Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an American actress and singer. Her first major role was that of Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera Passions. She came to wider attention for her roles in the horror series Wolf Lake, the horror films Final Destination 3 and Death Proof, and the slasher film Black Christmas ; by the end of the 2000s she had gained a reputation as a scream queen.
Further success came with her roles as John McClane's daughter in Live Free or Die Hard and Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Her critically acclaimed performance as an alcoholic struggling with sobriety in the drama Smashed was followed by a series of roles in other independent films, including The Beauty Inside, The Spectacular Now, Faults, Alex of Venice, and Swiss Army Man. Winstead had further horror film roles in The Thing, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Since 2013, Winstead has performed as music duo Got a Girl with Dan the Automator.
Winstead returned to television with the drama series The Returned, the comedy series BrainDead, the medical drama series Mercy Street, and the third season of the crime drama Fargo. Her other roles include the comedy-drama All About Nina, the action film Gemini Man, the Huntress in Birds of Prey, and Hera Syndulla in the Star Wars series Ahsoka.
Early life
Winstead was born on November 28, 1984, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Her parents are Betty Lou and James Ronald Winstead She is the youngest of their five children. Her grandfather, Ambler William Winstead, was a cousin of actress Ava Gardner. When she was five years old, her family moved to Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. In Sandy, she attended Peruvian Park Elementary and took advanced classes. She studied dance in a Joffrey Ballet summer program in Chicago and sang in the International Children's Choir. During her youth, she hoped to pursue a career as a ballerina and appeared in local ballet productions. As she entered her teens, she was forced to quit ballet due to her height. She later said, "I realized pretty early on that I was already too tall by the time I was 13... You know, your body has to stay that way for your entire life, and it's pretty hard on your muscles and your bones." Realizing a dance career was unlikely, she turned to acting. As she was still a teenager at the time, this required her to be homeschooled through most of high school.Career
Acting
1997–2004
Winstead appeared in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond. After her brief performance in that show, Winstead began making appearances in various television series and earned guest roles in Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. She gained her first major role as Jessica Bennett in the NBC soap opera Passions, from 1999 to 2000. She left to pursue other interests, later stating, "I really had one of the smallest roles on Passions, so I didn't get too involved... I was able to leave pretty easily". Winstead's next significant television role was in the short-lived CBS drama series Wolf Lake, as the daughter of Tim Matheson's character. The series was canceled after ten episodes. In 2004, Winstead played a supporting role in MTV's made-for-television film Monster Island. She was offered a role in the film A Cinderella Story, but turned it down as she had just graduated from school and was going on a cruise with friends.2005–2011
Following a minor role in the indie comedy Checking Out, she took on a larger role as a school senior turned the main antagonist in the Walt Disney Pictures film Sky High, about an airborne school for teenage superheroes. Winstead said of her role, "I bounced around. I was either the hero of the sidekicks or the sidekick to the heroes." The film was released on July 29, 2005, receiving favorable reviews, and budgeted at US$35 million, it grossed US$63.9 million domestically.Winstead then began working with filmmakers James Wong and Glen Morgan, previously known for their contributions to The X-Files. She starred in the 2006 horror movie Final Destination 3 as lead character Wendy Christensen, the "beleaguered heroine who experiences the premonition" that sets the story in motion. The production was a commercial success, but received a mixed response from critics. Winstead's performance fared positively with reviewers; James Berardinelli stated she "does as competent a job as one could expect in these dire circumstances," while Felix Gonzalez, Jr found her "likeable" in her role. Winstead would collaborate again with Morgan and Wong later that year, in the slasher film Black Christmas. The movie, a loose remake of the 1974 film of the same name, follows a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered by the house's former inhabitants during a winter storm. It received poor reviews, but earned her a nomination for Scream Queen at the 2007 Scream Awards. Winstead got a chance to lampoon horror scream queens when Tonight Show host Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door and included her in a comedy segment spoofing horror films.
She appeared in Emilio Estevez's Bobby, a 2006 film depicting the last hours of Robert F. Kennedy. Winstead became interested in Bobby after learning that Anthony Hopkins would appear in the film. A moderate box office success in selected theaters, Bobby received mixed reviews with many criticisms directed at the film's script. The film's cast was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture, but won the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast.
In 2007, Winstead appeared in a pair of high-profile event films. Quentin Tarantino cast her as a well-intentioned but vapid and naïve actress in Death Proof, his high-speed segment of the double–feature exploitation horror Grindhouse. She appeared alongside Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Zoë Bell, and Kurt Russell in the movie's second part, which followed a psychopathic stunt man, played by Russell, stalking and murdering young women. It is the second film to feature Winstead with Russell, although she only filmed scenes with Dawson, Thoms, and Bell. The production under-performed commercially but attracted significant media buzz and critical acclaim, Variety magazine noted that Death Proof "proves its worth as a stand-alone feature" and found Winstead's "emergence" to be "one agreeable plus ". Her next film appearance of the year was opposite Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard, portraying John McClane's estranged daughter, Lucy. The movie grossed US$383.5 million and was highly acclaimed.
She starred in a lead role in Make It Happen, a dance film. The film went straight to DVD in the United States, and fared poorly in its UK release. Nevertheless, it proved a delight for Winstead, who once dreamed of being a dancer. Critics agreed that she was the film's best asset. Reviewer Mike Martin wrote, "Winstead infuses every moment with an amazing amount of charm". Matthew Turner of ViewLondon wrote, " compensates for the generally poor direction."
Winstead co-starred opposite Michael Cera in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, an adaptation of the comic-book Scott Pilgrim, under the direction of Edgar Wright. Her role was Ramona Flowers, a mysterious delivery girl and Scott's love interest. Winstead went through fight training for two months and performed most of her own stunts. Filming occurred from March to August 2009, and the film was released in late 2010, to critical acclaim but poor box office returns. Winstead's performance was well received generally, and earned her a Teen Choice Awards nomination for Choice Actress Action.
Winstead was cast as the lead female in the 2011 prequel film to 1982's The Thing, which followed a group of scientists who discover an alien buried deep in the ice of Antarctica, realizing too late that it is still alive. Winstead portrayed paleontologist Dr. Kate Lloyd, a character she based on her sister, a neurologist. The production received a U.S. theatrical release on October 14, 2011, garnering a mixed critical reception and little commercial interest. Critics singled out Winstead for praise in her performance, with Las Vegas Weekly asserting that she "makes for an appealing protagonist, and Kate is portrayed as competent without being thrust into some unlikely action-hero role".
2012–2014
Winstead appeared opposite Aaron Paul in Smashed, an independent drama directed by James Ponsoldt about a married alcoholic couple whose relationship is put to test when the wife decides to get sober. She said that the film was shot in 19 days. Screened during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Winstead's performance earned her rave reviews, with JoBlo.com calling it: "the type of performance that could be Award-worthy if given the right kind of build-up by whichever studio picks it up". The film was released theatrically on October 12, 2012, and saw Winstead snagging the Dallas International Film Festival Award for Best Actress. During a promotional interview for the movie with website Collider, she expressed pride in working on an independent project: "It's something I've been trying to do for years and years It's almost like my first movie in a weird way, cause it's my first movie in this world, which is a world I've been trying to break into. to be around filmmakers that are trying new things and not part of the system, so to speak, and they're doing things on their own terms."Winstead played the role of Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Benjamin Walker in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The film, also released in 2012, received a mixed critical response while it flopped at the box office. Nevertheless, critics praised Winstead's performance. The San Jose Mercury News called Winstead "a standout", and the Illinois Times film critic wrote, "Winstead humanizes Mary by giving her a fiery wit and sense of resolve in the face of considerable adversity". Winstead was commended for scenes opposite Benjamin Walker, with Little White Lies writing that they shared: "a sweet chemistry that gives their handful of scenes an endearing warmth".
In 2012, Winstead and Topher Grace appeared in The Beauty Inside, an "interactive social film". It was broken into six filmed episodes interspersed with interactive storytelling, all on Alex 's Facebook timeline. He awakes each day with a different appearance; Winstead appeared as Leah, Alex's love interest. The web series served as an advertising campaign for Intel and Toshiba; it ran from August 16 through September 20, 2012.
Winstead was also cast in Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, as Kate, "the best friend of girlfriend who just broke up with him. She is not so supportive of their relationship." The film reunited her with Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza, her collaborators on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Winstead next co-starred with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Jessica Alba, Amy Poehler, and Catherine O'Hara in A.C.O.D., portraying Lauren Stinger, the "long-time girlfriend of Carter and the rock in his increasingly chaotic life." Although the film received mixed reviews, Winstead's acting was singled out by the Washington Post: "Winstead brings surprising depth to a small role, in which she has little to do except wait for her boyfriend to grow up, or to at least let go of his cynicism about love." Screen Rant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: " and also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III and A.C.O.D. both received a limited theatrical run in North America.
Winstead collaborated again with James Ponsoldt in The Spectacular Now as Holly, the sister of Miles Teller's lead character. She appeared with Brie Larson, her co-star in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and with Shailene Woodley, Kyle Chandler, and Bob Odenkirk. The film garnered critical acclaim and was an arthouse success. Next, Winstead briefly reprised her role in the film A Good Day to Die Hard, shooting her scenes in only one day. Winstead stated in an interview with Yahoo! that she was not expecting another sequel but " the father-daughter rapport." Winstead's scene was only available in the theatrical version, and was cut from the unrated version.
In 2014, Winstead was given the title role in Alex of Venice, directed by Chris Messina and penned by Jessica Goldberg. She played "an environmental lawyer who is left to raise her 12-year-old son alone after her husband bolts." Premiering at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, reviews for the film were mostly positive, with many critics praising Winstead's part in it; Variety magazine called her performance "extraordinary", saying the film: "belongs to Winstead, whose minor-key thesping proves as compelling as her heavy lifting in Smashed. Alex's gradual metamorphosis into a richer, more fully realized young woman is accomplished in hundreds of tiny emotional brushstrokes, flitting across her girl-next-door wholesomeness in ever-shifting patterns". Website Twitch Film wrote:
has matured from her early roles in horror films, to more impressive fare such as Smashed. She has grace, courage, knows how to move the audience and the camera loves her. While her resume up 'til now is a mix of blockbusters and indie favorites, this will change as she continues to grow into her profoundly blossoming career. This is an actress ready to do great things. As Alex, she always wears a look of determination, even when she's exhausted and losing the new battles thrown at her: learning how to be alone, taking care of her family and keeping the job she's worked her entire life for. Alex is a tender soul but does her damnedest to keep it together. It's an admirable trait not many can do, let alone be challenged with.
In 2014, Winstead starred in Stearns' debut feature film Faults. Winstead and co-star Leland Orser were praised for their performances, with Film School Rejects calling it an "exceptional performance" and Indiewire saying " inscrutable expression epitomizes this unique movie's enigmatic appeal", and even "ranks among her best". Winstead was next cast alongside Jeremy Renner and Rosemarie DeWitt in Kill the Messenger. The thriller tells the true story of investigative journalist Gary Webb. Winstead portrayed Dawn Garcia, Webb's editor at the San Jose Mercury News. It received a limited theatrical release on October 10, 2014, to favorable reviews but little commercial interest.