Ever since the first trailer for the new sci-fi horror movie M3GAN dropped, the internet has been going feral over every aspect of the child-sized AI robot – her babydoll dresses, blonde hair, Mary Jane shoes, her penchant for Taylor Swift tracks, her decision to murder anyone who got in her way. A gay icon was born! One that would be destined to have legions of TikTok fancams and decades of Halloween costumes dedicated to her in the years to come.
With the movie already being heralded as both a box office and critical success already – released in the US last weekend and hitting UK theatres this week on 13 January – more M3GAN is sure to be on the way. Here, we chat to film director Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and costume designer Daniel Cruden (Avatar: The Way of Water) about how they made horror’s latest it girl, from unexpected moodboards to considering the legacy of the horror doll.
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Did you expect that people would react to M3GAN the way they did when the trailer dropped?
Gerard: The public is so hard to please. You’re expecting the worst and bracing yourself for it. To be greeted with such enthusiasm was such a sigh of relief but also a massive surprise that she was so embraced. That was the main thing, knowing we had delivered on a really sassy, fun character that people could get behind.
Daniel: In terms of the reaction to the film, I’m not entirely surprised. I read the script in one sitting and I think that’s a telling sign about a film. But the interesting reaction was to M3GAN herself and how the gay community see her as, for lack of better words, this boss bitch. I think it’s amazing she has this status, it’s just so cool. There was this tweet I saw on Buzzfeed where someone had cut together [scenes of her] with the Todrick Hall song “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” and that was amazing. It’s so fun!
Why do you think she resonated with the gay community specifically?
Daniel: On a very simple level, I wonder whether it’s to do with the whole dress up doll thing. But it’s also the fact that she has this fierce attitude and is just a force really, isn’t she? She just gives off all those vibes.
Gerard: When we were doing the test screening, I remember saying that I had this feeling she would be popular with the gay community, just from experiences with some shows I’ve done. I knew she would be popular and a small percentage would be rooting for her but I didn’t realise it would be so immediate and the gay community would almost take the marketing campaign on themselves.
As gay people we do love a chaotic evil queen. While crafting her look did you go into it with the intention of creating an icon?
Gerard: When we were designing her I was very specific with everyone that she has to be iconic. That was a word I just kept using over and over again. If we’re doing this right, we had to be creating our own horror icon. She feels like something people could dress up as for Halloween. If anything didn’t feel quite right, it’s because it just didn’t feel iconic enough.
Who or what was on the moodboard for M3GAN’s look?
Daniel: Gerard had a very strong concept of what he wanted for M3GAN’s look and put together these research boards. There was a lot of classic Old Hollywood and Audrey Hepburn. We looked at a lot of references from Gucci because they challenge traditional shapes. I think she’d nestle right into a Gucci campaign.
Gerard: I remember so many late nights on Pinterest looking at high-end clothing and fashion. Also vintage fashion because I wanted there to be something timeless about her. [I looked at] a lot of advertising and fashion editorials from the 50s when fashion had a bit more class and garments felt like they had more of a richness and texture. We also looked at screen icons like Grace Kelly and Kim Novak because M3GAN had to be a counterpoint to those tacky plastic dolls you buy in Target. She had to ooze sophistication and grace.
There is something about M3GAN that is like the it girls of previous eras. She looks a bit like an Olsen sister rather than a little girl doll. Did any of those celebrities play into her look?
Daniel: Yeah, she wasn’t meant to be too girly because she’s a high-end product with a high-end price tag. She’s a work of art for Gemma and she wants to make sure M3GAN’s not like other toys and so her look is more high-end and sophisticated.
Gerard: I totally see it but it was unintentional. I was not looking at anything from the Olsen sisters. She’s a reflection of Gemma. She starts out making these things that are a bit like Furbies called Perpetual Petz and they are loud and crass and they fart and they poop pellets and it’s mass-manufactured kid’s crap basically and M3GAN is a counterpoint to that. I wanted the unveiling of M3GAN to feel like an amazing car at one of those 50s auto shows where the car is on a turnstile and the cover is ripped off and everyone is like “oh my God”. That was the impetus behind it all.
How did you try to differentiate M3GAN from other evil dolls such as Chucky or Annabelle?
Daniel: Quite a big part of designing M3GAN was making sure we didn’t create just another Chucky doll and create something unexpected and I think that’s why she’s had such an impact with people [online] as well.
Gerard: We couldn’t have her in overalls. Anything that had her in overalls it was like, nope, that’s Chucky. We didn’t want Katie in them either as we didn’t want that connection. Annabelle was in these big doll dresses and so we couldn’t have her in that and then Peter Pan collars were too The Shining and are pretty synonymous with scary young girls in horror movies so we wanted to stay clear of all of that.
You had both a robotic doll and a young actress playing the role of M3GAN. How did that impact the look and design of her?
Gerard: When we [initially] designed her she was brunette and she was a lot leaner. She always had a big, round face but she was a lot more vampirish and she was actually too skinny. The methodology was that she was going to be also played by a young girl and so we couldn’t have a really skinny doll that didn’t match an actual girl. She looked like a doll on paper but young kids are, you know, chunkier because they’re little and babyish and so we realised we made a complete mistake and had to redesign her. Once all the animatronics were then in her face the physical doll was quite different from the sketch. That’s just the process, but I wasn’t prepared for that. We had a look on paper that we agonised over for months and got it perfect but then it all changed once she became a real thing.
Were there any ways you tried to showcase the darker side of M3GAN in her outfits and external look?
Daniel: I think she is more creepy and sinister in a way because she doesn’t give off any darker vibes. It makes it a bit more unexpected. You have this sweet-looking doll with a silk-satin A-line dress and a pussybow and I think I like that more than giving her a sinister edge.
Gerard: We looked at Vampire’s Wife as a reference. The problem with those outfits though is that they felt like eveningwear, you couldn’t imagine her chasing someone on all fours in them. There’s this local New Zealand designer I looked to for inspiration in the early stages called Karen Walker and babydoll dresses are kind of her thing. M3GAN had to be kiddy to a certain degree but the allegory of the film is that she’s more like a co-parent, and so there had to be that maturity too.
The history of the babydoll dress is this garment that has this sweet, childlike and innocent beginning and then was adapted by alt-fashion and punk movements and people like Courtney Love as a symbol of empowerment and rebellion. Did that history play into M3GANs look at all?
Daniel: I don’t think that reference played out in the first part of M3GAN, but that would be a nice transition for a punkier and darker side of her to come out in the sequel. I mean, maybe you’ve just given me the idea for the next film.
M3GAN in her grunge era. There are talks already underway for a M3GAN sequel, how do you think her look might change?
Daniel: Well, without giving too much away, we leave M3GAN in a different state by the end of the film and so it would be interesting to see where things go and whether, because she has more of her own thought processes, maybe she’s leaving that doll thing behind. We know what she’s about now, we know who she is, and so she’d absolutely adopt a darker look. I can imagine her becoming even more of an icon.
Gerard: We’d have to do something that’s different. For the first movie, although we were meant to have five or six outfits I’m really glad we didn’t and had one iconic look that people would then love and dress up as. She’s become everyone’s doll in a way and for the second movie it would be fun to see her in different outfits and us all playing collective dress up with her. A new hair-do, new makeup. We’re going to go for it.
Finally, out of curiosity, who do you think would win in a fight? M3GAN or Annabelle.
Gerard: Well, initially I thought because of Annabelle’s demonic powers she would have the edge but because of M3GAN’s super artificial intelligence she would probably figure it out. Annabelle would keep turning the lights off and M3GAN would keep turning them back on again.
M3GAN also has the entirety of the gay community to back her.
Gerard: Exactly, M3GAN has her army.
‘M3GAN’ is currently showing in US theatres and will be released in UK cinemas on 13 January 2023.
Credits
All images courtesy of Universal Pictures