Here at Sugar UK HQ we're always excited to chat with the stars, and we got the opportunity this week to speak with the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The American actress has starred in Death Proof and Die Hard 4.0 and plays the lead in Make It Happen, a film about following your dancing dreams, from the same writer who penned Save the Last Dance and Step Up. You can check out the trailer for the movie, which hits our screens on 8 August, and check back next week for my review.

  • Congratulations on your great performance. What attracted you to the role?
    Having the opportunity to dance in a film was really exciting to me. I was a dancer most of my life growing up, and wanted to be a dancer for a long time, so when the script came in and I saw I could dance in almost every scene I was pretty excited, and felt I couldn’t turn down that opportunity.

  • What was it that turned you from dancing to acting?
    Part of it was just a realisation of the physical toll that dancing takes on you. I didn’t know if I could handle that for a career; it's one thing to do it as a hobby and to do it as a kid, but to do it as a career is another thing. It has to be such a passion that it’s worth all of the horror [laughs] you have to go through on your body. So I felt like I wanted to perform but I wanted to do it in a way that maybe wasn’t so difficult on me.

To to see more stills from the movie, and find out what Mary said about her love for Michael Cera and working with Kurt Russell and Quentin Tarantino, read more

  • What is your favourite kind of dancing?
    I was a ballet dancer most of my life so that’s what comes most naturally to me, the light more airy kind of dancing [laughs]. But I had a lot of fun in this film doing the hip hop and the burlesque, even though it was different for me. It was a big change and a challenge, but it was really cool to step up to the challenge and to do it.

  • Do you think you’d ever perform on something like Dancing With The Stars?
    I don’t know. I think that hopefully the movie thing will go well for a while [laughs] but you never know, maybe one day.

  • Why do you think that dancing films are so popular?
    It might also have something to do with the kind of music that’s popular. Right now there’s a lot of dance and hip hop music that people are really into, and dance is the perfect way to express that and to be part of the music. I think that’s something that’s really entertaining to people, and really gets people going. But I think it’s always been popular, it kind of comes in waves, but it’s going to keep going for a long time I think.

  • Do you think you’d ever take on a musical on the stage or on film?
    Definitely, I would love to do Broadway one day or some sort of theatre of any kind really. I would really enjoy that.

  • What were your favourite moments during filming?
    I definitely had a favourite dance sequence, where I’m wearing a suit and a fedora and I get to rip the suit off and do all these really cool dance moves. The song was really cool, and the cinematic way it was shot. It really felt like it was my signature dance and it was really exciting to perform.

  • Did any of your favourite scenes get cut from the final version?
    Definitely. One of the heartbreaking things about it was all the dances were at least twice as long when we shot them than they are in the film. There’s so many moves that are cut out that were really difficult to learn and execute so it was hard to see that they had to be cut down. I was like “man, that took hours of training for me to learn that and it’s not even in the film” [laughs] so that was a little hard to take, but it happens.

    • Who are your acting, dancing and style inspirations?
      I love a lot of old Hollywood movie stars. I’m a huge fan of Natalie Wood and films like West Side Story. I love Audrey Hepburn and all of her films. Funny Face I love and so I definitely love a lot of old musicals and I would love to do something along those lines if that ever became popular again.

    • Which of your costars have you learnt the most from and enjoyed working with?
      Everyone’s been so great. Everyone on the film of Death Proof was amazing. All the girls I learnt so much from, and had such a fun time with Rosario [Dawson] and Tracie [Thoms] and Zoë [Bell]. Kurt Russell I’ve worked with twice. From watching him and the way he is on set and the way that he works, I’ve really learnt so much from him. He’s so down to earth; he’s so cool and so calm and professional. I really loved working with him.

    • Who would you love to work with in the future?
      Well it’s funny, the next film that I’m doing [Scott Pilgrim] I’m working with the person that I’ve kind of been obsessed with; Michael Cera. It’s really a dream project for me because Edgar Wright is a director that I’ve dreamed of working with and Michael Cera is an actor who I’m completely in love with, so I’m very excited to be working with them.

    • And finally, what’s been the highlight of your career so far?
      Working with Quentin Tarantino was a really big deal because I’m a huge fan of his and all his films. That was really a dream come true for me, and I’ll always be able to say that I worked with him and that I was part of one of his films. That’s always going to be a memory that I really cherish.

    I really enjoyed chatting with Mary, whose performance in Make It Happen really makes the film. Stay tuned for my review of the movie, coming soon...

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