INT: Winstead / Merriman

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

A
recipe for success in the horror genre:
1) gather a group of hot, amorous young actors; 2) find
creative ways to kill each of them off. It’s
a formula that the first two Final Destination films executed
perfectly. FINAL
DESTINATION 3, opening this week, looks to replicate
the success its predecessors by delivering more of the same.
Two of FD3’s hot, amorous young actors – Mary
Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman – stopped by the Culver
Studios last week to talk about their experience making the latest
installment of the horror franchise. Check
it out.

Mary
Elizabeth Winstead / Ryan Merriman

Were
you prepared for all of the heavy lifting, running, and crying?

Winstead:
I was excited about it when I read the script.
I was like, “There is a lot of cool stuff to do in this.”
It was challenging. When I got into it, I was like after awhile,
“Don’t make me cry again.” But when all was said and done it
was so much fun to be challenged everyday. Everyday was high energy
and high stakes. Almost passing out.

Merriman:
None of it was fluff stuff. Especially when you’re doing a
movie like this. Some people come to see the blood and guts, but
there’s also a really good story, which is why I thought the third
one was so good. Especially
our relationship in the movie – it was interesting because we
weren’t like lovers or anything like that. We’re friends, both
thrown into the circumstance of, I lost my girl and she lost her
guy. We both kind of try to go on this journey together. It was fun
though. I had a good time.

Now
you guys did a lot of your own stunts?

Winstead:
We had good stunt doubles, definitely. If anything was really
dangerous you know they’re not going to let the actors do it.

How
many times did you guys have to ride the rollercoaster?

Winstead:
We did it and it was like three nights.

Merriman:
One night it was like 27 times.

Anyone
get sick?

Winstead:
We thought they would but nobody did. Your head feels like
it’s going to pop off of like your neck.
It’s just insane. I’ve never felt that way

Merriman:
It’s like a whiskey hangover. Not beer. It’s like
Whiskey. Your equilibrium goes apeshit because you just rode it 20
times.

Winstead:
And our voices got like so low I sounded like a man.

Merriman:
All you can do is scream, you know what I mean? You never
know what they’re going to use so every time you’ve got to give
it 100% because they could use the one where you’re like (screams).

So
are you guys over amusement parks?

Winstead:
I don’t really have a desire to go anytime soon to any of
them. We spent two consecutive weeks there, every night. All night
long.

Merriman:
But we only did get to ride two rides. I was bummed. I wanted
them to give us free reign and say, “Ok guys we want you to ride
everything you can.” We didn’t get any of that.

Winstead:
There was one really huge roller coaster that was down the
way a bit. We ran over there and got a guy to run it for us. I
almost flew out and I almost died.

What?

Merriman:
It was an old wooden one.

Winstead:
And he’s like wearing this big coat because he’s bigger
than me. It’s like out to here on me and he’s like filling it
out and everything. He tells me to put my arms up when we’re going
down. I put them up and I go flying.

Merriman:
She really went flying. That was cool. It actually got voted
one of the scariest rollercoasters in

Canada

. It was an old wooden rollercoaster and it was all perpetual
motion.

When
you make a movie like this, how conscious are you of everyday
dangers? (*
Minor spoiler
follows *)

Winstead:
When I was making the movie I tried not to think about it so
much. You think about it so much while you’re in scene that once
you’re done you just want to think about something funny. It
was like, “Get it out of my head!”
But, afterwards when you’ve seen the movie it almost made
me think about it more watching the movie than actually filming it.

Merriman:
It definitely makes you aware. You think about things more.
I’m sure the next time you guys go tanning, you’ll definitely
think about those chicks who got their asses fried. You know the
drive-thru is cool. You think about things. Especially home
improvement stores. I
went in one day and I was buying tar for my dad. I was looking
around and was like, “Good Lord, there’s an 80 pound bag of
concrete 13 feet above my head.” And there’s some guy who just
got done smoking a joint at lunch operating a crane, you know what I
mean? You think about stuff like that. It makes you aware and I
think that’s what cool about these movies is that you can
incorporate that into real life actually. I mean if it was a zombie
with a knife you would say oh that was a good movie and never think
about it again. But this actually kind of follows you home a little
bit.

Do
you guys actually believe in premonitions?

Winstead:
I think some people have
them. I think it’s definitely possible. I mean I’ve never had
one. I don’t what it’s like so I had to make that up. But yeah,
I think it’s possible and I think people may tune into intuition a
little bit more than other people. Some people say it’s more
supernatural than that.

Merriman:
It’d be nice. It’d be nice to predict how much money this
is going to make.

How
cold was it when you shot in Vancouver?
In one of the long shots it looked like you could see your
breath.

Winstead:
It was freezing. My mouth started freezing and I couldn’t
get the words out. My lips started going numb. So the lines by the
fifth take or something were like, “Brrrrrrrr.” So they had to
take me and blow dry me and warm me up with blankets.

Merriman:
My whole speech too, outside the window. That wasn’t
exactly a short monologue. Sure enough, it was raining and pouring
and she was like waiting to drive off. The funny thing was – sorry
Mary I’m bringing this up…

Winstead:
NO!!!!

Merriman:
For like five takes,
five takes this Volvo she was driving. There was like park, reverse,
drive, neutral. It was just a weird assembly. She was like “Fuck
you Kevin!” and then, “Eerrrrrrrr.” (mimics car moving the
wrong way).

Winstead:
It was like the first day, too. It was like the most
embarrassing day of my life. Everyone was like, “What an idiot she
is.” I could look down because I had to be all intense, like,
“Fuck you!” I couldn’t look down (at the stick shift) and be
like, “Fuck you.” It wouldn’t really work.

As
a young actor in Hollywood, do you get a lot of horror scripts?

Winstead:
There’s a lot of it out there, so yeah.

Merriman:
It sells. The last number one movies were Saw 2, Hostel, what
else? I don’t know what else came out. But, it’s a good thing.
Especially with this one I’m really excited because not only did
we make, I think, a good movie that’s not exactly a carbon copy of
the first two. There’s definitely new characters.
It’s got a new idea with the pictures and the audience can
really tap in and try to figure it out. But, you also get that
following from the first two. I mean it made a quarter of a billion
dollars the first two.

Winstead:
To me it just seems like more and more horror being out there
every year. It seems like there’s more scripts coming in so I
think that any time you can do something different that stands out
its like people want that. The Final Destination series is just
something that’s different.

Merriman:
I just don’t want the Wayans brothers to make fun of us.
(laughs)

Mary,
you’re following this with Black Christmas?

Winstead:
I just did Bobby, so I’ve got a non-horror sort of thrown
in between. Then yeah, I’ll go onto Black Christmas.

What
will you be playing in Black Christmas?

Winstead:
It basically centers around four sorority girls. It’s an
ensemble so I’m one of the girls being stalked by this crazed
killer. I don’t know if anyone’s seen the original, but it’s
sort of a prequel and sequel, kind of combined. The first big chunk
of the movie follows Billy’s back story as a child and what made
him the way he is. Then it kind of picks up to present day with the
four sorority girls and the house and him coming back to have a
visit.

Does
that mean it’s not set up as a surprise in terms of who the killer
is?

Winstead:
There’s a lot of twists in it. It has a lot of surprises.
It’s definitely different than the original, but it’s based on
the original.

Who
do you play in Bobby?

Winstead:
I play…it’s a huge ensemble that follows tons of
different stories. I play this struggling, wannabe actress that’s
trying to get discovered by working at the Ambassador Hotel as a
waitress. I can’t get an agent. I can’t get a job. It’s sort
of a depressing sob story.

Who
did you get to interact with?

Winstead:
Most of my scenes were with Shia LaBeouf and Brian Geraghty.
We were kind of a threesome and I had scenes with Anthony Hopkins,
Sharon Stone and a lot with Christian Slater and Joshua Jackson.

What
was it like working with Anthony?

Winstead:
I didn’t have much with him but he was always there because
he was originally a producer on the project.
He had a lot of interest, so even when it was just me working
with other people he’d be there like watching the monitors. It was
pretty intimidating, especially in the beginning. It was kind of
scary.

What
about you Ryan? Have you
shot anything else?

Merriman:
Yeah. Right after
I finished this my agents were like, “You’ve got to come to L.A.
You’ve got to do auditions.” I was like, “God, I just
finished.” Cause this
was a physically type grueling of thing. But, I actually booked a
film. I have a week left to shoot on it.
It’s called Home of the Giants with Haley Joel Osment and
Danielle Panabaker. It’s a dramatic film about high school
basketball in Indiana. So it’s kind of like what Friday Nights was
to football, this is for basketball. It has to deal with high school
and the gambling you know. Things that go on and how I get treated.

Questions? Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at
[email protected].