Mary Elizabeth Winstead really didn’t know she was making a Cloverfield movie
The Scott Pilgrim and Birds Of Prey star thought she was making a different movie
Signing on to make a monster movie must be a stressful venture. How does one get into the mindset of being eaten by a gigantic, flesh-eating alien? Ask Stella Adler because we don’t have an answer for you. Luckily for Mary Elizabeth Winstead, when she signed up for 10 Cloverfield Lane, she didn’t know she was making a Cloverfield movie.
Speaking to Collider in support of her Netflix movie Kate, Winstead revealed that she didn’t learn of any Cloverfield ties until just before release. Back in 2014, Winstead signed on to make a one-location thriller called The Cellar. If you’ve seen 10 Cloverfield Lane, this probably makes sense, considering more of the movie takes place in a basement.
During the film’s production, Cloverfield producer J.J. Abrams realized he could turn this little pot-boiler into a Cloverfield movie without even needing to tell his cast, including Winstead. She said:
It was all definitely after the fact because I didn’t know it was a Cloverfield movie until just before it came out. I had no idea it was a Cloverfield movie! It was an idea that was floated around but wasn’t something that was really, officially like, ‘This is part of that universe.’ It was its own standalone film and then, just before the movie came out, spoke with JJ and it was like, ‘Oh no, this is gonna be part of the Cloverfield franchise.’ And I really didn’t know what to think of it at first because I hadn’t really wrapped my brain around it and then, once everything got laid out and it made sense and the marketing for it came out, I was like, ‘Oh, I see how this fits together, this kind of puzzle,’ and it’s actually really smart.”
Of course, Winstead’s comments don’t explain the film’s Cloverfield-style ending, where a pack of aliens attack her truck and lift it into the air with their tentacles. She must’ve assumed that she was just in some other alien movie, considering the aliens here don’t really resemble the Cloverfield monster.
The real question is, did the stars of The Cloverfield Paradox know they were in a Cloverfield movie.