Zach Cregger Gives Update on WEAPONS Aunt Gladys Prequel

“It is real, and I’ve been talking to Warner Bros. about it,” Cregger told Fangoria. “There’s a story and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s not bulls---. I was ready. I had it kind of in my pocket before the movie came out.”

Speaking to yours truly during the same home media press junket, Cregger spoke about Madigan’s performance and developing Gladys’…distinctive style.

Nerdist: When the movie was coming out, we were really trying hard not to spoil anything. But now everybody can speak about how great Amy Madigan is in the movie. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about working with her and kind of developing Gladys as a character that seems both real and intensely scary at the same time.

Zach Cregger: Amy, just has the ability to operate at such a high level in these two extremes. This kind of firecracker, sparky, Midwestern, down-home Chicago, yay. And then she has this total reptilian, laser-sharp focus, and she can shift between them so easily, and I kind of knew at the moment I met her in person. I was like, “Oh my God, I’ve just been looking for you for this since I had the idea.” She just was it, I mean, honestly, to the point where it’s like everything I was imagining when I was writing it was like it is as if I didn’t know I was writing it for her. You know what I mean? It really didn’t feel like that.

When I met her, I was like, this is the absolute manifestation of this, but she already existed, so what does that mean? I don’t know. Yeah. And then she was such a joy to work with. She’s such a pro, and she just elevated everything, and yet she was also so trusting half the stuff in that scene with Marcus in the principal’s office. It’s just me sitting behind the camera, just throwing out things for her to do. It was like, “Hey, laugh really big.” And she would just be and just do it and it would

Just no ego and so easy. And I think that’s just a testimony to how incredibly good she is as an actor. She’s so skilled. She is so talented that she can just kind of do anything instantly. She’s a miracle.

Obviously. Her look is very distinctive and becomes a jump scare at multiple times in the movie. But I was wondering, it’s also silly. It’s over the top on purpose. How much kind of tweaking was there to get? It’s like, okay, this is too scary. This is too silly. Do you know what I mean?

We never veered into too scary, I can tell you that. I don’t think we did. We were never going to give her fangs or anything like that.

It was really just about which wig feels like Gladys. And it was like when we found the bangs, we liked the bangs. That’s what it is. And kind of that weird shape. So we went through a lot of wigs and we went through a lot of different mockups of different, she’s got a fake nose and fake ears and fake teeth, so everyone kind of had their own little imprints into it.

Honestly, the idea kind of launched from two things. Cindy Sherman, the photographer and Self Portraits, which I’ve always been a big fan of. And then in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, when McLaughlin gets off the plane, and this woman in a crazy outfit is on the tarmac, kind of doing that dance. And when I was a kid, I saw that, it just scared me to death. I don’t know why it’s not, I don’t know if that scene is even supposed to be scary, but it terrified me, and so I just was really hungry to play in that sandbox.

Weapons is available for digital rental and purchase now. Physical media release drops October 14.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.