How to Act Terrified, Courtesy of 'Cloverfield's Mary Elizabeth Winstead

To call Mary Elizabeth Winstead a " scream queer " would be to sell hershort . The 31 - year - old actress has look in every eccentric of horror - adjacent painting conceivable , encountering serial slayer , psychological terror , even the hand of God . But she ’s never a instrument in anyone ’s game . The strength she expose inScott Pilgrim vs. the Worldmade her the utter alien opponent in the remake ofThe affair . The hurt she summon to play a burn - out alcoholic inSmashedshared DNA with her run - like - hell performances inFinal Destination 3andBlack Christmas . Thus , while Winstead had the literary genre cred for10 Cloverfield Lane , the in style spikelet - prickle mystery story from manufacturer J.J. Abrams , her damn all right acting skills give the persona something more .

How do you play frightened with integrity ? We call for Winstead for her secrets . For the next time you want to rive the caper of a lifetime …

Listen to music that will psych you up

" I used to be really into that , with emotional stuff . This was back when I was first starting – I was a unlike individual then ! – but I had a lot of , like , Fiona Apple , and that sort of affair . Damien Rice . Got teared up . But now , the past few long time , I ’ve kind of gotten aside from that . I ’m more of just , commutation and recall about my own life and my own experience . I can click into that moderately promptly , so I do n’t have to be exceedingly deplorable off - solidifying . "

Scared people work out

" I did ballet through my teens , which does n’t seem like a long time , but it is in the ballet domain , where your career is over by 23 . And it helped , I think . It especially serve if you have fight view , especially for remember stage dancing , because it is like study a dancing , you know ? You have to know pace by pace exactly how it ’s move to go . I think hold the training of memorise movement physically , not just memorizing stock , is helpful . "

Commit to the stunt, and throw yourself into action

" I unquestionably have more self-assurance with [ stunt ] now . Sometimes too much . I think I can do things that I ca n’t really do . I have photos of my torso some years after shoot where I ’m literally covered in bruises . Like , I await like a blot animal or something . Covered in welts . I ’d be like , ' I do n’t even screw how this happen . I do n’t even know what I was doing that made it this bad . ' I think part of it is the character and just her despair . Take skip over over a board : when you ’re jumping over a table and you ’re frightened for your life , it ’s not going to be the smoothest jump in the world , you know ? I would end up ping myself around a bit . "

Exert energybeforegoing into gasp mode

" [ performing frightened ] is a bunch about brace . I run to do a lot of goofy , physical thing to strain to get there . I palpate like if I can play a joke on my body into thinking this is existent , then it kind of helps the emotion . I do a lot of , like , causing myself to hyperventilate . It ’s a pile of running in spot and push - ups . If I do n’t have a fortune of space , I ’ll get my body in a really unearthly berth and bear my breath for a prospicient time . I probably look insane . But it ’s a conjuring trick as opposed to just being super constitutive , coming at it emotionally , which is really operose . I cogitate fearfulness is one of the hardest thing to manifest out of nothing . You kind of have to do some little put-on sometimes . "

If you lose your voice screaming… keep screaming

" lately I was doing [ Automated Dialogue Replacement ] for [ Cloverfield ] , and the thing you do n’t agnise on exercise set is , when you ’re doing a passel of heavy breathing and screech and a lot of that material , in order for it to all delete together , you have to do the whole matter all over again [ in a studio ] . It ’s all rendered superfluous at the remnant of the day . So I was in ADR for hours , basically pass through the whole movie . Any metre I have scenes where I ’m just breathe or crying or call , I ’m redoing all of that . And they have to verify it all flux seamlessly , so I have to do it over again , anyway . By the end of the session , my screams are just sounding like a slight son run short through puberty . The spokesperson just hold cracking , and Dan [ Trachtenberg , music director ] was like , ' Can you do it without the vocalism crack ? ' I ’m like , ' I ’m trying ! I ’m losing my interpreter ! ' "

Matt Patchesis Thrillist ’s amusement editor . He previously wrote forGrantland , Esquire.com , Vulture , The Hollywood newsperson , andThe Guardian . His favorite scary movie isKill tilt . regain him on Twitter@misterpatches .

Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 10 Cloverfield Lane