Jenna Davis, Amie Donald and Violet McGraw
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It was a real M3GAN-palooza last night in Hollywood.
Universal Pictures rolled out the black carpet in front of TCL Chinese Theatre for the world premiere of Blumhouse’s next horror title, M3GAN. The Gerard Johnstone film centers on a brilliant toy company roboticist, played by Allison Williams, who fast-tracks a secret invention after a tragedy makes her the guardian of her 8-year-old niece, Cady, played by Violet McGraw. The invention: a lifelike doll named M3GAN that is paired with Cady to offer comfort and friendship, a decision that sets off a dramatic series of extreme events.
Universal brought the drama to the event, too, because M3GAN seemed to be everywhere you looked. First, it was influencer Kausha Campbell who was among the first VIP guests to walk the carpet and she did so dressed in an ensemble identical to what M3GAN wears in the viral trailer of the film.
Then, reps cleared the carpet for a surprise performance starring eight M3GAN lookalikes dancing to Taylor Swift’s “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” a track that is featured on the film’s newest trailer. The group, who also appeared at the after-party, performed the same dance inside the theater before the premiere.
But wait, there’s more. Über-producer Jason Blum arrived to the premiere dressed as M3GAN, recycling the costume he first wore to Blumhouse’s Halloween party in October.
“I love getting in drag anyway, no matter what the occasion is, but to have an occasion to wear my M3GAN costume again was a dream come true,” Blum told The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet. “I begged my [communications] team to allow me to do this again, and they finally said yes.”
Was that a tough negotiation to get the comms team to agree? “I had to do a little bit of hemming and hawing, but they know how much I like to wear the costume so it wasn’t terrible.”
Also not awful was the glam process. “I’ve done it twice now and the first time took about three hours. This time was less — about an hour and 45 minutes,” confirmed Blum. “I’ve got it down now. I might even do it a third time for Halloween ’23. Why not?”
If the response to Wednesday night’s premiere is any indication, the costume could be a huge hit by next October. Or sooner, since the film opens in theaters on Jan. 6. (The premiere was early to get ahead of the holiday break.) Directed by Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper based on a story conceived by Wan and hammered out by Wan with Cooper, the film also stars Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey and Stephane Garneau-Monten.
But about all of those M3GANs, technically, there were a few more in attendance. Not to spoil all the movie magic, but to capture what was needed for M3GAN’s performance, the filmmakers relied on a real robotic prototype in some scenes while others featured a young actress, Amie Donald, in a mask and gloves. Her voice came to life thanks to the talents of another young actress, Jenna Davis.
Aside from Williams, the actor who has the most screen time with M3GAN is McGraw, who tells THR that she loved every minute of it. “It was really fun because I had a scary, terrifying doll that was my best friend and it was a really cool experience hanging out with M3GAN to see how they did her,” says McGraw, who previously starred in The Haunting of Hill House. “They made an actual robot and had a puppeteer team that would make her eyes blink and move her arms and mouth.”
In another surprise twist, McGraw and Donald ended up becoming fast friends by the end of filming. “We became so close and would hang out on and off set, on our lunch breaks. Amie is the sweetest person you will ever meet and she’s definitely one of my best friends.”
Friendship and professional success also brought Williams to the role. She first worked with Blum and Blumhouse on the critical and commercial smash Get Out. “Jason said, ‘I think we have the next one to do with you,’” Williams recalled of how the project came her way. “I was basically ready to say yes before even reading it or hearing anything about it. Then I read the script and was like, ‘I’m in.’ Then I talked to Gerard and was like, ‘I’m in.’ Then he said it was James Wan producing and he came up with the idea, and I was like, ‘I’m even more in now.’ It felt like coming home because I had such a great experience on Get Out. It’s nice to be back in this group.”
But long before the group officially got back together, Blum said they had to make sure M3GAN was good enough to get invited to the party. “The challenge of the movie was M3GAN, obviously,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes before with special effects and so we did not start pre-production until we had M3GAN down perfectly. We worked on M3GAN for a year to figure out how much practical effects, how much VFX and how much CGI we wanted to use to create it. Sometimes we wanted the audience to forget that she was a robot and other times we wanted them to remember that she was a robot.”
No doubt Wednesday’s premiere audience had the same problem with so many M3GANs in attendance.
James Wan, Jason Blum, Akela Cooper, Allison Williams and Gerard Johnstone. Wan said during pre-screening comments that he came up with the idea during a weekly brainstorming session at his company. Cooper was brought on after a general meeting with the team at Atomic Monster. “Literally, the first thing that popped in my mind was her name. I knew she was going to be called Megan. My brain was just like, this is her name and here you go. I kind of had an idea of what she should be but it was nothing like this. [The creative team] took it to an 11 with the design and the execution.”
Alberto Rodriguez/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Ronny Chieng, in a custom suit by Albert Lam, tells THR that he was surprised by how rich the script was. “At first glance, when you hear ‘killer doll movie,’ I felt l like I knew where that was going but after I read the script, I realized that it’s also a relevant social commentary about how technology is raising our kids. The doll may be a gimmick to get people to watch the movie but there’s a lot of substance to it.”
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Brian Jordan Alvarez, a comedy actor and viral influencer, praised Johnstone as a filmmaker and said that even when he wasn’t needed on set, he was still glued to the monitors. “I was obsessed,” he says. “Gerard is so smart and the direction is so well done. It’s a gorgeous film and very striking. Even the image of M3GAN, I get why it’s gone viral because look at her, it’s so striking. When M3GAN went viral, I felt very vindicated because I knew this was a special movie when we were shooting.”
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Brian Williams, Joanne Stoddard Williams, Alexander Dreymon, Allison Williams, Douglas Williams and guest. “This is kind of surreal,” Williams says of the response to the film thus far. “You hope that the work is going to catch on in some way and you hope that it becomes buzzy or people talk about it but the response to the trailer alone has been in some other realm. I can’t even articulate how happy we were.”
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Jimmy Horowitz, Jason Blum, Peter Cramer and Veronica Kwan Vandenberg
Alberto Rodriguez/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images