M3GAN Interview: Amie Donald on Dancing and Acting a New Horror Icon

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with M3GAN star Amie Donald about the wildly popular horror flick, which is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital. Donald opened up about his dance history and his real-life connection to Violet McGraw, who plays Cady.

"M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a realistic doll programmed to be a child's best companion and a parent's best ally. Designed by the brilliant roboticist of the toy company Gemma (Allison Williams ), M3GAN can listen, watch, and learn as she becomes a friend and teacher, playmate, and protector to the child she is bonded to," the synopsis reads. "As Gemma faces the pressures at work of her boss (Ronny Chieng) to deliver a final version of M3GAN, she suddenly becomes the unprepared guardian of her newly orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw).Gemma decides to pair the M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to solve both issues, a decision that will have unimaginable consequences."

Tyler Treese: What I found so interesting about your role was that it was such a team effort. You did the physical movement, Jenna Davis provided the voice. Was it interesting when you finally got to see the final footage and how it all turned out?

Friend Donald: I thought that was really amazing. I think they did an amazing job pairing me with the animatronics and Jenna's voice. They did an amazing job there and they put it together so well. It's just… it looks amazing. It was great.

It was such a hit and instantly entered pop culture. Saturday Night Live made parodies of it. What did it mean to see the whole internet bothering about your movie role and what you and everyone else did so suddenly?

It was really crazy. I remember when it first got really big because I didn't expect it to get that big and everyone was doing their own dances and posting them. Everyone was going crazy for the movie. It was so amazing, but it was really crazy.

One of the things I thought was adorable is that there's now a bond between you and Violet, which is similar to what we see in the movie - although I don't think you go kill anybody. How special was it that the two of you got along so well on set and now have this friendship?

I think it's too good. I love Violet. She is incredible. She's one of my best friends and the first time we met we kind of clicked on each other and the more time we spent together the closer we got. We still stay in touch today. We are very close friends and I love him so much. She is amazing.

I heard you were in the Dance World Cup. Tell me a bit about your experience with dancing, as it ended up being a key role for M3GAN here.

I've been dancing since I was five years old and I really like it. It's been a big part of my life and I've traveled the world representing New Zealand. I went to Portugal for the Dance World Cup and got bronze and silver, and I'm the first Kiwi to bring back medals and I thought that was pretty cool. I also won the New Zealand and Australian championships. Dance has been a huge part of my life and I was so happy that I was able to incorporate some of my dancing into the film.

I was curious to know how dance was born. Was it heavily choreographed? Did they just let you do your thing? How did M3GAN's signature dance moves come about?

The dance was never in the script, but one day Gerard [Johnstone, director] came to see me and asked if my dance teacher would be able to choreograph the dance. We said, “Yeah, sure. And one day, me and my dance teacher, we went to the studio and we put together a few different dances. Then we just gave Gerard all the options and he picked his favorites and then yeah, that's how it went. It was really funny because it was never in the script, but it's such a big part of the movie.

It's amazing. I'm sure you watch TikTok and do dances that other people do. How crazy was it that everyone was doing the dance you inspired them to do?