SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “M3GAN 2.0,” in theaters now.
M3GAN slays, but Allison Williams is mother. The “Girls” alum reprises her role as reluctant guardian and brilliant roboticist Gemma in “M3GAN 2.0,” also returning as a producer for the film from Blumhouse and Universal.
The sequel sees Gemma and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) team with M3GAN against a common enemy: an advanced military android named AMELIA who threatens to destroy the world. While Gemma, who’s become a parenting guru as she advocates for limiting technology’s role in children’s lives, is initially hesitant to join forces with M3GAN (she did try to kill her, after all), she eventually learns to embrace the bot’s special set of skills and finally connect with Cady in a meaningful way. There are a few casualties (and even a Kate Bush song) along the way, but Gemma comes out the other side as a better mom with a fresh perspective on technology and life.
For Williams, Gemma’s transformative journey in “M3GAN 2.0” was a lot to wrap her head around. “This sweater vest-wearing founder, who’s speaking French at the French Consulate and trying to get a bill passed on AI reform, by the end of the movie, is bloody having fought guards with her exosuit and watched her suitor get completely annihilated. And saved the world with M3GAN! That ride is just so fun. I wish I could wipe my memory of this movie and watch it for the first time.”
Williams opens up about the sequel’s tonal shift, Gemma’s parenting skills and of course, M3GAN’s unforgettable musical performance in conversation with Variety ahead of the film’s premiere.
Was there a sense of pressure returning to this world after the success of the first film?
There’s so many different ways to mess up a sequel. Now I understand why it’s so hard! There are a lot of different competing pressures on your mind. You’re like, “I want to give everyone what they loved the first time.” But then you’re like, “But people want to see something else.” Luckily, in our case, we had a Gerard. Gerard just has ideas and executes them in his very particular way. He is not doing any of that reverse engineering thinking. He’s just coming up with the funniest, most off-kilter next thing, and just follows his instincts towards a story that somehow feels always like it had to be this, but was created completely by him following his gut.
The genre blend with action happened as a byproduct of what he thought should naturally proceed from the events of the first movie. And it just happens to be inherently funny that Gemma is in an action movie, and M3GAN adding “action star” to her list of hyphenates is pretty awesome.
In the first movie, I was rooting for M3GAN because she was having so much fun while doing terrible things. But in this one, I really started to feel for her.
Totally! You start to feel for her, and you also get the sense that the fate of the world might be in her hands. I also think it’s such a fun thought experiment, because it’s not like she becomes a different person. She’s still cunty. She’s just cunty and responsible for saving them. That’s a dream girl, in my opinion.
Both “M3GAN” films are allegories for the parenting experience, and we see Gemma become somewhat of a mommy guru in the sequel. Your new podcast, “Landlines,” touches on parenting as well – did you draw any inspo from her?
Oh my gosh, that would be an incredible inspiration. The podcast was inspired by, I’m happy to say, my other part of my life – my friends from childhood. [Co-hosts Hope Kremer and Jaymie Oppenheim] are two of my best friends in my whole life. We started a show to talk about the stage of life that we’re in, and it’s not just parenting, but we definitely talk about being moms in this era. Gemma’s book would get a big eyeroll from the three of us. Our show is exactly the kind of thing that Gemma should be consuming: your relationship to your kid and your partner and being an adult and what it means to balance all of your identities. The Gemma at the beginning of this movie badly needs to do some thinking around her many identities and how well or poorly she’s managing to balance all of them, and the irony of her looking out for all kids and unfortunately, not paying close enough attention to the one that she’s loves and is responsible for.
My relationship to parenting running in parallel with this franchise has just been so fascinating and wonderful, and I feel very grateful to have these movies to work on as I am progressing myself through parenthood. Even though Cady is older than my son when they came into our respective lives, we’ve spent exactly the same amount of time being parents. So we’re learning together, and it’s great.
This film reminds us that, in a way, Gemma is M3GAN’s mother. Gemma finally seems to accept that when she refuses to leave M3GAN to die. What was behind that moment?
Yes, exactly. That moment is so intense because for Gemma, who functions so logically, the idea of leaving her behind just feels wrong. Cady’s been chomping at the bit the whole movie to get involved and be allowed to have a relationship with technology. For Gemma to “let her” come with her to go get M3GAN feels indicative of the fact that she’s really made a lot of progress through the course of this movie. Could one call it reckless parental behavior? Of course! She’s bringing her daughter into a very, very dangerous situation. It’s the kind of gesture that is exactly what Cady has been asking for: “See me and take my desires and my interests seriously. Take me seriously as a person.” And that’s also kind of what M3GAN is asking. The “person” part? No. But the “seriously” part? Yes.
My favorite scene in the movie has to be when M3GAN sings “This Woman’s Work” to Gemma. What was it like filming that moment?
I played someone for many years where we dreaded songs from her. Now I’m in movies across from someone who we yearn to break into song, because we know it’ll be epic. It feels like karmic retribution or something for my years of singing as Marnie. That scene was one that we worked so hard on. It was such funny choreography for me to learn, because they had programmed her performance already before we filmed the scene, and I had to remember, “When does she thrust me down back into my chair? When does she touch my chin?” All of these things while keeping a straight face and keeping the stakes. And all I want to do is just watch her do this, because it was remarkable. And also burst into laughter – uncomfortable laughter. It is a little bit moving too, and it’s a beautiful, meaningful song. It’s exactly what Gerard does best. It’s this moment where it’s 17 competing emotions, and what comes out is laughter, but really what’s happening inside is way more complicated.
The film really examines the role of technology and AI in our lives. How do you feel about the use of AI when it comes to filmmaking?
I should come up with the perfect answer, because I am going to get asked this a lot, but the truth is, I don’t know. It’s happening as we speak. It’s already very blurry. The thing that I don’t yet feel has been totally replicated in machines is, and this sounds tautological, but I don’t think it is: humanity. I’m relying on machines not being able to do a good enough impression of what it’s like to watch me on screen, in all of my imperfect ways. It would do too good an impression, and would be delivering too perfect a performance that wouldn’t feel human, and maybe that would feel less accessible.
I’m banking on the fact that we as creatives have something to bring to the table that [AI] can’t yet. And I’m saying yet, because life is long. Some of the movies that AI is capable of putting together instantaneously are breathtaking and so uncanny. But humans are a very specific kind of breed in that we are all deeply flawed, and I think a model that’s learning every second and iterating and getting smarter and better and more precise is going to struggle to replicate the human error that we are so well known for. Ironically, it’s our flaws as a species that give me hope that it’ll be pretty hard to replace us with machines when it comes to the creative pursuits.
We’re gonna have to just find our way along and try to keep our eye on the prize, which is making sure humanity gets most of our attention and that we are being good stewards of the algorithms that we bring into the world. I’m already a female actress. We’ve got an expiration date, famously. (laughs) Don’t let the machines come for me first!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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