which is the opposite of me. I have no experience in hip hop whatsoever. I was classically trained. I'm having to throw away all my classical training and focus on hip hop and jazz and that type of thing whereas ballet is what I did most of my life.
TeenHollywood: Is it fun to take the hip hop classes?
Mary: It is fun. It's a little scary. I've just started and I'm hoping that I'll be able to really push myself to be as true as possible as someone who is really great and passionate about that type of dance because it's something that's new to me. But, I know I'll work hard and push myself and I'll get there.
TeenHollywood: You've been in a lot of different types of films but is there a genre that you might still want to tackle?
Mary: I really would love a romantic comedy. It may not seem that lofty of a goal but I think it would be fun and it actually seems really challenging to make that work on screen, that kind of chemistry and everything. That's something that I see in the future.
TeenHollywood: Who would be an ideal partner for that?
Mary: Humm, I don't know. Michael Cera. [laughs] [Hey, sounds like she says "He's my boyfriend" but we can't swear to that]. He's my favorite young actor right now.
TeenHollywood: What qualities does a guy have to have if you are going to date him?
Mary: Has to be humble and have a sense of humor.
TeenHollywood: Who are you listening to musically right now?
Mary: I listen to a lot of indie pop and indie rock. I love Sufjan Stevens. He's one of my favorites and I listen to a lot of Feist right now. Now, especially for the summer, I'm sticking to kind of happier tunes, things that are a little lighter when sometimes I've been known to choose moodier stuff but I've been steering away from that.
TeenHollywood: Is there a designer you like?
Mary: I'm a really big vintage person. I'm not really a label kind of girl. As long as it's my style, it works for me but vintage stores are kind of my addiction. That's what I really love.
