The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Samara Weaving talks ‘Ready or Not’
It’s a real family in-law affair in horror-comedy
The bride wore a bandolier.
The image of Samara Weaving draped in cartridges and a wedding dress for the comic horror film “Ready or Not”— in theaters now — has already become somewhat iconic. And when people see what the 27-year-old Australian actress gets up to in the gory dark thriller, she’s likely to leave even stronger impressions.
“Especially with a horror movie like this, it’s easy to fall into the damsel in distress mode,” the tall, blueeyed blonde says during an interview in West Hollywood. “I really wanted to steer clear of that. So it was things like, how can I do shock without crying too much and melting down. Of course, she’s going to have that response, but to get to a place where she’s angry and determined and her survival instincts kick in, I really wanted to get to that. Then you see the strength of a woman, and I’m pretty sure that’s how most women would react in that situation.”
Fortunately, few if any women would ever actually be stuck in the predicament Weaving’s newlywed Grace tries to survive in “Ready or Not.”
Grace and Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien), the runaway heir to his family’s board game fortune, have returned to the big, creepy family house for their wedding. While Grace doesn’t feel entirely welcomed by the snooty, rich in-laws, she and Alex are very much in love, and the garden ceremony goes off like a dream.
That night, though, Alex springs it on her that Le Domas tradition demands they all play a game that Grace needs to choose from a mysterious, possibly magical old device. She draws hide-and-seek, and everyone else is shocked. What she doesn’t know is that’s the one game that the family believes means they must hunt and kill the new spouse before dawn, or else something horrible will happen to everyone in the clan.
Still in her wedding gown, the unsuspecting Grace accommodatingly heads off to hide among the mansion’s many corridors, secret passageways and dumbwaiters while the in-laws — Alex’s alcoholic brother Daniel (Adam Brody) and his wife, Charity (Elyse Levesque); his mom (Andie MacDowell) and dad (Henry Cezerny), coked-up sister Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) and her spouse, Fitch (Kristian Bruun); and scary Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni) — among others, choose weapons ranging from medieval to modern and commence the hunt.
Grace soon discovers what’s up, though, and after some initial and bloody close calls, fights back.
Shot in Ontario, Canada, “Ready or Not” is the first wide release by the horror movie collective of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet and executive producer Chad Villella, who go by the group name of Radio Silence. Weaving reports that no matter how trying things got for Grace — who appears in some 90% of “Ready or Not’s” scenes — they went the extra mile to make the shoot a frighteningly good time.
“We planned it so well, and Radio Silence really had my back and held my hand throughout it,” she says. “They took all my ideas onboard. And I made a lot of good friends in the ensemble; we all have big group texts and we hang out as much as we can. It made it so stress-free. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a set.”
Though Grace gets beaten, wounded and worse as the night wears on, Weaving said, mapping out the action and the character’s emotional states before each sequence made what looks draining actually relatively easy to perform.
“I’d just finished a film called ‘Guns Akimbo’ that’s at the (Toronto Film Festival) this year,” the actor says. “I’d done four weeks of stunt training on that, and that was much more physically demanding. On this one, it was more of a challenge of being very, very cold and awake for a very long time. It was shot in the winter in Canada — it would snow some days — and we had two weeks of night shoots. So, pretty cold.”
And wearing an increasingly blood-drenched and torn-up wedding gown through the whole thing to boot. Again, movie magic made Grace’s attire look more awful than it really was to wear.
“Avery Plewes, the costume designer, was amazing,” Weaving says. “She made 17 dresses, 17 doubles of those dresses and 17 for stunts. There was a skirt and top, so it looks like a dress. The corset is a weapon at one point; it’s a first aid kit at one point. They were all planned out so that the continuity was perfect.”
Yeah, but weren’t the crimson ones extra cold?
“None were wet unless it was immediately after the blood — well, it was not literal blood, it was syrup, I guess — was on me, and that was more sticky than wet,” Weaving recalls. “And it’s really sweet, tastes delicious. You can have it with ice cream; it’s great!”
Weaving is no stranger to horrific make-believe. She headlined the Netflix psychothriller “The Babysitter” and co-starred in the office bloodbath “Mayhem.” Weaving also appeared in the TV miniseries based on the classic Australian period mystery “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” had a role in the Oscarwinning “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and was a regular on the Showtime comedy series “SMILF,” but left after conflicts with creator Frankie Shaw over the handling of nude sex scenes.
Weaving is currently working on the longawaited sequel “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” in which she plays Bill’s daughter Thea, named after his best bud, Ted. Shrouded in secrecy, the film catches up with the adult lives of Keanu Reeves’ and Alex Winter’s time-traveling teenagers from late 1980s/early ‘90s San Dimas.
“Sure, I’d like to go there,” Weaving says of the San Gabriel Valley town she’s yet to have the chance to visit. Most of “Face the Music” is being filmed in Louisiana.
Far-flung locations have always been part of Weaving’s life. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she also spent her childhood in places like Indonesia, Fiji and Singapore, where her mother worked for art museums and her father was a business consultant (he’s also a filmmaker and professor, and directed the Canberra Film Festival).
“I grew up in lots of different countries,” Weaving says. “I don’t think it influenced me on a creative level, but on a cultural level, definitely. Most of those countries are Third World countries, and I saw things a kid like me wouldn’t see. It widened my perspective.”
She also didn’t see any of her famous actor uncle Hugo Weaving’s films until she was already working in the industry; they were too adult for kids. Once she did catch his work in the likes of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and as Agent Smith in Reeves’ “Matrix” movies, the niece was mightily impressed.
“Of course he’s a brilliant actor, but first and foremost he’s a brilliant uncle,” says Weaving.
The acting showcase that “Ready or Not’s” beleaguered bride provides for her should open up a wide range of professional possibilities. Personal ones aren’t needed; she became engaged to Jimmy Warden, a TV creative producer, in March.
Seeing “Ready or Not” has not given either fiancee cold feet.
“He loves it; he’s a fan,” Weaving says of Warden. “And I’ve met the in-laws already, so they’re good to go.”