Amie Donald wasn’t a fan of horror films until landing in the M3gan franchise. Now, “I love them so much,” she said. Photo / Meghan Marin, The New York Times
The sunny 15-year-old New Zealand dancer-turned-actress is about as far as you can get from the role she’s best known for: a deadly AI doll.
Onscreen, Amie Donald is best known for her role as the killer robot M3gan in the sci-fi horror franchise.
But, in real life, Donald, 15, spends a majority of her days in the idyllic, sun-soaked setting of lushly forested New Zealand, where kiwi roam and she’s apt to take a bush walk outside her parents’ home in suburban Auckland.
“I really enjoy all the nature here,” she said on a video call from the house on a recent morning. Her long brown hair fell in beachy waves as sunlight danced on her white sweater. Framed photos of her and her parents and her older brother filled the walls behind her.
Donald is about the furthest you could get from the cutthroat killer robot returning in the new sequel, M3gan 2.0. For one thing, she smiles far too much. Other people, she said, would describe her as “very caring”. She wasn’t a fan of horror films until landing M3gan – though she’s since started watching them with her father, and now counts It and The Purge among her favourites. “I love them so much,” she said.
M3gan, the robot that becomes frighteningly protective of a young girl named Cady, was Donald’s first role in a film, following her TV debut as Maya Monkey, an acrobatic girl with simian features, in Netflix’s post-apocalyptic series Sweet Tooth.
But despite the fact that another actor – 21-year-old Jenna Davis – provides M3gan’s voice, and a synthetic mask serves as her face, this wasn’t simply a plug-and-play operation, Donald said. She got the chance to shape the character’s physicality, working with New Zealand director Gerard Johnstone to develop moves like the “cobra rise” from the ground that M3gan pulls off without using her arms, as well as figuring out how to run on all fours through the woods.
“My dance background definitely helped,” said Donald, who worked with her longtime dance teacher and choreographer, Kylie Norris, to develop the M3gan dance scene that went viral in 2023.
In an interview, she shared her favourite stunt from the new film and the most challenging aspect of the role. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: How did this part first come across your radar?
A: I’ve been dancing since I was 5, and my dance teacher, Kylie, kept telling me that I needed to go for auditions because she thought I’d do really well. I was like, “OK, I’ll give it a try.” It only took a week for them to cast me, and it was so exciting when I got the role.
Q: What was the reaction to the first movie like?
A: I was not expecting this movie to be as big as it was. And because the dance was never in the script for the first movie, it was really shocking. I felt really honoured that people were doing the dance and adding their own choreography to it.
Q: What was the most challenging part?
A: I had to wear this silicone mask, and I had to see out of these little tiny holes. When I was in it for a while, it would start to fog up because it had a little glass covering, so I couldn’t see. On the second movie, I had a lot more vision.
Q: What was it like acting while wearing that?
A: When I put the mask on, it helps me get into character more. It’s quite humid, but you get used to it.
Q: You worked with Kylie Norris to create that viral dance in the original M3gan. Did you have any other ideas that were incorporated into that movie or the sequel?
A: Gerard and I discussed for a while how we wanted M3gan to move. We ended up that she starts off really robotic, but the more that she hangs out with Cady, the more slow and childlike she gets with her movements, because, as her programming, she’s been set to learn about a child. So she’s adapting to what she’s learning.
Q: Even though you have a stunt double, it’s an incredibly physical role. How did you prepare?
A: They had me training in kickboxing and doing wing chun training (a form of close combat) for the second movie, because it’s a lot more physical this time around. I really enjoyed it, and I had a lot of people helping me throughout.
Q: Was that you or your stunt double, Megan Morrison, in the scene in the new one where she does the splits while sliding under the table?
A: That was my stunt double, Megan. She’s amazing.
Q: You did get to do some of your own stunts though, too, right?
A: Me and my stunt double both did quite a lot of stunts, so they had me in stunt training as well. I would warm up with the stunt team every day before I went on set, because I love doing my own stunts. That’s one thing I was talking to Gerard about, and he was like, “We’ll make sure that you get to do some.”
Q: What was your favourite?
A: I really enjoyed the wing chun sequence on the wooden dummy, because I trained for so long doing that. It was so nice to just finally do it in front of the camera and see how it turned out. I also loved the scene where M3gan is flying. It was really fun to film because I was on the big rig wire.
Q: How do you feel about M3gan? Is she good? Bad? Somewhere in between?
A: She is a very complicated robot. She really loves Cady, and she would do anything to protect her, no matter what. But she’s a very sassy person.
Q: What do you want to do next? Dance, film, TV, theatre?
A: I would love to stay filming. I love all of my stunt work, so I’d like to do more action movies. Or it’d be cool to stay in the horror genre. I really enjoy it.
Q: What is your dream role?
A: I would love to be in the Stranger Things series. I would love to work with Millie Bobby Brown. She’s amazing.
Q: When you aren’t playing a killer robot, what do you do for fun?
A: I love to get out my sketchbook and just draw. I like to draw in pen because you can’t erase anything. It’s more of a challenge.
Q: It’s only been three years since the first film came out, but the AI-goes-rogue plotline resonates much more strongly now. Do you use ChatGPT or any kind of AI in your classes?
A: I don’t use AI, but I’ve seen a lot of videos online that I think are real people, but they’re not. It’s an AI-generated image. It’s so crazy how much AI has evolved.
Q: How do you feel about AI? Are you excited? Curious? Scared?
A: I’m excited! I can’t wait to see how AI can be evolved even more and become part of our lives on a day-to-day basis.
Q: That ... is what M3gan would say.
A: (Smiles)
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Sarah Bahr
Photographs by: Meghan Marin
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