Allison Williams ditches nice persona in ‘Get Out’
Her goodygoody Marnie in ‘Girls’ is a far cry from ‘Ro-Ro’ in new horror flick
From the organized, slightly neurotic Marnie on Girls to Peter Pan in the live-broadcast musical, Allison Williams has had goody two-shoes on lock. With her first movie role, though, she had one thing to say to “the nice girl”: Get out.
In director Jordan Peele’s horror hit Get Out ($113 million and counting at the box office), Williams breaks bad to play Rose, the seemingly loyal white girlfriend to young African-American photographer Chris (Daniel Kaluuya). She takes him to her family estate for the weekend, but things go off the rails (spoiler alert!) when Chris learns her parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) have nefarious plans to capture and auction off black people to their white friends. Even worse, he figures out Rose is more evil seductress than supportive partner.
Williams, 28, acknowledges that being the good-natured Marnie in Girls (now in its final season on HBO) “was becoming very hard for me to shake and I was looking for a part that would use that against audiences right at the moment Jordan got in touch.”
She worked with Peele and an acting coach to split Rose into two people. The malevolent girl who shows up at the end was affectionately coined “Ro-Ro” by the director. Williams says it was difficult getting into the headspace of a dastardly woman who eats Froot Loops and listens to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack while Googling basketball players as Chris is held captive in the basement.
“I’ve never been Method-y about anything, but to get to a place where I could look at Daniel Kaluuya and just feel hate was blissfully hard,” Williams says. “I had to basically be alone in a room for as long as possible prior to going down to shoot something. Every time I would show up in character, Jordan would start giggling with glee that I seemed so unbelievably evil.”
No one wanted to be around her in full Ro-Ro mode, and she usually tried to avoid her canine pal Moxie, a golden retriever mix. “One time when I was in character, I saw my dog and I just had to run past her because my love for her was strong,” Williams says. “If I’m around her long enough, it’ll all slip away.”
Williams highly recommends a repeat viewing of Get Out — “It’s a different movie: You’re with Chris the first time you watch it, and the second time you’re with me” — and hasn’t given up on a Ro-Ro return. Evil Rose gets a great horror-villain moment at the movie’s climax that leaves viewers questioning her fate.
“Is she dead?” Williams says. “My hope for my future work is that she’s not.”
Goodnatured persona from ‘Girls’ “was becoming very hard for me to shake.” Allison Williams