ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to M3GAN star Violet McGraw about starring in the horror movie, which is out March 21 on Blu-ray and DVD and is now available digitally. McGraw discussed working with Allison Williams, Cady’s growth throughout the movie, and her real-life bond with Amie Donald, who plays the titular killer doll.
“M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to,” says the synopsis. “As Gemma faces pressure at work from her boss (Ronny Chieng) to deliver a finished version of M3GAN, she suddenly becomes the unprepared caretaker of her newly orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Gemma decides to pair the M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems—a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.”
Tyler Treese: Cady is such an interesting role. What stood out the most about her exploring grief? Because that had to be such a interesting aspect to explore and it’s a huge part of her storyline.
Violet McGraw: Yeah, getting to play Cady was really fun. I got to explore a lot of different emotions because I got to be like, happy. I got to be sad, I got to be crazy angry, which was really fun. It was really fun getting to develop a relationship with M3GAN, but getting to play Cady was definitely really fun.
M3GAN has just surpassed everybody’s expectations. It’s been a huge hit. I’m sure you get recognized a lot more. How has it sort of changed your day-to-day?
It’s been really fun. I love it when people come up to me and they just tell me that they loved M3GAN so much and it just makes me really happy. Some of them actually give me gifts, like they gave him bracelets and I wear those bracelets all the time, by the way. It just makes me so happy when they tell me that they loved the movie.
That’s so sweet. You got to work with the great Allison Williams. She plays your aunt in the movie. How was it sort of working with her as a scene partner? She’s such a professional.
I loved working with Allison so much. She is so nice and super funny and we both had like kind of the same personality, which I feel like that’s why we got along really well and she just felt she was such an amazing, talented actor and I really hope that I can work with her again if she plays my aunt again. That’s why I’m really excited to work with her again and M3GAN too.
That’s so exciting. There are so many memorable scenes within M3GAN, so I was curious if you had a favorite one that really sticks out when you just think about filming.
Well, I have like two favorite scenes. So the first one was definitely, even though I was not in the scene, but M3GAN’s iconic dance. I was so shocked when I saw it. I was like, “Oh, they’re giving her a dance.” But it was so amazing and I love how viral it got on TikTok. My second favorite scene was probably filming when I had the gloves and I got to control Bruce. That was one of my favorite scenes because I felt like a superhero and even though it wasn’t like all happening in front of me when I was controlling him, I just had to imagine it in my head and it looked so amazing when I saw it all finished on screen.
Thematically M3GAN is so interesting because it examines how we interact with technology and how we get attached. Has that made you think about your own usage? Have your parents maybe restricted your screen time? How has that gone?
Well, I mean, I’m not on my iPad that much. Usually, I’m just doing school and hanging out with my family. But usually, if I’m on my iPad, I’m either playing games with my siblings or things like that, but I’m not too attached.
You and M3GAN’s physical actor Amie Donald became close friends during filming. How great was it that you got to come up with that friendship almost similar to what we see on screen with the bond between M3GAN and Cady?
It was so fun working with Amie. She’s so sweet and super talented, and on lunch breaks we would always hang out with each other and there was this huge open area with this stage and a bunch of like seats up top and we would always play hide and seek in there. Since we developed a really strong bond in real life, it made it really easy for me since me and Amie are best friends and M3GAN and Cady are best friends. It really helped when we were filming those kind of scenes.
You’ve been in several horror movies at this point. What do you enjoy most about working within that genre so far?
It’s really fun to be a part of scary movies because it’s cool to be a part of something that might actually like scare people and give them nightmares and just special effects, the music, and things like that. And all the makeup, the jump scares. It’s just really fun to be a part of scary movies.
Does it ever actually like freak you out a bit while filming? I feel like I would get scared.
Well, I usually don’t get that scared because there’s a lot of people around me, like the cameraman, the, like, the whole crew and everything. So, and it’s definitely wasn’t scary when I was like working with Amie Donald, but even when she was in the M3GAN costume, because we were so close. I know there’s a very sweet person inside of it. So I never really got scared
I thought it was so amazing that your siblings are actors as well. I saw your sister in the black phone. Are you hoping to work with some of them in the future on the same project?
It’s always been a dream of mine to work with any of my siblings. Like, I’ve done some commercials with my brothers, but it would be so fun to just work with them on a movie for a very long time so that way we could just hang out with each other for a very long time. But it’s always been a dream of mine to be in a movie or a show with my siblings.
That would be incredible. As you mentioned, M3GAN 2.0 has been talked about. How exciting is it that this was such a success and people loved your character so much that they want to see Cady’s journey continue?
I love that people are loving it. I think that it’s really funny, like I love Cady so much and I love that some people are calling her their favorite character and it makes me so grateful to be a part of such an amazing iconic film. But it was just really amazing. I was in shock when I like heard how fast M3GAN 2.0 was coming. I’m like, “Oh, already? Okay.” But I’m so excited to work with that whole crew again. But I’m so glad people loved the film so much.
My favorite scene of the movie was when M3GAN sings “Titanium.” I thought that was so hilarious. When you filmed that scene was that always the song in mind or was it sort of generic?
It was actually like always this the song in mind because they had to have the doll lip sync the words. But it was really funny because at the time they had this like other voice sometimes for “Titanium,” like just for like the singing parts, but sometimes it would be the director Gerard calling out the lines. It was really funny. I just had to stay in character, but it was really funny.
The marketing for M3GAN was so incredible. They had all these girls dressing up like the doll in all these public places. How exciting was it that Universal just went full out with the marketing and it was such a fun campaign?
I was so happy about this. Like, my mom was like scrolling through Instagram and she like showed me this picture of the dolls, like at the, at a football game and I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I love how they like made them all, they actually all blanked at the same time too and it was like really cool. If I was like someone walking by that I would actually run away because I’d be terrified. But it would be, I love how the marketing like all, it was like really cool how they made a bunch of M3GANs.
Gerard did such a great job directing the movie, what stood out about working with him? He’s able to blend that horror with fun in such a great way.
He’s just such a good director. He is definitely one of the reasons why M3GAN is an amazing, incredible movie and he is so funny. I loved working with him so much and I love his New Zealand accent because all the people I’ve worked with, well, most of them at least were all had New Zealand accents and I love those accents so much. I, I, I think I’m a fan of accents, but he’s just so funny and I loved working with him and it would be really fun to have him as my director again in a different film.
You got to be in the Black Widow movie. That had to be so exciting to play a younger version of Florence Pugh. How was that?
It was amazing. Before that, it was always a big, big dream of mine to be a part of a Marvel film. I could not believe it when they told me I booked it. I was in shock. I literally started crying. I was so happy. When I got to set and I saw all the amazing sound stages and I got to meet Scarlett Johansson, which was insane because she was my favorite Marvel character and I could not believe it, but it was a big dream of mine to just be a part of a Marvel film. When it finally happened, I could not believe it.
